The name Nichols and its variations including Nicol, Nicholls, Nickels, Nicholson, and many others, is derived from Nicholas, an ancient Greek name signifying people’s victory or victorious army and frequently given to saints. For example, the Bishop of Myra (in Asia Minor) in the fourth century became St. Nicholas, from which both the character and name of Santa Claus evolved. According to English tradition, the common ancestor of most Nichols families in that country came to England with the Norman invaders. Records have been found of at least 21 Nichols heads of families among the English who arrived in New England before 1700. Many of the approximately 170,000 individuals of that name currently in the United States are descended from these early settlers.
The Nichols Line
The Nichols Line can be traced to Nicol de Albini*, born around 1010 in Llandaff, Wales. (Because I don't have original source documents verifying Thomas Nichols' pedigree up to Nicol de Albini, you should not consider this anything but a "best guess." This information is taken from several genealogical histories.)
Nicol de Albini was the first Lord (or Baron) of Cainhoe -- one of the military leaders to rid England of invaders. In 1074 the Normans and English met a Norse host under a Canute of Norway (not King Canute) and defeated the Norse fleet off Cardiff along the South Wales coast. Neel de St. Sauveur, or the first Lord of Cainhoe, fell at this naval victory. His remains were taken back to Normandy.
The first Lord of Cainhoe's son was Nicol de Albini II, the second Lord of Cainhoe (probably the oldest son of the first Lord), and he bore the same name, Nicol de Albini. He, too, had extensive lordshops or baronies in England. It was during his possession of them that the Domesday Survey was made in 1086, that showed the wealth of the property of the Lords of Cainhoe. The internal strife in South Wales brought a Norman-English army in 1092 to the assistance of one of the Welsh armies in the civil conflict for the regal supremacy of South Wales. But this time the Normans and their allies were defeated in upper Glamorgan, and the young Lord of Cainhoe was killed. Nicol de Albini II was born around 1030 in Wales. His spouse in unknown. He had at least five children:
Nicol de Albini III b: in Wales- William de Albini b: in Wales
Ithel de Albini* b: ABT 1060 in Wales- Henry de Albini b: in Wales
- Roger de Mowbray b: in Wales
His son was Bishop Nicol, the first to use the family name "Nicol."
"Ownership of Welsh property was usually established by the possessor's tracing his genealogy to the one to whom the land was originally granted. Thus it was that the line of descent from Bishop Nicol for the next eleven generations held the same burgher lease, which probably referred to property at Llantwitt Major in Glamorgan, South Wales. They were John, Nicol, William, Nicol, William, Nicol, Henry, John, Nicol, Thomas, and (eleventh) Henry Nicol, known from other sources to have been living at Llantwitt Major as early as 1465. The use of Nicol as a family name seems to have been begun with him, though the burgher lease names him only as the brother of William ap Thomas. Thomas ap Henry, son of Henry Nicol, succeeded to the lease, then his son John Nicol (Nicol ap Thomas, of the lease), and then his son, the last name on the burgher lease, in 1511, Iltutus Nicolus (Iltyd Nicholl)." [The Nichols Family of America. Leon Nelson Nichols. New York, 1919. p. 11]
The English ancestry of Francis Nichols has been extensively researched, but until recently, no reliable information on his background had been found. Some old reports asserted that Francis was the brother of New York governor Richard Nicolls, whose ancestry is well known and includes King Robert I of Scotland [6]. Frederic Torrey’s genealogy of Humphrey Nichols, a descendent of Francis Nichols, includes a six-page appendix arguing that Francis and Richard were in fact brothers [7]. Although the governor did have a brother Francis, more recent reports make it clear that this Francis Nichols was not the American settler [8].
* I'm thinking this translates to Nicol the Albino, the source of our glow-in-the-dark white skin.
Excerpt from Representative Men and Old Families of Rhode Island, p. 1814.
Thomas NICHOLS, of Newport, R.I., married Hannah, born Dec. 17, 1642. On Oct. 31, 1677, he and Clement WEAVER, George VAUGHN, Thomas Fry, Giles Peirce, John GORTON and John Holden, with forty-one others, for services rendered during King Philip's war were granted 5,000 acres to be called East Greenwich, at which place Mr. NICHOLS died. His children were: Thomas, born Aug. 6, 1660. married Mercy REYNOLDS: Susannah, born Oct. 15, 1662, married Thomas Hazard; John, born April 16, 1666, married Hannah, born Aug. 7, 1674; Robert, born Nov. 22, 1671, married Mary Case; Hannah, born Aug 7, 1674, married William Arnold; Benjamin, born Jan. 28, 1676; Jonathan, born June 16, 1681; and Elizabeth, born June 14, 1688, married Gideon Freeborn.
'NICHOLS Genealogy', George Louis NICHOLS, 1988. pp. 10-12
He is descended from Thomas and Hannah through their son Thomas.
The fall of Prince Rupert's Cavalier forces and the termination of the Great Civil War, June 24, 1646, made England inhospitable for the NICHOLS brothers Edmund and Thomas. According to an article on Thomas NICHOLS in The East Greenwich Packet, Fall 1974, the brothers were captured and thrown into prison. When they were released, they sailed in their own ships to New England. John Philip, the youngest brother, was thought to have sailed to Virginia and the West Indies, but nothing further is known about him.
The brothers first arrived at Portsmouth, Rhode Island, about 1650, according to the article, where they stayed about four years. Upon arrival they purchased land in Portsmouth and built the Overing and Page Farm, later called the Prescott Farm. This farm was restored in 1973 and is now open to the public.
In 1654 Thomas and Edmund moved to Newport, Rhode Island. About 1659, Thomas married Hannah GRIFFIN, who was about seventeen. Her birth date was December 17, 1642. Thomas, we believe, was thirty-five. William Richard Cutter, New England genealogist and historian, says, “Most of the NICHOLS families of Rhode Island are descended from Thomas NICHOLS, the first of that name to settle in that state.”
According to Austin {Austin, John Osborn. The Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island, Albany, NY.; 1887}, Thomas was elected a freeman in 1664, served as a juryman in 1671, and was a deputy (a member of the colonial legislature) in the years 1679, 1685, 1686, 1690, and 1698.
Both Austin and Cutter mention that Thomas NICHOLS and Clement WEAVER, George VAUGHN, Thomas Fry, Giles Peirce, John GORTON, John Holden and forty-one others were granted five thousand acres of land for “services rendered in King Philip’s War,” on October 31, 1677. Samuel GREEN Arnold mentions that event in his Rhode Island history, page 427. {Arnold, Samuel GREEN. History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Vol. I, 1636-1700. D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1859.}
At the fall (1677) session of the Assembly… A tract of five thousand acres of land in Narragansett was laid out in two parts, one of 500 acres on the bay, for house lots, and the remainder in farms of ninety aces each, and distributed among 50 men, who were now incorporated as the town of East Greenwich. The parties were to build upon their lots within one year or lose the land, and no one was to sell his land within twenty-one years, unless by consent of the Assembly, on pain of forfeiture. They were also to lay out convenient roads from the bay up into the country.
Mary NICHOLS Rice tells us (in the east Greenwich Packet) that John Spencer, Thomas Fry and Thomas NICHOLS comprised the main leadership of the new community, that they were related also by marriage, having married sisters: John Spencer married Susannah GRIFFIN; Thomas Fry married Mary GRIFFIN; and Thomas NICHOLS married Hannah GRIFFIN. (Note the name of Benjamin GRIFFIN in the list of grantees.
King Philip’s War was a bloody frontier contest between white settlers and the Indians whose land had been invaded. Welcomed and aided and sold land in earlier years by the Indians, the new settlers were pushing into Indian territory in such numbers that the Indians finally felt impelled to make the effort to drive the colonists out. The Indians realized that further incursions by the whites meant inevitably that they would eventually be denied access to their own hunting grounds.
The war dealt the colony a severe blow. The settlers on the mainland took refuge on the Island of Rhode Island, where land was assigned for cultivation. The colonists had had good relations with the Indians and felt that the dispute could have been settled by peaceful means, but they rendered every assistance once the war was under way. The colony furnished few men for combat, but provided assistance by transporting troop and supplies.
Thomas NICHOLS, according Mary NICHOLS Rice, loaned the use of his ships to move troops and supplies from Plymouth, Massachusetts, to the ports along Narragansett Bay and to the garrison at Wickford. After the Indians were defeated, the ships returned the colonial troops to their homes and brought the wounded to Newport. These were the important services rendered by Thomas NICHOLS for which he was awarded land in East Greenwich.
The family of Thomas and Hannah NICHOLS divided into two parts. All of the children were born at Newport, because Thomas continued to live there, where his maritime shipping business was centered. Three of the sons, Thomas, John, and Benjamin, went across the bay to the new land, and the other three stayed with their father and uncle at Newport.
This is what George Louis NICHOLS says about Thomas, Sr.
"Thomas NICHOLS, son of Edmund and Jane Philip Nicholl of Llandaff, Glamorgan County, Wales, was born 1620-25 in Wales. Thomas and his half brother, Edmund, maritime shippers, came to America in their own ships, the Landwit and Landoff, about 1655. They spent their first four years in Portsmouth, RI, and then moved to Newport. About 1659 Thomas Married Hannah GRIFFIN, b. December 17, 1642. Thomas died after 1708, and his brother Edmund died about 1711."
Notes on early ship-building in Massachusetts: Scituate from the NEGHS Register 1871, April, p. 124
At Hobart's landing vessels were built by Samuel House as early as 1650, and soon after by Thomas NICHOLS; then by Israel Hobart in 1677.
On the road to Cowbridge, on the northern edge of the town stands the magnificent example of a Tudor house Ty mawr or Great House.
The Great House is said to date from the 14th century and was occupied by various branches of the Nicholl family. After the first world war the house was unoccupied and fell into a dilapidated and dangerous state. Later, it was then bought and conserved to a example of dedicated conservation. Until this day where it's still being lived in.
