Nicholas Harris Nicolas
Sir (Nicholas) Harris Nicolas GCMG KH (10 March 1799 – 3 August 1848) was an English antiquary.
Contents
Life
The fourth son of Commander John Harris Nicolas R.N. (1758 - 1844) and Margaret née Blake, he was born at Dartmouth. He was the brother of Captain John Toup Nicholas RN CB KH KFM; 1st Lt Paul Harris Nicholas RM and Lt Keigwin Nicholas RN.[1]
Having served in the navy from 1812 to 1816, he studied law and was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1825. His work as a barrister was confined principally to peerage cases before the House of Lords, and he devoted the rest of his time to the study of genealogy and history. In 1831 he was made a knight of the Royal Guelphic Order, and in 1832 chancellor and knight-commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, being advanced to the grade of the grand cross in 1840. He became a member of the council of the Society of Antiquaries in 1826, but soon began to criticize the management of the Society's affairs, and withdrew in 1828. Nicolas was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1838.[2]
He then criticized the Record Commission, which he regarded as too expensive. These attacks, which brought him into controversy with Francis Palgrave, led in 1836 to the appointment of a select committee to inquire into the public records. Nicolas was also responsible for several reforms at the British Museum. In 1822, he married Sarah (d. 1867), daughter of John Davison of Loughton, Essex, a reputed descendant of the Tudor statesman William Davison. They had two sons and six daughters. Financial difficulties compelled Nicolas to leave England, and he died near Boulogne. Although a sharp and eager controversialist, Nicolas is said to have been a genial and generous man.
Works
The most important of Nicolas's works is his History of the Orders of Knighthood of the British Empire; of the Order of the Guelphs; and of Medals, Clasps, &c., for Naval and Military Services (London, I 841-1842). Among his numerous other writings are:
- The Chronology of History (London, 1833)
- Life of William Davison (London, 1823); Nicholas Harris Nicolas, Life of William Davison: Secretary of State and Privy Counsellor to Queen Elizabeth, Nichols (1823)
- Synopsis of the Peerage of England (London, 1825)
- Life and Times of Sir Christopher Hatton (London, 1847)
- an uncompleted History of the Royal Navy (London, 1847).
He edited Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council of England, 1386-1542 (London, 1834–1837), and (with the help of Nelson's daughter Horatia) Dispatches and Letters of Lord Nelson (London, 1844–1846); wrote lives of Geoffrey Chaucer, Robert Burns, William Cowper, William Collins, Henry Kirke White and others for Pickering's Aldine Press edition of the poets;[3] lives of Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton for an edition of The Compleat Angler illustrated by James Inskipp;[4] and several elaborate works on genealogical and kindred subjects printed for private circulation only.
See also
- O'Byrne, William Richard (1849). " Nicolas, Nicholas Harris". A Naval Biographical Dictionary. John Murray. Wikisource.
References
- ↑ O'Byrne, William Richard (1849). " Nicolas, John Toup". A Naval Biographical Dictionary. John Murray. Wikisource.
- ↑ American Antiquarian Society Members Directory
- ↑ This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ L. H. Cust, ‘Inskipp, James (1790–1868)’, rev. Chloe Johnson, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 8 Sept 2013
External links
- Works by Nicholas Harris Nicolas at Project Gutenberg
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- Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with no article parameter
- Use dmy dates from June 2013
- Use British English from June 2013
- Pages with broken file links
- Articles with Internet Archive links
- British non-fiction writers
- English genealogists
- Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George
- Knights of the Royal Guelphic Order
- 1799 births
- 1848 deaths
- Horatio Nelson
- British male writers
- Members of the American Antiquarian Society