Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nixon, Francis Russell
NIXON, FRANCIS RUSSELL (1803–1879), bishop of Tasmania, son of the Rev. Robert Nixon [see under Nixon, John], was born 1 Aug. 1803, and was admitted into Merchant Taylors' School, London, in March 1810 (Robinson, Register). In 1822 he was elected from the school a probationary fellow of St. John's College, Oxford, whence he graduated B.A. (third class in classics) in 1827, M.A. 1841, and D.D. 1842. After having held several minor charges and acted as chaplain to the embassy at Naples, he was made, in January 1836, incumbent of Sandgate, Kent, and in November 1838 was preferred to the vicarage of Ash next Wingham by the archbishop, who also appointed him one of the six preachers in Canterbury Cathedral. Both at Sandgate and Ash he was much beloved, and in the latter parish was instrumental in erecting a chapel of ease. On 24 Aug. 1842 he was consecrated in Westminster Abbey by the archbishop as bishop of the newly constituted see of Tasmania, which he retained for twenty-one years and administered with much success. Returning to England in 1863, he was presented in the following year to the valuable rectory of Bolton-Percy, York, as a recognition, on the part of Archbishop Thomson, of his services to the colonial church. He resigned this charge in 1865, and retired to a home which he had made for himself on Lago Maggiore, where he died on 7 April 1879.
Nixon was an accomplished musician and artist, as well as a preacher of no little eloquence. The little history of his old school, which he published after he had left it, is of interest only for its illustrations. His ‘Lectures on the Catechism’ were well received, and are still held in esteem. Besides charges and pamphlets issued in Tasmania between 1846 and 1856, he published: ‘The History of Merchant Taylors' School,’ with five lithographic views, pp. 32, London, 4to, 1823; ‘Lectures, Historical, Doctrinal, and Practical, on the Catechism of the Church of England,’ London, 8vo, 1843; ‘The Cruise of the Beacon: a Narrative of a Visit to the Islands in Bass's Straits,’ London, 8vo, 1857.
[Personal and parochial recollections; Guardian, 16 April 1879.]