Clan Nicolson

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Clan Nicolson crest: Generositate (By generosity)

Clan Nicolson is a Highland Scottish clan.

1 History
2 Clan Profile
3 See Also
4 External links
5 References

[edit] History

[edit] Origins of the Clan

The Nicolsons are thought to be of Norse descent. Nicol, a diminutive of Nicholas (Greek: Νικόλαος "Victory People"), was first brought to the British Isles by the Normans, and was a very common medieval name. Today the surname Nicholson is distrubuted in high concentrations in Northern England (postal areas: Carlisle, Newcastle upon Tyne, Lancaster, Darlington, York) also in Scotland (postal areas: Outer Hebrides, Inverness, Dumfries and Galloway). It is thought by some that the surname could perhaps be derived from the personal name Olsen, ‘Nic’ in Gaelic signifying ‘daughter of’.

The surname Nicholson found in the Hebrides is an anglicization of MacNeacail (Scottish Gaelic). The MacNeacails/MacNicols first populated Lewis, but eventually made their home and chief seat at Scorrybreac in Skye. Although the Clan MacNicol of the west Highlands and islands are, according to their heraldry, apparently linked to the Nicolsons of that Ilk, there is little genealogical evidence available to explain this. The chiefs of both clans bear gold shields charged with the heads of birds of prey, with red hawks for MacNeacail and red falcons for Nicolson.

[edit] Scottish-Norwegian War

King Haakon IV of Norway was the last Norse king to invade Scotland. He sent an advance party under Anders Nicolassen, his foster brother and one of his chief barons. Nicolassen plundered the Isle of Bute before joining the main fleet off Largs. However the Battle of Largs then took place in 1263 where the Norsemen were defeated by the Scottish. There is a persistent tradition that Nicolassen eventually settled in Scotland after he was sent as an envoy from Norway to conclude the Treaty of Perth, which finally ceded sovereignty over the isles to the Kings of Scots.

[edit] 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th Centuries

James Nicolson was a lawyer in Edinburgh who died around 1580. He married Janet Swinton of the ancient Borders family, and they had two sons. John, the heir, became an advocate, while his brother, James, entered the Church. James was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1595, and minister at Meigle.

When King James VI of Scotland re-established episcopal authority in the reformed Church, he appointed James as Bishop of Dunkeld in 1606. He was bishop for less than a year, dying in August 1607. His son became an advocate, but his grandson returned to the cloth as minister of Tingwall in Shetland. John, the bishop’s elder brother, had acquired the lands of Lasswade by a charter of 1592 from Sinclair of Dryden. His son, John, was created a Baronet of Nova Scotia as Nicolson of that Ilk and Lasswade on 27 July 1629. He was succeeded in that title by his grandson, who was Commissioner of Parliament for Edinburgh in 1672.

Another baronetcy had been conferred on the family in 1637, when Thomas Nicolson, a son of John Nicolson of Edinburgh, became the first Baronet of Carnock near Stirling. Sir Thomas, third Baronet of Carnock, married Jean, eldest daughter of Archibald, second Lord Napier, in 1668. When the third Lord Napier died in 1683, his nephew, Sir Thomas’s son, then fourteen years old, became the fourth Lord. He had been the fourth Baronet since his father’s death in 1670.

Sir George, the sixth Baronet, served as a professional soldier in the Netherlands, retiring to live at The Hague in 1746. All three of his sons were officers in Scottish regiments in the service of the States of Holland. The last of this line, Sir David Nicolson, died at Breda in 1808.

Of the chief's line, the Carnock title then passed to another cousin, Major General Sir William Nicolson, only son of George Nicolson of Tarviston. The general saw service in America, India, Ireland and Mauritius. He died in 1820 to be succeeded by his son, Admiral Sir Frederick Nicolson. The admiral’s eldest son, Frederick, was killed fighting the Zulus in 1879, and it was his second son, Arthur, who succeeded in 1899.