202
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. xn. SEPT. 12, 1903.
life. The often repeated story of Nicholson
winning James II. 's favour by kneeling when
Mass was celebrated in the royal tent a^
Hounslow is doubtless true, but it is unfaii
to attribute an unworthy motive for thifa
action to a man who was a consistent Church
of England devotee, and who, with all hi!
faults, and possible vices, was a deeply re
ligious man at heart.
A few months after the sixth Marquis 01 Winchester had been created Duke of Bolton he used his powerful interest to obtain for Fras. Nicholson, then Lieut-Governor of New York, the governorship of that province
- 'As to Capt. Nicholson," wrote the Earl of
Shrewsbury to the Duke of Bolton, 10 Sep- tember, 1689, "his Majesty is undecided how he shall dispose of the government of New York ; but however he succeeds in this I doubt not he will find the benefit of your recom- mendation." The Duke of Bolton replied : 4 You will do me a great kindness to assist Capt. Nicholson." These proofs of fatherly interest speak for themselves. Wherever Nicholson had been educated* he had profited by the instruction he received. Mr. J. A. Doyle, of Oxford University, in 'The Eng- lish in America,' remarks on Nicholson's letters and despatches, which were indicative of superior education and talents. When Bishop Burnet wrote that the Duke of Bolton
had the spleen to an high degree, yet
carried matters before him with such authority and success, that he was in all respects the great riddle of the age," the description might have been fitly applied to Nicholson, who was high-handed, arrogant, and given to uncontrollable fits of rage. It is recorded that when an Indian once saw Nicholson in one of his tempests of passion, he remarked to one of the officers in attendance, "The general ^ is drunk." "No," answered the officer, "he never drinks any strong liquor." . 1 do not mean," said the Indian, " that he is drunk with rum. He was born drunk." There is another proof that Nicholson be- longed to no heraldic family of this surname he took out a grant of arms in 1693-4, and these are the arms he received : Az., on a cross arg. between four suns or a cathedral church gu. Crest, A demi-man, habited in a close coat az., the bottoms and the cuffs of the sleeves turned up or, his face and hands proper, armed with a headpiece and gorget arg., the beaver open ; holding in the dexter hand a sword erect proper, hilt and pommel of
- His name does not appear in the 'Alumni
Oxomenses,' and the Francis Nicholson who ?^ u u ted J rL m M , a g dale . n e College, Cambridge, in 1677, has not been identified.
the second, and in the sinister hand a Bible
open, clasps arg.* Fras. Nicholson died in
Hanover Street, London, 5 March, 1727/8,
and was buried in the parish of St. George's
the following day. In the burial register of
St. George's, Hanover Square, he is described
as " The Hon ble Governor Francis Nicholson,
Esq." His will was dated the day before his
death, and he left the bulk of his property
to the Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel. Amongst the legatees appears " his
friend Sir Thos. Frankland of Yorkshire."
The executors were Abel Kettleby, barrister-
at-law, and Kingsinill Eyre.
CHARLES D ALTON. 32, West Cromwell Road, S.W.
THE TRADE-WINDS.
IT is generally assumed that these winds are so called because they are favourable to trade or commerce. Bailey in his dictionary (1753) gives "Trade-wind, a wind which at certain seasons blows regularly one way at sea, very serviceable in a trading voyage," and most succeeding dictionaries, I think, are in the same tale not, however, the ' Century.'
All writers on physical subjects, with one consent, give the same account.
"The trade-winds, so called from the advantage which their certainty affords to trading vessels." Philosophy in Sport make Science in Earnest ' 1847, p. 478.
"By the continued regularity of its direction through stated seasons the merchantman calcu- lates upon the commencement and duration of his voyage with a degree of security and confidence which sets him comparatively at ease as to the event. These periodical currents of air, indeed, lave been named from this very circumstance the rade-u-inds."-J.Kidd, ' The Adaptation of Exter- ^INatj^e to^the Physical Condition of Man,' 1833,
"Winds, more or less constant in direction, blow across those parts of the Atlantic and Pacific Uceans which he for some distance on the two sides of the equator ; the direction being from N.E. in the northern tropics, and from S.E. in the southern tropics, Such steady winds were of so much im- portance to navigation, before the days of steam- ships, that much of the world's commerce depended upon them, and they were, therefore, called trade- vmds -T. H. Huxley, Physiography,' 1885, p. 345.
These are the famous winds called the trades. n n n nou th v be 4 n fits th ey bring to commerce. "- ic C m" Cha P lin > 'Benedicite,' p. 161 (ed. 1874).
Ihese winds provided a regular highway for European commerce, and hence their name of the
i/v^rM M* ? ^ Pa r& ne ' ' Histor y of the New World 1892, vol. i. p. 92. See also Buckle, ' His- ory of Civilization ' i. 103, who gives references to somerville, Leslie, Daniell, Kaemtz, and Prout.
tJ bS n ' S ' Heraldr> y,' Arms, "Nicholson of
