User blog:Spike511/THE NICHOLS LINE

http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kenzie/GenNICHOLS.htm

The Nichols Line

The name Nichols did not appear in England before the period of Norman French occupation and amalgamation. The Normans brought it with them from the continent and due to its religious association with St. Nichols, who lived several centuries before and had become widely known as a patron saint of children, the name became quite popular in England about the time family names were being formed, that was in the period centering around the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries.

There were some twenty-five different lines of Nichols closely connected back in England. The earliest in America seem to be Thomas Nichols of Hingham and probably before that in the vicinity of cambridge, Mass.; Sargent Nichols in CT; Thomas Nichols of Malden, Mass., and perhaps a brother of his; (They may have been cousins of Thomas Nichols of Hingham) and Thomas Nichols of Newport, RI.

The PA Historical Society Library in Philadelphia is said to have on file a most interesting accout of the origin of the Nichols Family.

In early records the name is written Nichols, Nicholls, Nickols and Nickles, often interchangeable for many of the same persons. the correct spelling, however, is Nichols as used by Thomas and Mary (Ludford) Nichols who came from England in 1712 and settled in chester Co, PA, where they were members of the Society of Friends Kennett (or Newark) Monthly Meeting. The name is written Nichols in the early records of Kennett Monthly Meeting and Concord Monthly Meeting, PA, whence most of the family came, sometimes by different Meeting routes, to Fairfax and Loudoun Counties, Virginia, where they were members of Fairfax or Goose Creek Monthly Meeting.