William Nichols, Stephen’s father, was born at Grafton Underwood, Northants on the 15^th April 1817. He worked as a labourer @ Brigstock and married Ann Kirby in 1838 (St.Cath.Index Marr.: 1838, 1st Quarter, Thrapston. vol.15 p.433.); William’s brother David was a witness. Note, neither William nor Ann were able to sign their names.

The couple christened their first two children in Brigstock, Elizabeth in May/Jun 1837? and Richard on 12 Apr 1840. Richard’s birth certificate would be needed to prove that the couple hadn’t simply returned to the brides parish for the christening. Sadly, neither Richard nor Elizabeth survived long:

SCI Death Certificate: Elizabeth Nichols Q3 1840 Thrapston XV p219
SCI Birth Certificate: Richard Nichols Q1 1840 Thrapston XV p377
SCI Death Certificate: Richard Nichols Q2 1840 Thrapston XV p260

In 1841, William (an agricultural labourer) and Ann were living at Thrapston

Census Year: 1841 Township of Thrapston

Comment: Whilst there is no proof, Elizabeth Nicholls is probably related.

Ten years later (1851) William has become a Malster (beer brewer) and the couple have three children: Mary (1841), David (1846) & William (1848); an earlier William, christened in 1843, also died.

Census Year: 1851 Thrapston

Stephen Nichols, our direct ancestor, was born the following year (St.Cath.Index Birth: 1852, 2nd Quarter, Thrapston. 3b 159).

In 1855 William and Ann had their last child Thomas. Sometime between then and 1860 Ann died, unfortunately the death certificate date has not been confirmed. The following death certificates are listed in St. Catherines Index:
        SCI Death Certificate: Ann Nicholls Q2 1854 Kettering 3b p100
        SCI Death Certificate: Ann Nicholls Q4 1855 Wellingborough 3b p82
        SCI Death Certificate: Ann Nicholls Q3 1857 Wellingborough 3b p77
The first certificate was obtained, but the Ann Nichols proved to be the wife of a blacksmith.

With young children to look after, it is not surprising that William quickly remarried (SCI Marriage Certificate: William Nicholls Q1 1860 Thrapston 3b p285, see overleaf). What was surprising was that William had returned to farm labouring. Of interest is the fact that William, could now write his name.

The age at which children started work is evidenced by the fact that both David (aged 15) and William (aged 12) were working in 1861:

Census Year: 1861 Thrapston

William continued to work as an agricultural labourer at Thrapston for the next 10 years, but Stephen and David were not found in the 1871 census. Stephen’s grandchildren believed that they both volunteered for the army. David’s army documents show that he enlisted in the Northamptonshire & Rutland Militia on the 23^rd. June 1863 and transferred to the 59^th East Lancashire Regiment of Foot on the 20^th June 1865

Census Year: 1871 Thrapston

David Nichols' Army Career:

David was posted to Ceylon in 1867 and after 1½ years transferred to India. In December 1878 he was sent to Afghanistan (Second Afghan War). The reason for the invasion, was that Shir ‘Ali’ Khan accepted a Russian mission at Kabul but refused a British one. England perceived this as a potential threat by the Russian empire against India. During his stay in Afghanistan David Nichols sent a message from Kandahar on the frontspiece of a small bible (Figure 42) to his sister-in-law Bessie (Stephen’s wife).

Figure 42 Bible sent, from Afghanistan, by David Nichols  to his sister in law Bessie

Major Source for description below: http://www.btinternet.com/~britishempire/empire/forces/armycampaigns/indiancampaigns/campafghan1878.htm:

Three columns were sent to Afghanistan. David’s regiment was with the southernmost (Kandahar) Force. It was the job of this column to pass through the arduous and treacherous terrain of the Bolan pass and the valleys leading the city of Kandahar. Whilst the Kandahar Field Force, was not initially involved in as much fighting, it was virtually cut off and had to support itself autonomously for virtually the entire course of the campaign.

* 59th East Lancashire is David Nichols’s Regiment.

The animals in the Kandahar Field Force died in their hundreds and thousands in the difficult terrain and atrocious weather conditions. The local tribes preyed on any group of carts that did not look sufficiently well defended. The terrible winter conditions are evidenced in the sketch of a Ghurka encampment, right.

Despite these problems, Stewart managed to reach Kandahar. Although the further he advanced, the more strain was put on his supply situation. The weather conditions in late February are indicated by the comments an officer in a northern column sent to his girl friend:

It has been raining cats and dogs for the last hour or two and has come right through our wretched little tents, and we shall be lucky if we can keep our bedding dry for tonight. Everything is damp, cold and uncomfortable. One’s hands are all as damp as if they had been dipped in water, instead of sitting in a tent that is supposed to keep us from all weathers.  (Ritchie, Miss Davis letters dated Feb 21-24 1880, Jelalabad)

By March Richie regularly bewailed the heat:

It has got awfully hot here already goodness knows what it will be like in another week or two. I hear the Doctors say we must be out of this in a fortnight or we shall have cholera breaking out…….
The heat is getting worse and worse it will be perfectly unbearable soon in these little tents….
…It is getting frightfully hot here already. We can’t go out between 8 and 5 in the day even now the sun is so hot . 

(Ritchie, ‘Miss Davis’ letters dated 7 March 1880, Jelalabad)

In April when the snow had melted David’s regiment was part of a force of 7,000 men led by Stewart from Kandahar to relieve Gen Roberts in Kabul. On the 19th April 1880 they were attacked by 15,000 Afghans at Ahmed Khel. The British armed with Martini-Henry's (breech loading rifles firing a .450 inch bullet) faced Afghans armed mainly with the Snider rifle. The Afghans major advantage was the rough terrene. At one point it looked as if the Afghans would overwhelm the British forces; the 3rd Ghurka Rifles and 2nd Sikhs formed square and stood fast until the rest of the line steadied and the Afghans were repulsed. For detailed account of battle select: Ahmed Khel The British army casualty list at http://members.ozemail.com.au/~clday/afghana.htm sadly only includes members of the British Army (the three native units, marked in red in the list below, only includes officers and British NCO's.  Of the British units, David's 59th. were in the thick of the fighting (see detailed list and map below)   Killed Mortal W. Danger W. Severe W. Slight W. 59th Foot 2 1   8 3 2nd Bn 60th Foot 3   1 1   A/B Royal Horse Art.     1 1   G/4 Royal Artillery         1 19th Bengal Lancers     1   3 2nd Punjab Cav. P.       1   Bengal Sappers&Miners         1 British soldiers Total: 5 1 22 Indian, Sikh Ghurka Forces 12 3 101

More than 1000 dead were counted on the field, and many bodies were carried away; on a moderate computation their total loss must have been between 2000 and 3000, and that in an estimated strength of from 12,000 to 15,000. The casualties of the British force were seventeen killed and 124 wounded, of whom four died of their wounds. The injuries consisted almost wholly of sword slashes and knife stabs received in hand-to-hand encounters. By the 2nd May 1880 the force reached Kabul and relieved Scottish and native forces. The Afghan Medal, above and right 31mm in diameter, shows an elephant and cavalry on the move through a mountain pass. The clasp shows the name of the battle. The ribbon is green and crimson red. The medal carried up to 6 clasps (Kabul, Kandahar, Ali Mushd, Pehwar Kotal, Ahmed Khel and Charasia). Randolph was commissioned to design a Medal for those who fought in the Second Afghanistan War campaign (1878-1880).  His design for the reverse (back) of the Medal was relatively straightforward - when an image of Queen Victoria (designed by Sir Joachim Boehm) was put onto the obverse (front), there was a big problem.  The Queen was no longer the 18-year-old who had been depicted for so long on coins and stamps.  When she was shown the intended image of her as a mature woman, she was not amused, and found every possible excuse for objecting to the Medal.  The engraving was done by Leonard Charles Wyon (1826-1891), Chief Engraver to the Royal Mint. Source  http://www.randolphcaldecott.org.uk/afghan.htm

Action at Ahmed Khel http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/action_ahmed_khel_1892.jpg

By the second of May, Richie described conditions near Kabul as follows:

The heat is terrible, one cannot do anything, except lie down and pant till the evening comes on. Thank God they are cool at all events and one can get a good sleep…
You haven’t got an idea what it is up here. The flies are something too awful! They swarm in thousands all over our face and hands, and in our food and drink and nearly drive one wild, nothing will get rid of them. and the more you kill, the more you see, till it drives one wild Consequently I have been lying down under a mosquito curtain in my tent… The beastly flies get into this ink too and make it so thick and bad I can scarcely write.    (May 2nd 1880)

Interestingly, when reading Arthur Conan Doyle’s first Sherlock Holmes novel A Study in Scarlet, published in 1887, one of the final battles in the Afghan war was used to provide a background for Dr.Watson:

The campaign brought honours and promotion to many, but for me it had nothing but misfortune and disaster. I was removed from my brigade and attached to the Berkshires, with whom I served at the fatal battle of Maiwand. There I was struck on the shoulder by a Jezail bullet, which shattered the bone and grazed the subclavian artery…." (Maiwand is 50 miles NW of Kandahar, battle occurred after July 1880

Worn with pain, and weak from the prolonged hardships which I had undergone, I was removed, with a great train of wounded sufferers, to the base hospital at Peshawar Here I rallied , and had already improved so far as to be able to walk about the wards and even to bask a little upon the verandah, when I was struck down by enteric fever, that curse of our Indian possessions. For months my life was despaired of, and when at last I came to myself and became convalescent, I was so weak and emaciated that a medical board determined that not a day should be lost in sending me back to England. I was despatched accordingly in the troopship Orontes, and landed a month later on Portsmouth Jetty, with my health irretrievably ruined, but with permission from a paternal government to spend the next nine months in attempting to improve it. (first page of story)

A more detailed description of the battle at Maiwand is given on the the Caithness Archives web page which describes the career of Sgt David MacAdie; this description indicates that Dr. Watson wouldn’t have survived:

The British avenged the defeat on 1 Sep 1880 Kandahar, winning the Second Afghan War.

War Statistics (Afghanistan’s population was circa 8 million)

Although the British Empire suffered greater losses, the Second Afghan War resulted in total subjugation of Afghan foreign policy to Britain and installed a pro British king who (and whose successor) discouraged frontier tribes from anti-British revolts. Afghanistan was forced to recognise a defined border (Durand Line) with India, a fact which went to the great advantage of Pakistan after 1947 and it was saved from the imperialist ambitions of Czarist Russia at a time when the Russians subdued far more ferocious people in Caucasus and Central Asia. The British aim in 1880 to create a buffer state with its foreign policy in British hands between Russia and India succeeded and ensured that Afghanistan stayed neutral in WW1 when there were only 15,000 British troops defending India. (Afghan and Vietnam wars compared)

David Nichols returned to India in September 1880 and to England in November 1880. In 1884 he married Susan Anne Pester on the 9^th of January 1884 at Marylebone, London. Soon after which David retired as a lance corporal.                                                                                     Return to Military     Return to Social/Political

William’s elder son, also called William, was also missing from the 1871 census but six years later he was married and living in Thrapston.

Corn Law  Sometime between the 1871 and 1881 censuses William, in his mid/late fifties, moved to the Dingley/Braybrooke area near Market Harborough, (see later census transcript for Stephen Nichols). The most probable explanation for the move is that he lost his agricultural work in Thrapston because of cheap American corn! From 1840 to 1870, Northamptonshire farmers did well from arable crops such as wheat, barley, pulses, turnips etc. as a result landowners invested substantial amounts improving their land and employing higher numbers of labourers. However:

It is interesting that the move led to a positive change in William’s status. The original description in the 1881 census of agricultural labourer was crossed out twice, first to ‘foreman’ and second to ‘farm bailiff’ – Suggesting that the upgrading had been recent.                                                       Return to Social/Political

Meanwhile, in Thrapston, William and Anne’s two remaining sons, Thomas and William, had both married and started families. Thomas rented land and employed a farm labourer. William became a stone mason.

Census Year: 1881 Archive Reel Description 9272

Since, Thomas and Ann baptised all three of their children on the same date (8th August 1880), it is unlikely that they were regular churchgoers. Sadly, both William and Hannah’s two sons who were christened in the seventies (David Ernest Nichols, 1877 & William Alfred Nichols, 1879) must have died. Interestingly Church Lane and Huntingdon Rd., are addresses which were used by their parents William and Ann. John Nichols level of kinship is unknown. Since his father Joseph was born at Slipton, circa 1813, he is not a descendant of Richard and Elizabeth Nichols of G.Underwood and cannot, therefore, be closely related.