Hi All,
My G3 Granddad was George Nicholl, the younger Brother of William Nicholl (1786- 1849). They were born in Sutton Courtney, Berkshire and their parents were the local Vicar Samuel Nicholl and his Wife Lydia, nee Shewell.
Jumping back a few generations the story is as follows. In 1687 at St Dunstan and All Saints, Tower Hamlets, London, Thomas Nicholl, Bachelor, of Barking, Essex married Susanna Harrison, Spinster. Thomas was a Tanner. He made his Will in 1713, at which time Susanna was still alive. Among the children mentioned in the Will are Harrison Nicholl and Samuel Nicholl.
Samuel Nicholl married Ann Jarvis on 21 May 1730 at Banbury in Oxfordshire. Samuel was a Goldsmith and apparently had his own Makers Mark; a heart shape enclosing the initials SN. Among his children were Mary Nicholl and Samuel Nicholl. Mary married Thomas Adby, another Goldsmith who set up a Company with Samuel. Mary and Thomas were married in Poplar on 16 August 1752. Thomas died and Mary married James Duppa on 7 July 1765. Mary had a Son also called James Duppa. Samuel The Elder died in 1749 and was buried at Banbury on 18 November 1749. Ann died in 1771 and was buried at Banbury on 19 July 1771. In her Will she requested that she be “..buried in a Leaden coffin in the same grave as her husband at Banbury in Oxon.”
Samuel Nicholl was born in 1745. He gained a scholarship to Tonbridge School and went on to Balliol College, Oxford. He Matriculated12 July 1765 before gaining a BA in 1769 and an MA in 1772. He became Cleric and started as the Curate at Bix in Oxfordshire in 1770: the Rector was Thomas Bray. He married Lydia Shewell at St Augustine, Watling Street in the City of London on 24 February 1776. Their children included Lydia Eyres Nicholl (b 1782), William Nicholl (b1786), Marianne Nicholl (b 1788), George Nicholl (b 1789) and Thomas Bray Nicholl (b 1791). Samuel became the Vicar at Sutton Courtney, Berkshire in 1785. Samuel died in 1799 and was buried in Bix. In his Will he requested that his Nephew, James Duppa, and Nathaniel Martin and Thomas Roberts be Guardians to his children in the event of his wife’s death. Lydia, his wife, died in 1802 and was buried in St Peter Le Poer, City of London on 10 June 1802. Her daughter Lydia Eyres Nicholl died the following year. William Nicholl was an 18 year old Midshipman on board HMS Ajax at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The Ajax burnt and sank during Admiral Duckworth’s forcing of the Dardanelles in 1807 with the loss of over 200 lives.
In 1816 George Nicholl went to India as a Free Merchant. The Records show the following: George Nicholl, Start Date 19 September, Start Year 1816, Biographical Notes Bond and Covenant, Free Merchant, Bengal, Amount of Security £1000, sureties: Thomas Roberts, Tottenham, Middlesex, Clerk. James Duppa, Oxford Street, Paper Hanging Manufacturer., Authority of Court 26 June 1816.
In 1818 Eliza Layton went to India. The Records show the following: Eliza Layton, Start Date 18 April, Start Year 1818, Biographical Notes Bond, passenger, Bengal, Amount of Security £200, Sureties Joseph Layton, Church Row, Pancras, Gentleman, Math’s Archibald Robinson, Red Lion Street, Gentleman, Authority of Court 6 March 1818.
George Nicholl married Miss Eliza Layton on 19 October 1818 in St John’s Church, Calcutta.
During 1819 what would end up as a pandemic began as an outbreak of Cholera Morbus in Bengal. By the end of the year Eliza must have realised that she was some 3 months pregnant and the couple may have thought it prudent for Eliza to leave India and return to England, hopefully in time for the birth. So on 21st January 1820 Eliza departed Calcutta on board the East Indiaman Prince Blucher, bound for England. The journey was long and arduous. After a stop in South Africa, Prince Blucher departed Cape of Good Hope on 19th April making her way to Ascension Island, where after a brief stop she departed on 6th May.
Back in Bengal the outbreak grew steadily worse and one of its victims may well have been George Nicholl, for on 11th June he died at Fort William. George was buried at Fort William on 12th June. By Fate, or co-incidence, Eliza Nicholl gave birth to George Henry Nicholl on 12th June while the Prince Blucher was still at sea.
On 22nd June Prince Blucher ran aground on the Shivering Sands in the Thames Estuary. Smacks from Whitstable in Kent took off some of the passengers and landed them safely in Whitstable. Whether or not Eliza risked the transfer, or waited until the ship was re-floated, is unclear, but there does not seem to have been much damage to the vessel as later in the year she started on her return trip to India.
Eliza had George Henry Nicholl baptised on December 31st 1820, at the New Road Tonbridge Independent Church, St Pancras. George’s parents are shown as George and Eliza Nicholl and the address as 36 Pancras Place, London. Pancras Place would seem to be a stone’s throw from Church Row, the address given for Joseph Layton in 1818. Whether or not by then Eliza knew that she was a widow is unknown.
Hope this helps.
Peter
PS I have a website with a bit more history at
http://petenicholl.me.uk/index.html