Stephen and Bessie Nichols and Stephen’s Parents at Braybrooke.
           Circa 1877         Home Page    Family History    Nichols Family Start   28 March 2007

Two versions of how Stephen and Bessie met in London are given by his descendants.

William Frank Nichols’s children believed that Stephen joined the army (probably before the 1871 Census) because he liked the recruiting music (Bill Nichols memory). Stephen was a Guardsman (Grenadier, according to Bill Nichols) at Buckingham Palace.

Nora Nichols’s children believe that Stephen was a Metropolitan policeman.

Both versions agree that he lived in London and both explain the link to Buckingham Palace (Nancy Nichols insisted that Bessie told her that she had sat in the gold coronation coach at the palace). Stephen certainly married Bessie at St.George’s Church at Hanover Square (copy of certificate below), though his job as a painter was a surprise!

St.Cath.Index Marr.: 1877, 2nd Quarter, St.George’s Hanover Sq. 1a 559.

The couple quickly moved to the Northamptonshire/Leicestershire border because their first child (Alice Sally) was born in the second quarter of 1877 at Little Bowden, nr. Market Harborough. By the 1881 census they had moved the short distance to Braybrooke where his father worked and Stephen obtained a job as a ‘Horse Keeper’ (1881 Census).

The fact that Stephen’s aunt Harriett was staying with his father was almost certainly linked to her work as a nurse/midwife. Support for this would would require obtaining David Nichols’ birth certificate to see if he was born early in the second quarter of 1881.

Census Year:1881 Registrars Office Market Harborough Parish: Braybrooke

The changing description of William Nichols’ job suggests that the promotion to Farm Bailiff was recent. William’s grandson, William Frank Nichols was born on the 9^th of April 1883. Stephen is described on the birth certificate as a waggoner.

David Nichols married Susan Anne Porter @ Marylebone, London, on the 9^th January 1884. Just over a year later in February 1895 he was appointed Lance Corporal. He left the army on the 6^th July 1886 (Source: Army Records @ Kew WO 97/3555).

William Nichols died in 1885, aged 66, at Kettering of paralysis. The informant’s name may be that of William’s second wife Esther Nichols née Smith (??)

Figure 44 Death Certificate of William Nichols 1885 (SCI: Death: 1885:Q4 3b 131

What happened to William’s wife Esther is not known, she is missing from the 1891 census at Braybrooke, Stephen, Bessie and their 7 children are still living there. William Linnell, not Stephen Nichols, has taken over William’s job as farm bailiff.

Census Year: 1891 Fiche Description F74 Market Harborough:Braybrooke

According to Nancy Nichols, Earl Beatty sent his coach to take Frank to sit for his ‘scholarship’ examination at Desborough; passing this examination meant that he was able to leave school at the age of 10 (1894), rather than having to stay until he was 13. Confirmatory evidence that Stephen eventually became farm bailiff and that the family lived at Braybrooke for some years is provided by Margaret Ellen Nichols birth certificate sent to me by her Australian descendants:

Whilst the job of ‘Farm Bailiff to Earl Beatty’ was emphasised by Frank Nichols’ children, the latter was demonstrably an absentee Landlord. The quotation below shows that Earl Beatty’s career was the Navy.

David Beatty (1871-1936), was born at Stapely Nr. Nantwich Cheshire of Irish stock, joined the navy in 1884 and served with the Nile gunboats in the Sudan (1896-1898). ‘Played a fearless part in shore as well as sea operations. In command of cruisers at the beginning of the first world war. He commanded successful naval actions at Heligoland Bight (1914) and Dogger Bank (1915)... Succeeded Jellicoe as Commander in Chief of the Grand Fleet in 1918. For seven years from 1919 he served as first sea lord ... received an Earldom (1919), the O.M. and a grant of £100,000 for his many services.’ (Macmillan Biography see:W.S.Chambers, 1951, The life and letters of David Earl Beatty)

The only evidence indicating when Stephen and Bessie moved to Kettering, is that Frank Nichols’ children thought that Frank was still a lad when the family moved to Kettering, and that Stephen’s youngest son Tom was born in 1897 in the Kettering area. No reason is given for the move. However if, as Norah’s descendants report, Stephen was a heavy drinker (they believe he lost the metropolitan police job as a result of drink Sadly, Metropolitan Police employment records are missing for this time, but the records that do exist suggest that such careers were often short) then going to Kettering would have been linked to finding work. Kettering grew rapidly as a result of the Midland Railway line opening in 1857:

Population:                   1851=5,198;                            1911=29,972
                                                                 (Steane, John, M., 1974, The Northamptonshire Landscape p.268).

In 1905, at his son’s wedding, Stephen is described as a ‘roadmender’; Bill Nichols states he was ‘in charge of a gang of road menders’. and thinks that the tarmacadam fumes damaged Stephen’s health and caused his death. Millicent, Mary Anne’s daughter, knew he died when she was seven - circa 1916.

SCI: Death Certificate: Stephen Nichols Q1 1916 Age 63 Kettering. 3b 211
Figure 45 Death Certificate of Stephen Nichols 1916

Stephen and Bessie had at least nine children:

Key: F=Family Evidence; C=Census evidence; P =Parish evidence; S=St.Cath.Index

Individuals in bold are those whom I either knew or have had contact with their descendents.

They may have had more, because four additional Nichols' children were identified in the Market Harborough area, in St Catherines Index,:
                            Florence Emily JFM 1878,               Laura Ethel JFM 1881,
                            Margaret Jane JAS 1882,                Alice Rachel JAS 1892

However, the fact that Laura Ethel’s birth was registered only the quarter before David’s and that Florence and Laura are neither in St Catherine’s Death Index March 1877-1882 nor in Stephen and Bessie’s family’s census records, suggests that the presence of another Nichols’ family living in the Market Harborough area.