Nicholson, Christopher Shepherdson, and William Wood were mentioned as servants of Bowes in the will of Isotta de Canonici, the wife of the Italian writer Giacomo Castelvetro, who died in Edinburgh in 1594.
On 6 December 1597 Queen Elizabeth of England wrote a letter of accreditation for Nicholson as the English resident, to be delivered to King James VI of Scotland.
Nicholson may have been insensitive, or lacked some tact, notably he came to Dunfermline seeking an audience with the king on 3 June 1602 while the court was in mourning for the death of the infant Duke Robert.
[8] Nicholson, Roger Aston, and John Colville all wrote to Bowes in March 1595 about the arrival of James Myreton, a Jesuit priest, and brother of the Laird of Cambo.
[10] In August 1595 Nicholson rode to Loch Lomond and the castle on Inchmurrin with Elizabeth's letters for James VI, where the king often went on annual hunting trips.
[11] In September 1595 he went to Falkland Palace where he observed at first hand the feud between Anne of Denmark and the Earl of Mar, who was the keeper of her son, Prince Henry.
The money was to reimburse sums advanced to James Colville, and was paid by Thomas Foulis and Robert Jousie who administered the king's English subsidy.
[15] Bowes sent Nicholson to King James at Linlithgow Palace in October 1597 to discuss border matters concerning a recent meeting at the west ford of Norham Castle which had ended in a gun fight over the Tweed at dusk.
[17] Nicholson reported on the illness of the bankrupt financier Thomas Foulis who "fell madd sick this day" either because of his debts, or because James VI had taken a valuable jewel from him, known as the "Great H of Scotland."
Nicholson says that Anne of Denmark gave the jewel to her friend, the Countess of Erroll, as a joke, saying that it was little enough for her to have it for a night for the casting down of her husband's house, Old Slains Castle.
[19] James VI supported another group in November 1599, but the church and town authorities tried to close them down, on religious and moral grounds.
This group included Martin Slater and Lawrence Fletcher, and opposition to their performance was led by the minister Robert Bruce.