William Nicolson
As a bishop he played a significant part in the House of Lords during the reign of Queen Anne, and left a diary that is an important source for the politics of his times.
He was born in Plumbland, Cumberland, the son of Joseph Nicolson, who was rector there, and his wife Mary Brisco, and was educated at the school in nearby Dovenby.
[5] Nicolson was ordained as a deacon in 1679 and made Vicar of Torpenhow in 1681; he also became prebendary of Carlisle Cathedral in 1681, and Archdeacon and rector of Great Salkeld in 1682.
[6] Nicolson was one of a group of churchmen opposing Atterbury's views, including Edmund Gibson, White Kennett and William Wake.
[1] He had cultivated the support of local Tories: Sir Christopher Musgrave, 4th Baronet, Thomas Tufton, 6th Earl of Thanet who was heir to the Cumbrian Clifford estates, Colonel James Grahme the brother of Richard Graham, 1st Viscount Preston.
[11] Charles Murray Lowther Bouch used Nicolson's records to conclude that 70% of the churches in the diocese were then in tolerable condition, with 10% very bad.
[6] On a single visit to Carlisle Atterbury, who had picked a fight with Nicolson over a chapter matter, lost all support except with Hugh Todd.
The following day Sir James Montague, a Member of Parliament for Carlisle, held a dinner for the two clerics at which they were reconciled.
[14] In 1713 White Kennett addressed to Nicolson a pamphlet on Thomas Merke, bishop of Carlisle in the time of Richard II.
Jacobite forces under Mackintosh of Borlum and Thomas Forster marched south from the Scottish border on 1 November, through Longtown and Brampton.
But his health was failing, and when Archbishop Thomas Lindsay of Armagh died, he made clear to William Wake, now of Canterbury, that he had no interest in succeeding him.
[24] John Fell appointed Nicolson editor of the manuscript "Northern Dictionary" of Francis Junius, who was an Oxford resident from 1676 to autumn 1677.
[26] Nicolson after his return to Oxford held a lectureship at Queen's in Anglo-Saxon set up by Williamson, and gained a reputation in the area.
[29] He also saw the runic inscription on the baptismal font at Bridekirk church, and he described both in published letters, to Obadiah Walker and William Dugdale respectively.
[33][34] In 1691 Nicolson wrote in a letter to Thoresby of his strong interest in the recovery of the history of the Kingdom of Northumbria, of which the crosses were relics.
[37] In 1694 Nicolson expressed in a letter to Ralph Thoresby a strong interest in the model of the Uppsala antiquarian group (Academy of Antiquities) founded in 1667 by Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie.
A technical point at issue was the "Homage" of Malcolm IV of Scotland, which according to Nicolson related only to English counties held by the Scottish Crown.
He was recruited to the select Committee on the Public Records, chaired by Charles Montagu, 1st Baron Halifax, an antiquarian who was to become a friend.
A "discourse" on current innovations in natural philosophy followed, in which Carbery observed that since Descartes, "Every New Philosopher thought himself wise enough to make a World".
[53] The ramifying quarrel drew in John Harris, a cleric whom Nicolson met and liked after a Gresham College dinner held by Woodward in January 1705.
