MEMOIR OF

JOHN NICHOLS, ESQ. F. S. A. Late Editor of the Gentleman's Magazine.

(With a Portrait.)

THERE are few periodical publications within the compass of English literature, of longer standing, of higher respectability, or more deserving of support, than the Gentleman's Magazine. The principles on which it has been conducted reflect the highest credit on its directors, and among these none are more entitled to the gratitude of the public, than the subject of this memoir. Distinguished alike for superior talents, indefatigable industry, and undeviating integrity, his numerous works will remain as an imperishable monument of what may be accomplished by persevering application. The great variety of subjects which employed his pen, display the diversity of his mental powers; and all such as wish to benefit mankind by their literary talents, may find a valuable model in the example he has set before them.

Descended from an ancient and respectable family, JOHN NICHOLS was born at Islington, near London, on the 2nd of February, 1744-5, for which place he retained so strong an affection, that he always viewed it as his final retreat in the evening of life. Here he expected to look back on the scenes of his childhood, to converse with such as death had spared of his youthful companions, and finally, to mingle his dust among that of his friends and relations already mouldering in the consecrated cemetery.

Mr. Nichols' first education was obtained at an academy kept by Mr. John Shield, a man of considerable learning and discernment, who took delight as well as pains in cultivating the talents of his pupil, who recommended himself by his aptitude, attention, and docility. At this time, Mr. N. had a maternal uncle, Mr. Thomas Wilmot, in the naval department, serving as a lieutenant under Admiral Barrington, and being a brave officer, he stood in a fair way of speedy and high promotion. Under the protection of this uncle, it was the intention NO. 99.-VOL. IX.

[1827.

of Mr. N.'s friends to get him placed; and with an eye to this, his education received a nautical bias. Mr. Wilmot's death, however, which took place in 1751, totally defeated all their schemes, and in the order of Providence, directed him to a path, for which, perhaps, his talents were more particularly adapted.

In the year 1757, before Mr. Nichols was quite thirteen, he was providentially placed under the celebrated Mr. William Bowyer, a learned printer, who soon discovered the amiable disposition and improvable talents of the youth committed to his care.

He had a tenacious memory, which was but little impaired even in his latter days. He was likewise very early a lover of books, although, like most youths, who think more of gratifying curiosity than of procuring permanent advantages, his reading was desultory, and for some years his choice depended on the works submitted to his master's press, few of which, happily for him, were of a trifling, and none of a pernicious kind. From the moment he became Mr. Bowyer's apprentice, he was intent on the acquisition of solid knowledge, and to this he was continually prompted, not only by the instructions of his master, but by the nature of his employment. He was gradually inspired with a certain degree of ambition, of which he probably knew neither the extent nor end, in consequence of intercourse with the men of learning for whom Mr. Bowyer printed.

Mr. Nichols had not been long in this advantageous situation, when his master gladly admitted him into his confidence, and intrusted him with cares which, in the case of many young men, would have been considered as unsuitable to their age, and requiring a more lengthened trial. But, besides the indispensable qualities of industry and integrity, Mr. Bowyer found in his young apprentice another merit which was of great importance to his press. Mr. Nichols brought with him no small portion of classical knowledge and taste, acquired at school, and cultivated at his leisure hours.

Mr. Bowyer appears to have been not only the instructive master, but the kind and indulgent friend to his apprentice, and

was often anxious to amuse him by conveying a taste for poetry; of which Mr. Nichols had afforded some specimens. Of these Mr. Bowyer thought so favourably, that in 1760, when our author was only in his sixteenth year, he enjoined him, as an evening's task, to translate a Latin poem of his own, published in 1733, and entitled "Bellus homo et Academicus." This Mr. Nichols executed with considerable spirit and humour, and in the following year (1761) Mr. Bowyer associated him with himself in translating the Westminster Verses, which had been spoken on the previous Coronation of George the Second.

The applause bestowed on these efforts very naturally led Mr. Nichols to become a more constant votary of the Muses, and from 1761 to 1766, his productions made | no inconsiderable figure in the periodical journals. In 1763 he published two poetical pamphlets in 4to., the one entitled “Islington, a Poem," and the other "The Buds of Parnassus," which was republished in 1764, with some additional poems. In 1765, he contributed several poems to a miscellaneous collection, published by Dr. Perfect, of Town-Malling, under the title of "The Laurel Wreath," 2 vols. 8vo. His occasional productions of this kind, when further advanced, will be noticed hereafter.

During his minority he produced some prose essays on the manners of the age, such as they appeared to one who had been no inattentive observer. These were published in a periodical paper, written chiefly by Kelly, entitled "The Babbler,” and in the Westminster Journal, a newspaper, under the signature of "The Cobbler of Alsatia."

These were merely his amusements, and indicative of an ambition which at his early age was surely pardonable. His more serious hours were devoted to the business of the press. His leading object was to please his master in the superintendence of the learned works printed by Mr. Bowyer, and in this he succeeded so well, that the relative situations of master and servant soon merged in a friendship, the compound of affection on the one side, and of reverence on the other.

So amply had he fulfilled Mr. Bowyer's expectations, as to prudence and judgment, that before his apprenticeship expired, he sent him to Cambridge to treat with that University for a lease of their exclusive privilege of printing Bibles. This was a negociation which required great delicacy and presence of mind, and these Mr. Nichols preserved on every interview. His

endeavours proved unsuccessful, only because the University determined, `on a due consideration of the matter, to keep the property in their own hands.

This journey, however, to our young aspirant, was delightful. He had never before travelled but a very few miles from his native place, and in Cambridge and its colleges he found every thing that could increase his enthusiasm for literary pursuits. He made minutes of this tour, which he used to say, afforded him the most pleasing recollections at a far distant period of life. His remarks on the passing objects on the journey, prove that he had already imbibed somewhat of the topographer's inquisitive spirit; and at Cambridge he indulged in the delights of "local emotion," by contemplating with reverence the colleges in which some eminent scholars, with whom he had already become acquainted, had studied. On one occasion he says, "Visited Peter-house, not without a respectful thought of Mr. Markland." During his return likewise he exhibited some promising appearances of the viator curiosus.

Soon after, Mr. Bowyer gave another proof of the value he placed on Mr. Nichols' services, when the period of them expired, by returning to his father half of his apprentice-fee. But the high estimate he had formed of him did not end here. He appears to have been long convinced that Mr. Nichols' assistance was of great importance in his printing establishment. Accordingly, in 1766, he took him into partnership, and, in the following year, they removed their office from White Friars to Red-lion Passage, Fleet-street, where it remained until a very few years since. This union, one of the most cordial that ever was formed, lasted until the death of Mr. Bowyer in 1777.

As Mr. Bowyer continued to be not only the printer, but the intimate friend and assistant in the learned labours of some of the first scholars of the age, Mr. Nichols had frequent opportunities, which he never neglected, of acquiring the notice and esteem of those gentlemen. He had not, indeed, been long associated with Mr. Bowyer as a partner, before he began to be considered as his legitimate successor, and acquired the esteem and patronage of Mr. Bowyer's friends in no common degree. This he lived to repay, by handing down to posterity many important circumstances of their lives, frequently derived from personal knowledge, which but for his industry and research, and the confidence bestowed upon him by their families, must have been lost

to the world.

The first publication in which he was concerned as an author, was "The Origin of Printing, in two Essays: 1. The substance of Dr. Middleton's Dissertation on the Origin of Printing in England. 2. Mr. Meerman's account of the invention of the art at Harleim, and its progress to Mentz, with occasional remarks, and an Appendix,' 8vo. 1774. Mr. Nichols informs us that the "original idea of this pamphlet was Mr. Bowyer's; the completion of it his partner's." Mr. Nichols' share, therefore, must have been very considerable. It was published without a name, and at first was attributed to Mr. Bowyer, but the respective shares of him and his partner were soon discovered. A second edition, with many improvements, appeared in 1776, and a supplement in 1781. The foreign journals spoke with as much respect of this work as those at home.

Mr. Nichols derived considerable fame from it. He was now enabled to add to the number of his literary friends the names of Sir James Burrough and Sir John Pringle, as he had before acquired the esteem and acquaintance of Dr. Birch, Dr. Parsons, Dr. Warton, Dr. Farmer, and the Earl of Marchmont. Sir John Pringle was accustomed to submit his prize-medal speeches, which he intended for the Royal Society, to Mr. Nichols' perusal, before delivery; an honour of which so young a man may be forgiven if he was somewhat proud.

As the works which passed through Mr. Bowyer's press engaged a more than common attention on the part of Mr. Nichols, he happened very early in life to conceive a high opinion of the merits of Dean Swift, in consequence of Mr. Bowyer's having printed the 13th and 14th volumes of his works in the year 1762. Of Dean Swift, Mr. Nichols appears never to have lost sight from this time, and, applying himself closely in search of materials, he published, in 1775, a supplemental volume to Dr. Hawkesworth's edition. This was republished afterwards so as to correspond with Hawkesworth's 4to. 8vo. and 12mo. editions, and afterwards incorporated, with many addi tions and valuable biographical notes, in what may be now justly considered as the standard edition, first printed in 19 vols. 8vo. in 1800, and reprinted in 1808. Mr. Nichols' accuracy and judgment as an editor, were so completely established by the appearance of the first mentioned volume, that information respecting unpublished letters and tracts was sent to him from all quarters. Sheridan's Life was the only part which he considered necessary to retain as originally published, since it was

supposed by many, to furnish a defence of the objectionable parts of Swift's personal history. But, whatever were the merits of this celebrated author, it appears incontestibly from the preface to the second volume, that the public is indebted to Mr. Nichols for the very complete state in which his works are now found.

The next publication of our author, the "Original Works, in Prose and Verse, of William King, LL. D. with Historical Notes," 3 vols. small 8vo. 1776, afforded another decided proof of that taste for literary history and illustration, to which we owe the more important obligations, which Mr. Nichols conferred by his recent and voluminous contributions to the biography of men of learning.

In 1778, Mr. Nichols obtained a share in the Gentleman's Magazine, of which he became the editor. It had not been long under his care, before it obtained a consequence which it had never before reached, although the preceding volumes were formed from the contributions of some of the most able scholars and antiquaries of the time. In order to render the various informations contained in this Magazine more easily accessible, Mr. Nichols published, in 1786, a complete Index to the first fifty-four volumes, compiled by the late Rev. Samuel Ayscough

Although Mr. Bowyer's press had not issued many works interesting to English antiquaries, Mr. Nichols appears, before the period to which we are now arrived, to have formed such connexions as gradually encouraged what was early in his mind, until his inquiries became fixed on subjects relating to the antiquities of his own country. Among these preceptors we may notice Dr. Samuel Pegge, Borlase, Hutchins, Denne, and Dr. Ducarel. With the latter he was long linked in friendship, and in conjunction with him, published, in 1779, the "History of the Royal Abbey of Bec, near Rouen," and "Some account of the Alien Priories, and of such Lands as they are known to have possessed in England and Wales," 2 vols. But he had another coadjutor in these two works, of incalculable value, the celebrated Richard Gough, esq.

In 1780, Mr. Nichols published a very curious "Collection of Royal and Noble Wills," 4to. In this work he acknowledges his obligations to Mr. Gough and to Dr. Ducarel, for obtaining transcripts and elucidating by notes. It was a scheme originally suggested by Dr. Ducarel, probably in consequence of the publication of the Will of Henry VII. by Mr. Astle,