9* s. xii. SEPT. 12, iocs.]! NOTES AND QUERIES.
201
LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 190S.
CONTENTS. No. 298.
NOTES: General Francis Nicholson, 201 The Trade- Winds, 202 MS. Journal of a London Citizen, 203 Par- liament of 1626, 20-t Westcott and Vivisection "Sacca- winkfe " Donhead St. Mary Shakespeares at Romford "Squire Gawkie," 205 "Scoggan" or " Scoggin " Swal- lows predicting a Storm "Zauber-Kessel" in Essex, 206.
QUERIES : Latin Entry in Register, 206 Royal Artillery
Bden Family Bland, Actor " We only live when we are happy " Kimpton Family St. Peter's, Chester, 207 Geology of Kurland Glastonbury Walnut Queen Eliza- beth and New Hall. Essex Throgmorton Inscription- Vicars of Twerton Jenkins's Hen Radulphus de Georges, 208 Midland Registers E. E. Hopkins, 209.
REPLIES :O- Words in the 'N.E.D.,' 209 Shakespeare's Sonnets : a New Theory, 210 " Sur le Pont d'Avignon" Ash : Place-name Mayors' Title and Precedence Flats, 211 Premier Prudent Lewis Thackeray's Moustache, 212 Peter the Great in England Aitken " Crying down credit," 213 Marriage in a Sheet Breaking Glass at Jewish Weddings Drayton's Poly-olbion 'John Harris, Publisher, 214 Imaginary Saints Roscommon and Pope
Banns of Marriage Mineralogist and Botanist co George III. Lushington Longfellow's 'Wreck of the Hesperus,' 215 More Church, Shropshire Mico Family
" Wake "= Village Feast-Riming Epitaph, 216 John Gilpin's Route Bridge Chantry, 217 Fountain Pens, 218.
NOTES ON BOOKS: 'Love of an Uncrowned Queen' Sally Wister's Journal ' Three Days' Tournament ' 4 Vita Nuova of Dante ' * Minor English Poems of Milton '
'Short History of the Ancient Greek Sculptors' 'Poems and Verses of Dickens ' Booksellers' Catalogues.
GENERAL FRANCIS NICHOLSON,
GOVERNOR OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1719-28.
THE memoir in the 'Diet. Nat. Biog.' of
this distinguished soldier and able adminis-
trator is inadequate and misleading in several
essential points. The same remarks equally
apply to the article on this general in
Appleton's ' Cyclop, of American Biog.'
Having lately found Nicholson's will at
Somerset House, I am able to supply some
details which I feel sure will interest both
British and American readers. In the first
place, Fras. Nicholson was born in 1655, and
not in 1660 as heretofore stated ; and secondly
he was never knighted. In his will he
describes himself as " esquire "; and, with a
view to a monumental inscription, says : " I
was born at Downham [Downholme] Park,
near Richmond, in Yorkshire, 12 November,
1655." Here we get a clue to Nicholson's
parentage, which has always remained a
mystery. Even that astute genealogist
Dr. Whitaker, the Richmondshire historian,
confessed he could never find out anything
about Fras. Nicholson, the native of Down-
holme, beyond the fact that Gale, in his
' Registrum Honoris de Richmond,' dedicated
a view of Richmond, in 1722, to General
Nicholson. The dedication is somewhat
pompous and fulsome, but that was the style
of the period. Downholme Park was the
old seat of the Scropes, and on the death,
in 1630, of Emanuel Scrope, eleventh Baron
Bolton and first Earl of Sunderland, without
legitimate issue, the extensive Scrope estates
were divided between the late earl's three
natural daughters. Downholme Park fell to
the share of Mary, the eldest of the three
children. She married for her second husband,
12 February, 1655, Lord St. John, son and
heir of the fifth Marquis of Winchester, who
became possessed of the Bolton estate in
North Yorkshire, and was created, in 1689,
Duke of Bolton. This nobleman has been
represented by such well-known contem-
porary writers as Sir John Reresby and
Bishop Burnet as one of the most extravagant
livers of his time, and "a man who took all
sorts of liberties to himself." Putting two and
two together, and comparing several lead-
ing points of resemblance in the characters
of the Duke of Bolton, surnamed "the proud,"
and General Nicholson, I fully believe that
the child born at Downholme Park on
12 November, 1655, was the natural son of
Lord St. John, as he was then known.
Nicholson may or may not have been the
mother's surname; Francis was a name in
thePaulet family. Unfortunately the Down-
holme parish registers only commence in
1736 ; and Nicholson's will, a lengthy docu-
ment, makes no mention of relatives or
kinsfolk. But sidelights are not wanting to
bear out my theory. In a letter from Lady
Fauconberg (Cromwell's daughter) to Sir
William Frankland, a Yorkshire neighbour,
written on 5 May, 1683, her ladyship says :
"Capt. Nicholson, who was Lady Winches-
ter's page, has been twice through Mora-
tania [sic] as far as Mount Atlas, and is now
returning again thither." Now this ex-page
was undoubtedly Francis Nicholson, who,
after serving three years in the 3rd Buffs as
an ensign, had been appointed, in 1680, to an
ensigncy in the newly raised regiment com-
manded by the Earl of Plymouth, subse-
quently known as the 4th King's Own. This
corps embarked for Tangier three months after
being raised for service against the Moors.
Col. Kirke, the governor of Tangier, took
special notice of young Nicholson, and appears
to have employed him as a personal A.D.C.,
which doubtless obtained for him the local
rank of captain. This explains Nicholson's
missions to the interior of Morocco as well
as his being sent with despatches to Lord
Preston, British Ambassador in Paris, in
1682 and 1683.* Home interest and a well-
filled purse accompanied Nicholson through
- ' Graham and Verney Papers,' published by the
Hist. MSS. Commission.
