of old-women parts were content to play second to her when they took engagements in Edinburgh. Madame Leroud in ‘102, or my Great-great-grandfather’ was played by her on 28 Nov., and Mrs. Dismal in Buckstone's ‘Married Life’ on 2 Dec. On 27 Jan. 1835 she was Miss Prudence Strawberry in Peake's ‘Climbing Boy;’ at the Adelphi (the Edinburgh summer theatre), 30 May 1835, Mrs. Humphries in ‘Turning the Tables.’ On 11 Nov. 1837, at the Royal, she was Mrs. Quickly in the ‘Merry Wives of Windsor;’ 9 Aug. 1838 Madame Deschappelles; and on 21 Jan. 1840 Madame Mantalini in Edward Stirling's adaptation of ‘Nicholas Nickleby;’ Mrs. Corney in ‘Oliver Twist,’ 23 March; Mrs. Montague in ‘His last Legs,’ 3 July; and Gertrude in ‘Griselda,’ 26 Jan. 1841. She received in 1842 from Murray forty-five shillings (not an extravagant salary for the parts she had to play) a week. Betsy Prigg she played on 28 Aug. 1844; Mrs. Fielding in the ‘Cricket on the Hearth’ followed on 27 Jan. 1846; third witch in ‘Macbeth’ on 28 Dec. 1846. The Duchess of York in ‘Richard III,’ Mrs. Bouncer in ‘Box and Cox,’ Nurse in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ are among many parts that fell to her. For Murray's benefit and farewell appearance on 22 Oct. 1851 she played Mrs. Malaprop. When in 1851–2 the management of the Royal passed into the hands of Lloyd, and that of the Adelphi into those of Wyndham, Miss Nicol remained at the former house. She also acted under the Rollison and Leslie management in 1852. On 18 Sept., in a new adaptation of ‘Waverley,’ she played Mrs. Macleary, and received ‘a splendid ovation on her first appearance under the new management,’ and on 4 Oct. she was Marjory in the ‘Heart of Midlothian.’ When the Adelphi was burnt, Wyndham came to the Theatre Royal, which he opened on 11 June 1853. Miss Nicol was retained. In Ebsworth's comedy, ‘150,000l.,’ she was on 1 Sept. 1854 the original Hon. Mrs. Falconer. She was the Old Lady in ‘Henry VIII,’ when Mr. Toole played Lord Sands. On 7 June 1858 she was the original Matty Hepburn in Ballantine's ‘Gaberlunzie Man.’ At the New Queen's Theatre, where Wyndham had gone after the Royal was finally closed (25 May 1859), she was, on 25 June 1859, Mrs. Major de Boots in Coyne's ‘Everybody's Friend.’ She played Queen Elizabeth to Henry Irving's Wayland Smith in the burlesque of ‘Kenilworth,’ 6 Aug. 1859, and was associated with that gentleman in nearly every piece in which he appeared during the two and a half years he was a member of the stock company. In May 1862 the last nights of her appearance in public were specially announced. On 23 May she took her farewell benefit, playing Widow Warren in ‘Road to Ruin’ and Miss Durable in ‘Raising the Wind.’ She again appeared on 31 May, for the benefit of Mr. and Mrs. Wyndham, playing the Hostess in the ‘Honeymoon,’ and spoke a farewell address to the audience.
Miss Nicol was one of that class of provincial actors and actresses who were content with a comfortable home and a continuous engagement without any chance of metropolitan fame, while enjoying the full confidence and respect of their managers and the friendliest regard of their audience. After her retirement she removed to London, where she died in November 1877. Several witnesses of her acting declared her to be quite unsurpassed in many parts, including Mag in ‘'Twas I,’ and Miss Lucretia Mactab in the ‘Poor Gentleman.’
[Materials supplied by Joseph Knight, esq., and J. C. Dibdin, esq.; Dibdin's Annals of the Edinburgh Stage.]
NICOL, JAMES (1769–1819), poet, son of Michael Nicol, was born on 28 Sept. 1769 at Innerleithen, Peeblesshire. Receiving his elementary education at the parish school, and originally destined to be a shoemaker, he qualified at Edinburgh University for the ministry of the church of Scotland. After acting as tutor in private families he was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Peebles (25 March 1801); became assistant to John Walker, parish minister of Traquair, near Innerleithen (15 May 1802), and succeeded to the charge, on the death of the incumbent, on 4 Nov. following. In the same year he married Agnes, sister of his predecessor, whose virtues he had previously celebrated in verse. Besides contributing poems to the ‘Edinburgh Magazine,’ Nicol, who was a close student of ecclesiastical history and forms, wrote various articles for the ‘Edinburgh Encyclopædia.’ In matters of law and medicine he was an authority among his parishioners; he regulated their disputes, and a knowledge of medicine acquired at the university enabled him to vaccinate and to prescribe satisfactorily for ordinary ailments. In 1808 he founded the first friendly society at Innerleithen. Owing to changes in his religious views he contemplated resigning his charge, when he died, after a short illness, on 5 Nov. 1819. By his wife, who survived till 19 March 1845, he had three sons and three daughters; his son James became professor of civil and natural history in Marischal College, Aberdeen.
Nicol published at Edinburgh in 1805, in two volumes 12mo, ‘Poems, chiefly in the
