the service the same year, having lost about 30,000l. by the disaster. After living at Highgate for about a year he took up his residence, in April 1816, at Farndon, near Newark, whence he removed to Southwell, Nottinghamshire, early in 1819. His time, at first devoted to domestic matters, soon became increasingly occupied with parochial and public affairs. At Farndon he started the first savings bank, and showed much interest in the schools and in agricultural concerns. At Southwell he took an active part as overseer, waywarden, and churchwarden; he was also appointed a justice of the peace, but never acted in that capacity.
Before he left Farndon Nicholls's attention had been drawn to the question of the poor laws and their administration, which called urgently for reform. In 1820–1 the amount of relief actually disbursed to the poor of Southwell (exclusive of church and county rates) was 2,069l. In 1821 Nicholls accepted the office of overseer of the poor in that parish. In 1821–2 the amount of relief had fallen to 1,311l., and in 1822–3 to 515l., the saving being effected moreover without injury to the poor. The labourers acknowledged his friendly interest in them; he had, they said, compelled them to take care of themselves. The principles adopted had a year or two previously been tried, without Nicholls's knowledge, by Robert Lowe, the rector, in the parish of Bingham, Nottinghamshire, who subsequently became one of Nicholls's intimate friends, and they had been advocated by Nicholls himself in the well-known series of eight ‘Letters by an Overseer’ written by him in 1821 to the ‘Nottingham Journal,’ and afterwards reprinted as a pamphlet.
Nicholls's leading idea was to abolish outdoor relief, and to rely on the ‘workhouse test’ as a means of raising the condition of the poor. The principle was accepted in the subsequent poor-law legislation and administration. The system of denying the poor parish relief except as a last and unpleasant resort was suggested to Nicholls by his observation of the great difference at Farndon between the condition of non-settled labourers, who were obliged to shift for themselves, and that of those belonging to and therefore having a claim upon the parish; the condition of the latter being much the worse of the two. At Southwell, too, he instituted a ‘workhouse school,’ to which children of labourers with large families and applying for relief were admitted and kept during the day, returning to their parents at night.
Early in 1823, having been consulted by George Barrow as to the Gloucester and Berkeley Ship Canal (at that time languishing for want of funds), he removed at the request and cost of the company to Gloucester, taking up his residence at Longford House. For three years he practically controlled the concern, his only remuneration being the payment by the company of his household expenses. During this period he engaged in other commercial and quasi-nautical enterprises, acting, in most of them, in concert with Telford the engineer, between whom and himself there existed thenceforward a warm friendship. Telford eventually appointed him one of his residuary legatees. Among their joint schemes was the famous plan of the English and Bristol Channels Ship Canal, in favour of which in December 1824 he and Telford reported, he on the nautical and financial questions, Telford on the engineering difficulties. The reports were adopted, and an act of parliament obtained. The crisis of 1825–6, however, effectually hindered the raising of the necessary funds; and the introduction of locomotion by steam soon removed the need for the work. About the same time he was asked by Alexander Baring, afterwards lord Ashburton [q. v.], to go out and report on the feasibility of a Panama Ship Canal, but declined on account of the climate. In the autumn of 1825 he was called upon to report on a scheme for making a harbour at Lowestoft, with a ship canal thence to Norwich.
In November 1826 Nicholls accepted the appointment of superintendent of the branch of the bank of England which was then first established at Birmingham. He had previously declined a similar appointment at Gloucester, where the branch had been established, through his exertions, to replace the bank of Turner, Morris, & Turner, which had recently failed, and in the winding-up of the affairs of which he had taken a leading part. He removed to Birmingham in December 1826, and (except for three or four years, during which he lived at the Friary, Handsworth) he resided with his family on the bank premises. His life at Birmingham was a very active one. He found time for many things besides his official duties. He established the Birmingham Savings Bank. He was an active town's commissioner. He was a working member of the committee of the Birmingham General Hospital. He originated and organised a system under which taxes were paid through the Bank of England branch, a system which was afterwards extended to other branches throughout the country. He was a member of the Society of Arts, and was concerned in the provision of the building for the
