Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/557

Rh " stormy Day at Block Island " (1886). His prin- cipal paintings in oil are " Bass Kocks near Glou- cester, Mass." (1879); "On Marblehead Neck," " Shower at Block Island " (1880) ; " On the Rocks near Portland" (1881); "Harbor View" (1882); " Marblehead Rock " (1883) ; " Sunlight on the Sea " (1884); "Summer Morning" (1885); "Fog and Sunshine," and " An August Evening " (1886).

NICOLLET, Jean Nicholas, explorer, b. in Cluses, Savoy, 24 July, 1786; d. in Washington, D. C, 11 Sept., 1843. He was educated at the col- lege in his native place, and in 1805 became as- sistant in mathematics in Chambery. Later he went to Paris, where in 1817 he became secretary and librarian of the observatory, also studying as- tronomy with Laplace, who refers to Nicollet's as- sistance in his works. In 1823 he was given an appointment in the government bureau of longi- tudes, at the same time holding the professoi'ship of mathematics in the College of Louis le Grand, and the post of examiner of candidates for the naval school. In 1832 he came to the United States for the purpose of acquiring an extended knowledge of the physical geography of North America. After exploring the southern states he studied the great basin that is embraced by the sources of the Red, Arkansas, and Missouri rivers, and in 1836 extended his investigations to the sources of the Mississippi. He determined, by as- tronomical and barometrical observations, the geo- graphical position and elevation of many impor- tant points, also collecting many interesting de- tails respecting the history and dialects of the In- dian nations, and the productions and natural his- tory of the country. On his return to Washington he was engaged by the war department to visit the far west and prepare a general report and map for the government. Lieut. John C. EVemont was de- tailed to accompany him as assistant. In 1841 he presented a paper on " The Geology of the Upper Mississippi Region and of the Cretaceous Forma- tion of the Upper Missouri " before the Association of American geologists and naturalists, and in 1843, at the Albany meeting of this association, he gave further particulars respecting the cretaceous formation, and exhibited the beautiful map of the country that he had completed for the govern- ment. He published " Cours de mathematiques a I'usage de la marine " with M. Reynaud (Paris, 1830), and " Report intended to illustrate a Map of the Hydrographical Basin of the Upper Missis- sippi River" (Washington, 1843).

NICOLLS, Mathias, jurist, b. in England about 1630 ; d. on Long Island, N. Y., 22 Dec, 1687. He was the eldest son of the Rev. Mathias Nicolls, of Plymouth, England. The name was spelled " Nick- holls " in the 14th century, was written " Nicolls " in the 17th, and in the early part of the 18th was changed in this country to its present form of " Nicoll." Mathias was a barrister of Lincoln's Inn, when he was appointed by Charles II., in 1664, secretary of the commission, and a captain in the forces under Col. Richard Nicolls, who was sent out by that king to settle disputes in the New England colonies and to capture New Netherlands from the Dutch, the king having previously granted it to his brother James, Duke of York. The sur- render occurred on 8 Sept., 1664, and Richard Nicolls became the first English governor, his title in his commission being " Deputy Governor " to the Duke of York. Mathias Nicolls was appointed the first secretary of the province, both commis- sions having been issued and delivered in England in the spring of 1664, about two months before the expedition sailed. On the formation of the gover- nor's council, which was immediate, Mathias Nicolls was appointed a member. In October, 1664, he attended at Hempstead the promulgation by the governor of " The Duke's Laws," the first code of English laws in New York, and authenticated them by his official signature as secretary. This code, mainly the work of Mathias Nicolls, was compiled from the law of England, the Roman-Dutch law of New Netherlands, and the local laws and regula- tions of the New England colonies, and is a liberal, just, and sensible body of laws. After being sub- mitted to the duke and his council in England, it was there printed and copies sent out by the duke, with orders to promulgate and establish it as the law of New York, which was done by the governor in a meeting of delegates that was called for that purpose at Hempstead, in Queens county. In the court of assizes that was established by these laws, Mathias Nicolls sat as presiding judge, and also with the justices in the minor courts of session. In 1672 he was chosen the third mayor of New York, and he was also the first judge of the court of common pleas in that city. On the remodelling of the courts under the act of the legislature of 1683, he was appointed one of the judges of the supreme court of the colony. After this appoint- ment he also continually performed all the duties of secretary of the province, and occasionally acted in his military capacity as captain of the militia, for which he is sometimes spoken of in the records of that time as Capt. Nicolls. He purchased large tracts on Little Neck and Great Neck, in Queens county, on the former of which he dwelt, his estate, called Plandome, consisting of upward of 2.000 acres. There he died and was buried. He mar- ried before he came to this country, and left one son and one daughter. The latter, Margaret, b. in 1662, became the wife of the second Col. Richard Floyd, of Suffolk county.— Mathias's son, William, jurist, b. in England in 1657 ; d. on Long Island in Mav, 1723, was made clerk of Queens county in 1683, but in 1688 removed to New York. He was a lawyer by profession, and opposed the usurpa- tion of Jacob Leisler in 1688, for which the latter imprisoned him. After his release by Gov. Hough- ton, on the fall of Leisler in March, 1691, he was at/ once appointed a councillor of the province. In 1695 he was sent by the assembly as agent of the province to England to solicit the crown to corn- pel the other American colonies to make their respective contributions to the defence of the con- tinent against the French, the expense of which bore heavily and unjustly on New York. In 1698 Gov. Bellomont, who took sides with the Leisle- rian party, suspended him from the council. In 1701 he was elected to the assembly from Suffolk county, but, being a non-resident, could not take his seat. He then built a house on his estate of Islip Grange, in that county, on Great South bay, which he purchased from the natives in 1683, and which, with adjacent purchases, was granted to him by a royal patent in 1697. In 1702 he was again elected member of assembly for Suffolk county, and chosen speaker of the house, and from that time he was continuously re-elected till his death, and also chosen speaker till 1718, when, on account of his health, he declined a re-election, though retaining his seat upon the flooiv Thus he was a member of the house twenty-one years in succession, and sixteen years in succession its speaker. As a lawyer he was engaged in the prosecution of Leisler in 1691, the defence of Nicholas Bayard in 1702, and that of Francia Makemie in 1707, and he was a man of principle, ability, and influence. He married Anne, daughter