Researching William Nicholson

Nicholson was born into a famous family of distillers, the son of William Nicholson and brother of John Sanctuary Nicholson, a notable military figure in Imperial Africa. He grew up in Basing Park at Froxfield, which later became his seat. He was educated at Harrow School and at Trinity College, Cambridge. Nicholson served as Director-General on Mobilisation in the Second Anglo-Boer War from 30 June 1901 and was promoted an Honorary Colonel commanding the 3rd Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment. In 1890 he married Alice Margaret Beach, daughter of Rt Hon. William Wither Bramston Beach MP.

After the death of the Conservative MP William Wickham, he was elected at a by-election in June 1897 as the Liberal Unionist Member of Parliament (MP) for Petersfield in Hampshire, a seat which had previously been held by his father. Nicholson sat as a Conservative after the Liberal Unionists and Conservatives merged in 1912,and held the seat until his retirement at the 1935 general election. He resided under a lease for some time at Bentworth Hall, however, Basing Park was his main residence. He was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1925. He was an alderman of Hampshire County Council, a Justice of the Peace, and a Deputy Lieutenant of Hampshire.

In his spare time he was a keen horticulturalist.

Nicholson was born at Upper Holloway, London, the son of John Nicholson of Upper Clapton, Middlesex and his wife Ellen Payne daughter of Richard Payne. He was educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was a member of the family which owned the J&W Nicholson & Co gin distillery based in Clerkenwell and Three Mills. He was mainly associated with Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), of which he was a prominent member; and with Middlesex and Middlesex County Cricket Club (founded during his career in 1863). He was a right-handed batsman and a wicketkeeper who made 148 known appearances in first-class matches, including a number of appearances for the Gentlemen between 1846 and 1858.

Nicholson became a director and then chairman of the distillery and was a benefactor of cricket. In 1863 he acquired Basing Park, Alton, Hampshire. In 1866, when MCC finally purchased the freehold of Lord's Ground, they paid £18,333 6s 8d using money advanced by Nicholson. He was president of the MCC in 1879. In 1888 Nicholson loaned further monies to secure Henderson's Nursery and in 1889, when the foundation stone was laid for the new Lord's Pavilion, it was paid for by a £21,000 loan from Nicholson. He was a J.P. and Deputy Lieutenant for Hampshire

In July 1866 Nicholson was elected unopposed as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the borough of Petersfield in Hampshire, at a by-election caused by the elevation to the peerage of the Conservative MP Sir William Jolliffe. He was re-elected in 1868, but defeated at the 1874 general election. In 1878, he was High Sheriff of Hampshire. He was re-elected for Petersfield in the 1880 general election and held the seat until the parliamentary borough of Petersfield was disenfranchised under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885. The name was transferred to a new county division of Hampshire. With a wider geographical area, and a franchise expanded under the Representation of the People Act 1884, the new seat had an electorate more than ten times larger, expanded from 801 in 1880 to 8,202 in 1885. In April 1885 Nicholson announced his resignation from the Liberal Party, stating that he would contest the next election as a Liberal-Conservative. He was adopted by the local Conservative association as their candidate, but at the general election in December that year he lost the seat by a narrow margin to the Liberal candidate Viscount Wolmer, and was defeated again at the 1886 election.

On 12 July 1901 Nicholson's 29-year-old son Godfrey Maule Nicholson, managing director of the distillery and brother-in-law to Sir Edward Bradford, Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, died, along with two other distillery staff, while trying to rescue a distillery worker, Thomas Pickett, who had been overcome by carbon dioxide while investigating a well. The 'Helping Hands' memorial at Three Mills Green commemorates this tragedy, as does a plaque in Postman's Park.

Nicholson died at Westminster at the age of 83.

Nicholson married Isabella Sarah Meek, daughter of John Meek in 1858. They had fourteen children including a son William Graham Nicholson who was subsequently MP for Petersfield from 1897 to 1935. Another son Brigadier-General John Sanctuary Nicholson became MP for Westminster Abbey from 1921 to 1924 after a career in the army.

Nicholson was the son of Benjamin Nicholson of Newark and his wife Frances Newzam, daughter of John Newzam of Newark. He was educated at the Magnus Grammar School at Newark and founded a business in agricultural engineering. In 1851 he was mayor of Newark. He was J.P. for Newark and became chairman of the school board in 1871.

At the 1880 general election Nicholson was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Newark. He held the seat until the 1885 general election, when the two-seat parliamentary borough of Newark was abolished under the Redistribution of Seats Act. The town was then represented as part of a single-seat county division of Nottinghamshire, but Nicholson did not stand in the election.

Nicholson died at the age of 82.

Nicholson married firstly Maria Alice Betts of Newark in 1842, and secondly Annie Prior, daughter of Joseph Prior of Woodstock in 1866. Their son William was an artist and the father of Ben Nicholson and Nancy Nicholson.

He was encouraged by James Hogg and Dr. Alexander Murray. Nicholson's published collections include Tales, in Verse, and Miscellaneous Poems: Descriptive of Rural Life and Manners (1814), a work which contains some 60 original poems, including "The Ghost of Crazy Jane", "The Fairy Dance", and "A Tale of Terror", a number of which have been anthologised. One common anthology piece sometimes associated with his name is also "The Aiken Drum".

He is best remembered today for "The Brownie of Blednoch" (1828), a favourite of the poet Marion Angus (1865–1946), and "The Braes of Galloway".