Life
From a Cornish background, he was born on 26 May 1818 at Sidmouth in Devon, the son of a builder there; his mother was a daughter of Captain James Fawkner of Plymouth. In 1830 he went to sea with an uncle. Two years later he was sent to school at Kentisbeare for six months. He was then taken into the drapery business, and after a short period bought an establishment for himself at Benwick in the Isle of Ely. He next kept a school at Ramsey; and then moved to Manchester, where he was traveller for a firm of paper-stainers. In 1860 he settled in Bristol, where he ran a paper-staining business for eight years.[1]
In 1868 Nicholls was appointed city librarian of Bristol. The old city library, founded in 1613, was reconstituted in 1885-6 and reopened by the City Council. Under Nicholls' direction it was extended into three free branch libraries, all in poor areas of the city St Philip's (1876), St James (1877), and Bedminster (1878).[2] In 1876 he was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Taylor is best known for the publication of the three volume, Bristol Past and Present,[3] which he co-authored with fellow librarian John Taylor.
He died at Goodwick, Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, on 19 September 1883. Twice married, he left several children.[1]
