Possible Ancestors in Northamptonshire & Links to 
   America            Home Page   Family History    Nichols Family Start       28 March 2007

Motto: Fidi sed cui vide
‘Of faith who sees’

The earliest information is a brass inscription in the Chancel at Islip Church which includes a portrait of a woman & an inscription: (Islip Index 1695-1812)

Figure 23 Inscription in the Chancel at Islip Church re: John Nicoll and Ann

The year 1467 is calculated as follows:

John and Annys Nicholl ,who lived at Islip, had 6 sons (3 of whom went to London) and 6 daughters. The male descendants of Henry, one of John and Annys sons, were traced by Edward Holland Nicoll of New York in 1894. The most distinguished 17th Century descendant (6 generations from John and Annys) was Matthias Nicholl.

Matthias (almost certainly known to his family as Matthew) was secretary on the Duke of York’s expedition (he was also secretary to, but not a relation of, Colonel Richard Nicholls, the first colonial governor on the conquest of the province in 1664). The Duke and Matthias left for America in 1664. After New Amsterdam was captured by the British Matthias became Mayor of the city, renamed New York in 1671, and speaker of the colonial assembly. He died on the 22nd December 1687.

A letter written by Henry Nicoll of New York stated that John Nicoll’s great great grandson was the John Nicoll, of Willen, in Buckinghamshire who was residing there in 1601 when the Norroy King of Arms added a Crest to his coat of arms:

Figure 25 Nichols Coat of Arms 1601
	azur three eyletts in bend between two cottices engrailed six crosslets fichée, as they are to be seen on gravestones and Windows at Islip Parish Church Crest eagle rouzant supporting a cross crosslette, fichée azur as is depicted in the margent Motto Fidi sed cui vide ‘Of faith who sees’

Henry believed that Matthias was either the grandson or great grandson of John of Willen. The evidence on which this belief is based is not known. The probability of proving that John, Annys and Matthias are our relatives is highly unlikely. The only evidence being that ‘our’ Nichols family has lived, in the requisite area of Northamptonshire since at least 1777. In 1992 Alice Gray, who grew up in Grafton Underwood wrote to me, that:

"Harriet Nichols (Stephen’s Aunt, the wife of David Nichols {b.1821}) was grandmother of Miss Eva Worthington who said that Harriett was a nurse and midwife, Eva told me on a sunny afternoon in the summer that her uncle Nichols (Samuel Nichols {born c.1867)) would visit her on a tricycle from Islip. An American lawyer also visited her and said there was a gap, he could not follow through, or she would have had money. Eva is now dead."

The position is complicated because census evidence demonstrates that the ancestral line at the beginning of the nineteenth century consisted of unskilled agricultural labourers; and parish records demonstrate that such labourers regularly moved between parishes in their search for work. However, it is worth recognising that, the fact that they were doing unskilled work does not mean that John, Annys and Matthias could not be their ancestors. With wealth and land in England being inherited by the eldest son (primogeniture) it is very likely that a younger son of a younger son of a younger son would have lower status and wealth than a more fortunate third cousin.

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