James Nichol

James Nichol was a Scottish publisher in Edinburgh.

Life

He was born in Brechin, the younger brother of John Pringle Nichol, whose 1855 book The Planet Neptune he published. Their parents were John Nichol from Northumberland, a gentleman farmer, and his wife Jane Forbes from Ellon, Aberdeenshire; John Nichol became a Glasgow merchant.
James Nichol was apprenticed to John Smith, a bookseller in Montrose. He then went into business in Montrose with his brother Davidson Nichol, a stationer. He moved to Edinburgh and the firm of John Johnstone, later Johnstone & Hunter. In 1850 he set up his own publishing company. In 1851 he attended the General Assembly of the Free [Church of Scotland (1843–1900)|Free Church of Scotland] for the Presbytery of Brechin.
Nichol was buried in the The [Grange Cemetery, Edinburgh]. After his death, the business was carried on by his son John D. Nichol.

Works

Nichol's publications included:

Literature

Library Edition of the British Poets, from 1853, 48 vols.
Edition of Reliques of Ancient English Poetry by George Gilfillan
Fragments of Criticism for his nephew John Nichol
Hellenics by Walter Savage Landor. Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth, who referred to Nichol as "my esteemed friend", described in Notes and Queries the publication process.

Protestantism

Nichol was an elder of the Free Church of Scotland special committee on Popery.

Works by James Begg.

Begg was the editor from 1851 of The Bulwark, or Reformation Journal, the organ of the Scottish Reformation Society, which was published by Nichol. It has been called "the Victorian era's most influential anti-Catholic periodical". Witness published on 4 October 1851 an advertisement for the fourth issue of Bulwark, by Nichol, with messages of support from Hugh M'Neile, Hugh Stowell, the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, Arthur Kinnaird and others.

''Standard Divines of the Puritan Period''

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Family

Nichol in 1851 married, with James Begg officiating, Mary Fraser, daughter of Thomas Fraser of Lodge Lane, Liverpool. Her father, who died in 1835, was a slave-owner in Demerara; her mother was Elizabeth Brotherson. A legal case in the Court of Session in 1879 gave Fraser family details. All four of Thomas Fraser's children were illegitimate. At the time the case was brought, Mary Nichol was 59, and her son James Thomas Nichol was 25, a lieutenant in the Royal Navy. Peter McLagan was one of the trustees of an agreement of 1842 with William Fraser, brother of Thomas, for the payment of annuities to the children of Thomas.
James Nichol's son John Davidson Nichol was born in 1834.