Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 41.djvu/22

Nicholson Mavor's. 9. ‘The Cambrian Traveller's Guide,’ Stourport, 1808, 12mo; 2nd edition, 1812; 3rd edition, revised by the author's son, the Rev. Emilius Nicholson, incumbent of Minsterley, Shropshire.

[Gent. Mag. 1825, pt. ii. p. 642; Timperley's Dict. of Printers, 1839, p. 896; Biog. Dict. of Living Authors, 1816, p. 251; Manchester Guardian, 23 Nov. 1874; Bradford Antiquary, 1888, p. 281; Williams's Catena of Authorities on Flesh Eating, 1881, p. 190; Westby-Gibson's Bibliogr. of Shorthand, 1887, p. 142.]

 NICHOLSON, GEORGE (1795?–1839?), artist, was son of Mrs. Isabella Nicholson (née Wilkinson), and brother of Samuel and Isabella Nicholson. The whole family engaged in artistic work. The mother executed remarkable copies in needlework of well-known pictures. These were wrought in silk with the finest needles; and in some cases of landscapes the sky was painted on a background of silk velvet. A specimen of her work in the writer's possession is a copy of ‘The Grecian Votary,’ by Nicholas Poussin, in the National Gallery. A similar copy of ‘Belshazzar's Feast’ and a portrait of George III were, with many other examples of Mrs. Nicholson's handicraft, exhibited in Liverpool, and disposed of there about 1847.

Between 1827 and 1838 George exhibited at the Liverpool Academy exhibitions some fifty drawings, mostly landscapes in water-colour or in pencil. With his elder brother Samuel (who drew with great skill with the lead-pencil, painted in water-colours, and taught drawing) he published: ‘Twenty-six Lithographic Drawings in the Vicinity of Liverpool,’ fol. Liverpool, 1821; and ‘Plâs Newydd and Valle Crucis Abbey,’ 1824, plates, 4to. The illustrations were drawn in a fine line, and more resemble woodcuts than was usual in early lithographs. George is believed to have died about 1839. Samuel died from the effects of the bite of a mad dog about 1825. A sister, Isabella Nicholson, exhibited drawings in water-colour and pencil of flowers, birds, and occasionally landscapes, at the Liverpool Academy between 1829 and 1845.

[Liverpool Exhibition Catalogues; private information.]

 NICHOLSON, ISAAC (1789–1848), wood-engraver, born at Melmesby in Cumberland, in 1789, was apprenticed to John Bewick [q. v.], the famous wood-engraver, at Newcastle-on-Tyne. His work was entirely in the manner of his master, whose style he imitated more successfully than many of Bewick's other pupils. He copied some of Bewick's ‘Quadrupeds’ with great success, and also his lithograph of ‘The Cadger's Trot.’ Other woodcuts by Nicholson are to be found in Hodgson's ‘History of Northumberland,’ Flower's ‘Visitation of the County of Durham,’ Watts's ‘Hymns,’ &c. He also engraved on copper a trade-card for Robert Spencer, turner and carver, of Newcastle. Nicholson died on 18 Oct. 1848, aged 59.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Hugo's Bewick Collector.]

 NICHOLSON, JOHN (d. 1538), protestant martyr. [See ]

 NICHOLSON, JOHN (1730–1796), Cambridge bookseller, son of a farmer at Mountsorrel in Leicestershire, was probably the ‘John, son of Edward Nichols (?) and Mary his wife,’ who was baptised at St. Peter's Church, Mountsorrel, on 19 April 1730 (parish register). On 28 March 1752 he married Anne, the only child of Robert Watts (d. 31 Jan. 1751–2), a bookseller in Cambridge, who started the first circulating library in the town about 1745. By this marriage he succeeded to Watts's business and to his sobriquet of ‘Maps,’ which he had gained by his habit of announcing himself at the doors of his customers by calling out ‘maps.’ Both business and habit were energetically continued by Nicholson, who acquired a large connection among the students of the university, supplying them with their class-books by subscription. He died on 8 Aug. 1796, and was buried in the churchyard of St. Edmund, Cambridge. His widow lived till 7 Feb. 1814. Nicholson was greatly respected in Cambridge. He was both a good tradesman and a generous friend, readily allowing the free use of his library to poor students, whom even his moderate charges would have debarred from the privilege. His portrait, painted by Reinagle, hangs on the staircase of the university library. It was engraved by Caldwell in 1790, and the engraving was sold for the benefit of Addenbrooke's hospital; another, engraved by Baldrey, is mentioned by Bromley. He was the subject of the following Greek hexameter, which was familiar to the undergraduates of his time: Μαψ αὐτὸν καλέουσι θεοί, ἄνδρες δὲ Νιχολσον. Some verses written on seeing his portrait over the door of a country library were printed in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ (1816, ii. 613). Nicholson was succeeded in his business by his son John, who carried it on in the original shop in front of King's College till 1807, when he removed to the corner of Trinity Street and St. Mary's