His father was a blacksmith, un-Friended by the Philadelphia Meeting in 1749 for "Evil Conduct in frequent drinking strong Liquor to Excess," and died when Samuel was 7.

[6]Captain Nicholas no sooner received official confirmation of his appointment to office than he established recruiting headquarters in Philadelphia.

By January 1776, having recruited a sufficient number of Marines for the vessels that comprised the Continental Navy in the waters of Philadelphia, Capt.

Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, had collected a store of arms and provisions at New Providence, in the Bahamas.

In December 1776, Major Nicholas wrote to Congress: "The enemy having overrun the Jerseys, and our army being greatly reduced, I was ordered to march with three of the companies to be under the command of His Excellency, the Commander-in-Chief."

The Marines did not, however, engage in the attack on Trenton, on December 26, 1776, which followed General George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River.

On November 20, 1779, Nicholas wrote Congress to request he be put in charge of the Marine Detachment aboard the 74-gun ship of the line America, then being constructed in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

"[2] After the Navy and Continental Marines were disbanded following the end of the American Revolutionary War in 1783, Nicholas returned to civilian life and became an original member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati.

[8] A British 6-pounder cannon, captured by Major Nicholas' Marines at Nassau, is on display at Fort Phoenix in Fairhaven, Massachusetts.