Birth: November 12, 1655 in England
Nicholson, Francis (Nov. 12, 1655 - Mar. 5, 1728), colonial governor,
was born at Downholme Parke, near Richmond, in Yorkshire, England, on a
part of the vast Bolton estate, but his parentage is not known. It
has been suggested (Dalton, post) that he was a natural son of Lord St.
John, later Duke of Bolton, who came into possession of the property shortly
before Nicholson's birth. But more probably, he was the son or grandson
of a certain Francis Nicholson, who had assisted the Earl of Sunderland,
former owner of the estate, in arranging his children's inheritance in
1629 ("Yorkshire Royalist Composition Papers," vol. I, Yorkshire ArchÏological
Society. Record Series, vol. XV, 1893, pp. 56-57).
In either case, the Duke of Bolton took an active interest in Nicholson's
career. In his youth Nicholson served as page to his patron's wife. He
entered the army in 1679 and spent a few years in Tangier, acting as courier
and aide-de-camp to the governor. After returning to England with
his regiment, he is said to have knelt during mass in the tent of James
II on Hounslow Heath, though his later career shows him to have been a
stanch Anglican. His long connection with the colonies began in 1686
with his appointment as captain of a company of foot sent to New England
under Sir Edmund Andros [q.v.]. Soon afterward, Nicholson was sworn
a member of the Council for the Dominion of New England, and in 1688 he
was commissioned lieutenant-governor. Andros was at Pemaquid and
Nicholson at New York when news came of the Revolution in England.
The latter handled the local situation badly. His indiscreet remarks
angered the followers of Jacob Leisler [q.v.], while the concessions which
he made to popular feeling only resulted in his losing control of the fort.
Eventually he decided to sail for England, ostensibly to report on the
uprising but probably in reality to avoid
He was disappointed in his hope of returning to New York as governor,
His second term in this colony was far less successful than the first. His temper became more violent than before and led to his estrangement from Commissary Blair after the latter had read him a lecture on conduct. Nicholson's dictatorial behavior aroused the opposition of several leading councilors, who accused him of trying to dominate the Council. The charge was doubtless true, although his opponents, who represented the colonial aristocracy, were equally as guilty as the governor of attempting to dominate provincial affairs. Yet he managed to do much for the good of the colony. He was the leading spirit in the removal of the capital from Jamestown to Williamsburg and in the establishment there of adequate facilities for governmental offices. He greatly improved the provincial finances and succeeded, at least partially, in making the local administration more efficient. He continued his interest in intercolonial affairs and once went personally to New York to confer with Governor Cornbury on problems of mutual concern. His downfall came, not because of a hostile Assembly, for the House of Burgesses continued friendly to the end, but because of the little group of aristocratic councilors whom he had antagonized. He was recalled in 1705.
Of his life in England during the next four years we know little except
that he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1706. When a joint
attack upon Canada and Port Royal was proposed in 1709, he volunteered
to accompany its commander, Samuel Vetch [q.v.]. Although Nicholson had
attained the rank of colonel several years before, his actual military
experience was slight. But he was so active in organizing the northern
colonies for the enterprise that their governors persuaded him to command
the contingent which was to march northward from New York. However,
the whole scheme fell through when the promised troops failed to arrive
from England. Nicholson returned to that country with a request from
Massachusetts to renew the attack upon Port Royal the following year.
The British government agreed and Nicholson, now a brigadier-general, was
made commander in chief of the
In 1720 he undertook his last colonial governorship, that of South Carolina, whose inhabitants had declared in favor of royal rather than proprietary control. Nicholson won the confidence of the colonists and his administration was relatively quiet. But he gained the hostility of the Charlestown merchants, chiefly by failing to oppose the issue of large quantities of paper money. Eventually they petitioned for his recall. He himself was failing in health and asked for a leave of absence which was granted. He sailed for England in 1725 and died there three years later without returning to the province. He never married though he is said to have courted a daughter of Major Burwell in Virginia, and to have threatened if she were married to another, to cut the throats of the bridegroom, the clergyman, and the justice of the peace giving the license (Perry, post, p. 90). At his death he left most of his estate to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, of which he had long been an ardent member.
Nicholson's long and varied career in America was very nearly unique. As governor or lieutenant-governor in five colonies and as supervising official or military organizer in several others on the continent, he was almost the only Englishman of his times who might be called a professional colonial governor. His usefulness was seriously impaired by his unrestrained temper which made it difficult for other officials to work with him. An Indian, who once saw him in a fit of rage, is said to have remarked that he was "born drunk." But despite this lack of self-control, his constructive energy, zeal for education and religion, and breadth of vision, entitle him to a high rank among colonial governors.
His Journal of an Expedition . . . For the Reduction of Port Royal
(1711), first appeared in the Boston News Letter, Oct. 30-Nov. 6,
1710; it was reprinted, under a slightly different title, in Reports
and Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, vol. I (1879).
He also published An Apology or Vindication of F. Nicholson, His Majesty's
Governor of South-Carolina, from the Unjust Aspersions Cast on Him by Some
of the Members of the Bahama-Company (1724).
[Official documents connected with Nicholson's career are given, in full or in abstract, in Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, America and West Indies, 1685-1721 (1899-1933); Jour. of the Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, 1704-28 (1920-28); Colls. of the N. Y. Hist. Soc., Publication Fund Ser., vol. I (1868); Colls. of the S.-C. Hist. Soc., I (1857), 228-93; E. B. O'Callaghan, Docs. Relative to the Colonial Hist. of the State of N. Y., III-V (1853-55); A. M. Macmechan, ed., Nova Scotia Archives, II (1900). A sketch of Nicholson by Charles Dalton, in George the First's Army, 1714-1727 (1912), II, 54-62 (1912), corrects some errors in the article in the Dict. of Nat. Biography. The best accounts of Nicholson's administrations are in H. L. Osgood, The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century, III (1907), and The Am. Colonies in the Eighteenth Century (4 vols., 1924). See also W. S. Perry, Papers Relating to the Hist. of the Church in Va. (1870); H. R. McIlwaine, Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Va., vols. I-III (1925-28).]
"Francis Nicholson." Dictionary of American Biography Base
Set. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928-1936.
Document Number: BT2310006689