James Nicol (minister)
James Nicol was a minister of the Church of Scotland, known as a poet and writer.
Life
The son of Michael Nicol, he was born on 28 September 1769 at Innerleithen, Peeblesshire, went to the parish school, and was originally destined to be a shoemaker. He qualified at the University of Edinburgh for the ministry, and after acting as tutor in private families was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Peebles.Nicol became assistant to John Walker, parish minister of Traquair, near Innerleithen, and succeeded to the charge, on the death of the incumbent, on 4 November. A knowledge of medicine acquired at university enabled him to vaccinate parishioners. In 1808 he founded the first friendly society at Innerleithen.
After a change in his religious views Nicol contemplated resigning his charge. He died, after a short illness, on 5 November 1819.
Works
Nicol published at Edinburgh in 1805, in two volumes, Poems, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, and he is represented in Alexander Whitelaw's Book of Scottish Song, 1844. An Essay on the Nature and Design of Scripture Sacrifice appeared in London in 1823.Besides contributing poems to the Edinburgh Magazine, Nicol, who studied ecclesiastical history and forms, wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopædia.