Because of family financial troubles he had to work in a factory at Holbeck, Leeds, from the age of eight to twelve, but also studied Latin grammar.
Nichols was for some time a private tutor, and then entered into business as a printer and bookseller at Briggate, Leeds.
Nichols printed some small volumes, including John Byrom's Poems (1814), and pamphlets, and edited the Leeds Literary Observer vol.
This periodical he wanted to replace by a more ambitious monthly miscellany; but in the event he moved to London and opened a printing office at 2 Warwick Square, Newgate Street.
In 1825 there was published the first volume of his translation of the Works of Jacobus Arminius, with a life and appendices, which met with the approval of Abraham des Amorie van der Hoeven.