Charles Nicholson, 1st Baronet
Sir Charles Nicholson 1st Baronet of Luddenham | |
|---|---|
Sir Charles Nicholson as Chancellor of the University of Sydney, c. 1850. | |
| Speaker of the New South Wales Legislative Council | |
| In office 1 June 1843 – 20 June 1848 | |
| In office 15 May 1849 – 30 June 1851 | |
| In office 14 October 1851 – 29 February 1856 | |
| Preceded by | New title |
| Succeeded by | Sir Alfred Stephen |
| President of the Queensland Legislative Council | |
| In office 22 May 1860 – 26 August 1860 | |
| Preceded by | New title |
| Succeeded by | Sir Maurice O'Connell |
| Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council | |
| In office 1 June 1843 – 20 June 1848 | |
| In office 1 July 1848 – 30 June 1851 | |
| In office 1 September 1851 – 29 February 1856 | |
| Member of the Queensland Legislative Council | |
| In office 1 May 1860 – 23 June 1863 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Isaac Ascough 23 November 1808 Whitby, Yorkshire, England |
| Died | 8 November 1903 (aged 94) Totteridge Grange, Hertfordshire, England |
| Spouse |
Sarah Elizabeth Keightley
(m. 1865) |
| Children | |
| Alma mater | Edinburgh University |
| Occupation | Gynaecologist, Obstetrician, University chancellor, Grazier |
Sir Charles Nicholson, 1st Baronet (born Isaac Ascough; 23 November 1808[1] – 8 November 1903)[2] was an English-Australian politician, university founder, explorer, pastoralist, antiquarian and philanthropist. The Nicholson Museum at the University of Sydney was named after him.
Early life and family
Nicholson was born in Whitby, Yorkshire, the illegitimate and only surviving son of teenager Barbara Ascough (Askew) of Iburndale, and Charles Nicholson of London. He was christened Isaac Ascough.[1] His mother died in 1814, aged 24,[3] and his father died in 1824. His mother was the daughter of a wealthy merchant, J. Ascough from Bedale, Yorkshire, and his grandfather was also named Charles Nicholson, of Cockermouth, Cumberland.[4][5]
He was educated at Edinburgh University.[1]
Early career in Australia
On 9 October 1833, Nicholson sailed for Sydney as ship's surgeon on the James Harris at the behest of his uncle, William Ascough. Ascough had made a considerable fortune as a ship's captain and owner bringing convicts to the Colony, where he had also become an extensive landowner. Nicholson arrived on 1 May 1834 and set up as a doctor in Sydney on Jamieson Street, Wynyard close to The Rocks. In 1836, William Ascough drowned at sea while sailing from Sydney to his property on the Hawkesbury River. Nicholson was the main beneficiary of his uncle's will and soon began acquiring extensive property in his own right throughout Australia.[6]
In 1841, Nicholson blazed a cart route and shifted half a ton of tobacco from Broulee to the Monaro, in fourteen days. He was planning to return, carrying six bales of wool. William Oldrey, William Sandys Elrington, and Terence Aubrey Murray attempted to raise funds for a private road, from Bellalaba to Broulee, following Nicholson's route to the coast, but it was never built.[7][8] In 1845, Nicholson bought William Sandys Elrington's estate, 'Mount Elrington', near Braidwood.[9]
In 1843, he was one of the first elected members of the New South Wales Legislative Council as one of the representatives of Port Phillip District until 1848 and then as the representatives of the County of Argyle until 1856. He was elected speaker in 1846.[6]
Explorer Ludwig Leichhardt named a mountain in Queensland after him in 1844.[10]
Sydney University
Nicholson's donation of nearly 1000 artefacts was the genesis of the Nicholson Museum at the University of Sydney, which has since been absorbed into the Chau Chak Wing Museum. A catalogue of the collection was published in 1870 by the curator Edward Reeve.
Return to England
His eldest son, Charles Archibald Nicholson, the second baronet, became well known as an ecclesiastical architect (his achievements include the west front of St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast[11]). His other sons were Archibald Keightley Nicholson, a stained-glass artist and Sir Sydney Hugo Nicholson, founder of the Royal School of Church Music.
Death
Nicholson died in England on 8 November 1903 shortly before his ninety-fifth birthday.[2]
Notes
- ^ a b c Michael Turner (February 2010). "Mystery on the Yorkshire Moors: the humble origins of a great man" (PDF). Sydney University Museums NEWS, Issue 20. pp. 2–4. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
- ^ a b Serle, Percival (1949). "Nicholson, Charles". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus & Robertson.
- ^ North Yorkshire, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813–1998
- ^ "Sir Charles Nicholson". London Evening Standard. 10 November 1903. p. 2. Retrieved 23 January 2025.
- ^ Walford, Edward (1871). The County Families of the United Kingdom. Robert Hardwicke. p. 729. Retrieved 23 January 2025.
- ^ a b "Sir Charles Nicholson (1808-1903)". Former members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
- ^ "The New South Road". Sydney Herald. 27 September 1841. p. 2. Retrieved 12 February 2022.
- ^ "Advertising". New South Wales Examiner. 5 September 1842. p. 2. Retrieved 12 February 2022.
- ^ Smith, Peter C. (2015). The Clarke Gang : outlawed, outcast and forgotten. Dural Delivery Centre, NSW. ISBN 978-1-925078-67-1. OCLC 915344505.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ "Lost Leichhardt". Brisbane Courier. 18 June 1891. Retrieved 5 January 2013 – via Trove.
- ^ Belfast Cathedral – Architects Archived 8 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine at www.belfastcathedral.org
References
- Macmillan, D. S. "Nicholson, Sir Charles (1808–1903)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
- Sowada, Karin N., 'Sir Charles Nicholson: an Early Scholar-Traveller in Egypt', in K.N. Sowada and B.G. Ockinga (eds), Egyptian Art in the Nicholson Museum, Sydney (Mediterranean Archaeology, Sydney, 2006), pp. 1–13.
- Atchley, Chewton (1912). . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- Chewton Atchley, rev. C. A. Creffield. "Nicholson, Sir Charles, first baronet (1808–1903)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35224. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)