William Nicholson (English bishop)

William Nicholson (1 November 1591 – 5 February 1672) was an English clergyman, a member of the Westminster Assembly and Bishop of Gloucester.

The year before he had been nominated a member of the Westminster Assembly of divines, probably through the interest of the Earl of Northumberland, but he speedily withdrew, together with most of the rest of the Episcopalian clergy.

When deprived of his preferments by the parliament he maintained himself by keeping a private school, which he carried on in partnership with Jeremy Taylor and William Wyatt at Newton Hall ('Collegium Newtoniense'), in the parish of Llanfihangel Aberbythych, in Carmarthenshire.

In 1661 he was consecrated bishop of Gloucester by Gilbert Sheldon and Accepted Frewen on 6 January, in Henry VII's Chapel.

He died on 5 February 1672, aged 80, and was buried in a side chantry of the lady-chapel at Gloucester, in which his wife Elizabeth, who predeceased him on 20 April 1663, had also been interred.

A monument was erected by his grandson, Owen Brigstocke, of Lechdenny, Carmarthenshire, with an epitaph by his friend George Bull, describing him as 'legenda scribens, faciens scribenda.'