William Robertson Nicoll

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Sir

William Robertson Nicoll

man of letters
Alma mater
SpouseIsabella Dunlop, Catherine Pollard
Children3
Signature

Sir William Robertson Nicoll

man of letters
.

Biography

Nicoll was born in Lumsden, Aberdeenshire, the son of Rev. Harry Nicoll (1812–1891), a Free Church minister of Auchindoir, and his wife, Jane Robertson.[1]

He was educated at

Hodder and Stoughton
, a position which he held until his death.

In 1885, Nicoll was forced to retire from pastoral ministry after an attack of

established church).[3] He had been working with Jane Stoddart on a project and in 1890 she left teaching to join him on a full time basis as his assistant.[2]

Nicoll secured many writers of exceptional talent for his paper (including

The Bookman from 1891, and acted as chief literary adviser to Hodder and Stoughton.[3]

Among his other enterprises were The Expositor's Bible (originally published by Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1896, but afterward reprinted in New York by A. C. Armstrong & Son) and The Theological Educator. He edited The Expositor's Greek Testament (from 1897). He also edited a series of Contemporary Writers (from 1894), and of Literary Lives (from 1904).[3]

1909 portrait of Nicoll

He projected, but never wrote, a history of The Victorian Era in English Literature, and edited, with T. J. Wise, two volumes of Literary Anecdotes of the Nineteenth Century.[3] He was knighted by King Edward VII in 1909, ostensibly for his literary work, but in reality probably more for his long-term support for the Liberal Party. He was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the 1921 Birthday Honours.[4] Nicoll was the father of Maurice Nicoll, a leading British psychologist and author who studied under Carl Jung and became a leading expositor of the teachings of the Greco-Armenian spiritual master G.I. Gurdjieff.

He died on 4 May 1923 at his home, Bay Tree House, in Frognal, Hampstead, London and is buried in a family grave on the west side of Highgate Cemetery.

Family grave of Nicoll in Highgate Cemetery

Family

He married twice: firstly in 1878 to Isabella Dunlop (1857–1894); secondly in 1897 to Catherine Pollard (1863–1960).

Children from the first marriage were Isa Constance Nicoll (1881–1963) an author and poet, and Henry Maurice Dunlop Nicoll (1884–1953) a noted psychiatrist.

The one child of the second marriage was Mildred Robertson Nicoll (1898–1995).

Works

Nicoll's study room
  1. Calls to Christ, (1877) Morgan & Scott: London.
  2. The Yale Lectures on Preaching: (1878) Reprinted from the British and Foreign Evangelical Review.
  3. Songs of Rest [First Series], (1879) Macniven & Wallace, Edinburgh: combined with Second Series (1893), Hodder & Stoughton: London.
  4. The Incarnate Saviour, (1881) T. & T. Clark: Edinburgh, (1882) Robert Carter & Brothers: New York.
  5. The Lamb of God, (1883) Macniven & Wallace: Edinburgh.
  6. John Bunyan (1884) in The Evangelical Succession, Macniven & Wallace: Edinburgh.
  7. James Macdonell, Journalist, (1890) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
  8. Professor W.G. Elmslie, D.D., (1890) (with Macnicoll, A.N.) Hodder & Stoughton: London: revised and enlarged as Professor Elmslie: A Memoir (1911) by W Robertson Nicoll [but minus sermons].
  9. The Key of the Grave, (1894) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
  10. Ten Minute Sermons, (1894) Isbister & Co: reprinted 1910, Hodder & Stoughton.
  11. The Seven Words from the Cross, (1895) Hodder & Stoughton, London.
  12. When the Worst comes to the Worst, (1896) Isbister & Co.
  13. Henry Drummond: A Memorial Sketch, (1897) prefixed to Drummond's posthumous volume, The Ideal Life, Hodder & Stoughton: London.
  14. The Return to the Cross, (1897) reprint 1910, Hodder & Stoughton: London.
  15. Letters to Ministers on the Clerical Life, (1898) (with others) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
  16. The Ascent of the Soul, (1899) Isbister & Co.
  17. Letters on Life: by Claudius Clear, (1901) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
  18. The Church's One Foundation, (1901) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
  19. A Memorial Article, Hugh Price Hughes as we knew him, (1902) H Marshall & Son.
  20. Robert Louis Stevenson, in the Bookman Booklet Series, (1902/6) Hodder & Stoughton, London.
  21. The Garden of Nuts, (1905) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
  22. The Day Book of Claudius Clear, (1905) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
  23. The Scottish Free Church Trust and its Donors, (1905) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
  24. A History of English Literature [3 Volumes, originally published as The Bookman Illustrated History of English Literature] (1906) (with Seccombe) Hodder & Stoughton, London.
  25. The Lamp of Sacrifice, (1906) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
  26. 'Introduction and Appreciation, Memoirs of the Late Dr Barnardo, Mrs Barnardo & James Marchant, (1907) Hodder & Stoughton, London.
  27. My Father. An Aberdeenshire Minister, (1908) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
  28. Ian Maclaren, The Life of the Rev. John Watson D.D., (1908) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
  29. 'Introduction' to Jane Stoddart's Against the Referendum, (1910) Hodder & Stoughton, London.
  30. The Round of the Clock: The Story of Our Lives from Year to Year (Claudius Clear), (1910) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
  31. Sermons of C.H. Spurgeon, (N/D: but after 1910) Nelson & Sons: London.
  32. The Christian Attitude Towards Democracy [reprinted from the British Weekly], (1912) Hodder & Stoughton, London.
  33. The Problem of 'Edwin Drood' (A study in the Methods of Dickens), (1912) Hodder & Stoughton. London.
  34. A Bookman's Letters, (1913) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
  35. The Difference Christ is Making [reprinted from the British Weekly], (1914) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
  36. Prayer in War Time, (1916) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
  37. Reunion in Eternity, (1918) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
  38. Edited with 'Appreciation', Letters of Principal James Denney to W. Robertson Nicoll, (1920) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
  39. Princes of the Church, (1921) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
  40. Dickens's Own Story: Sidelights on his Life and personality, (1923) [reprints from 'Claudius Clear' in the British Weekly], Prefatory Note by St John Adcock, Chapman & Hall Ltd, London.
  41. Memories of Mark Rutherford (William Hale White), (1924) [reprints from 'Claudius Clear' in the British Weekly], T Fisher Unwin, London.

A list of his publications up to 1902 was included in a monograph on Nicoll by Jane T. Stoddart (New Century Leaders, 1903).[3] The official biography was written by Nicoll's friend T. H. Darlow and published in 1925 as a more complete list. A new biographical appreciation was published in 2011: "Voice of Nonconformity: William Robertson Nicoll and the British Weekly", written by Keith A. Ives.[citation needed]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Ewing, William, Annals of the Free Church
  2. ^
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/53271. Retrieved 11 March 2021. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  3. ^ a b c d e f Chisholm 1911.
  4. ^ "No. 32346". The London Gazette (Supplement). 4 June 1921. p. 4535.

References

External links

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