Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nichols, William (1655-1716)
NICHOLS, WILLIAM (1655–1716), Latin poet, born in 1655, was son of the Rev. Henry Nichols or Nicols of Hilton, near Cowbridge, Glamorganshire. He matriculated at Oxford, from Christ Church as a ‘poor scholar’ on 14 April 1671, and graduated B.A. on 24 March 1674–5, M.A. in 1677 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714, iii. 1070). On 4 June 1690 he was presented to the rectory of Cheadle, Cheshire, but resigned it on his appointment to the rectory of Stockport in the same county on 24 March 1693–4. He died towards the end of 1716. On 9 June 1692 he married, at Flixton, near Manchester, Elizabeth, daughter of Peter Egerton of Shawe, Lancashire, and by her, who died on 1 Oct. 1708, aged 43, he had several children. She was buried in Chester Cathedral, where her husband placed a monument, with an elegant Latin inscription, to her memory.
Nichols, who was a good classical scholar, wrote: 1. ‘De Literis Inventis libri sex,’ London, 1711, a little thick 8vo of 387 pages, dedicated to Thomas, earl of Pembroke, and composed entirely in Latin elegiacs. In the sixth book he refers to Stockport and its beautiful situation, and also notices Manchester and the neighbouring country in Derbyshire. 2. ‘Orationes duæ: una Gulielmi Nicols, A. M., altera Barthol. Ziegenbalgii, missionarii Danici ad Indos Orientales: utraque coram venerabili Societate pro promovenda Religione Christiana habita Londini, Dec. 29, 1715. Accedit utriusque orationis versio Anglicana,’ 8vo, London, 1716. 3. ‘Περὶ Ἄρχων libri septem: accedunt Liturgica,’ 2 pts. 12mo, London, 1717. The first part, which is inscribed to William Wake, archbishop of Canterbury, is a paraphrase on the church catechism in Latin hexameters, in the form of a dialogue between master and pupil. The ‘Liturgica,’ dedicated to Sir William Dawes [q. v.], archbishop of York, consists of translations of some portions of the book of common prayer into Latin verse.
[Earwaker's East Cheshire, i. 394, li. 655; Hearne's Notes and Collections (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), ii. 299.]