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You are in: Home > Places > J Holland Walker, St. Nicholas' church, Nottingham, Transactions of the Thoroton Society, XLIV (1940)

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Abel Collin's sister, Fortune, married Thomas Smith, the founder of Smith's Bank and their son, another Thomas Smith, was Abel Collin's executor and built the Collin Almshouses in Friar Lane, completed in 1709, out of funds left by Abel Collin for the purpose. Unfortunately the name of the architect of this charming group of buildings is unknown (Fig. 13).

The late Mr. Harry Gill was of the opinion that Cornelius Launder who died in 1806 and who is commemorated by a tablet on the south wall of the church, built 64, St. James Street, but except that the architecture of the house corresponds to this period, no proof of this belief is forthcoming.

Amongst the list of rectors of St. Nicholas' church occurs the name of Rev. George Wakefield. He must have been a stormy petrel, for having been made a freeman of the town, he in 1754, voted against the interests of the corporation and was, in consequence deprived for three years of his share of the £60 granted annually by the corporation to be divided amongst the incumbents of the three Nottingham churches. But his chief claim to fame is that he was the father of Gilbert Wakefield. Gilbert Wakefield was a prodigy of learning and an eminent author of works on the classics, but unfortunately for him, he entered upon political controversy, and in 1798 he published a violent criticism of the government and its conduct of the French war. The courts took so serious a view of this criticism that he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment in Dorchester goal, which broke his health. He was regarded by many as a prophet and a martyr, and on his release a sum of £5,000 was subscribed for his sustenance. The connection of the Wakefields with St. Nicholas' is commemorated by a tablet outside the present rectory.

There are two bells in the tower. Under the date of Oct. 1791, the Nottingham Date Book says that one of these was cast by the Nottingham bell founder Hedderley in that year for use in a cotton mill, but Mr. Bramley in a paper on Nottingham bells, published in the Transactions of the Thoroton Society for 1915, notes only a bell of 1899 and a small sermon bell, 15 inches in diameter, dated 1703.

The baptism and marriage registers, which have been published, date from 1562, and the burials from the same year.

In the churchyard will be found many Swithland slate headstones adorned with beautiful lettering and enrichment. This caligraphy is an art which has almost disappeared but for which Swithland was very famous in the eighteenth century. The beautiful sundial above the south aisle of the church was blown down and irreparably damaged in 1938. Of the memorial to the notorious deer poacher, Thomas Booth, who died in 1752, it is interesting to remember that the last wild deer to be shot in the neighbourhood of Nottingham was killed by a man called Morley, in 1800, in what is now Sneinton Elements.

The churchyard was extended by the addition of the southern annex in 1791 and the first interment in the new portion was that of John Pearson, a well-known mathematician of local celebrity and the editor of "Poor Robin's Almanack." His bitter sarcasm caused him to be more respected than liked. By the generosity of the late Mr. F. W. Dobson the funerary inscriptions of St. Nicholas's have been copied, and a bound copy is in the possession of the rector and churchwardens.

	List of Rectors.	Patron.
1259.	William Bishop, died.	Prior and Convent of Lenton.
1267.	Richard de Weremsworth.	idem.
1288.	Johannes de Ludham.	idem.
1317.	Herbertus Pouger.	idem.
1318.	Willelmus de Ilkeston.	idem.
1321.	Galfridus de Wilford, resigned for the church of Blackwell Lichfield diocese.	idem.
1329.	Gilbertus de Ottrington.	idem.
1343.	Thomas de Ottrington.	Edward   III,   holding Lenton Priory.
?	Thomas Tuthill (or Futhill).	idem.
1351.	Richardus Kaym de Gotham, died.	idem.
1366.	Johannes Templer, died.	Prior   and   Convent of Lenton.
1366.	Johannes Deinby, died.	idem.
1367.	Thomas Lorday de Stanley, resigned for the church of Norton, Lincoln diocese.	idem.
1371.	Willelmus de Bilham.	idem.
?	Roger Bampton (or Mempton), died, buried in chancel.	idem.
1427.	Willelmus Cokker, resigned.	idem.
1432.	Willelmus Westhorpe.	idem.
1435.	Johannes Sampson.	idem.
1436.	Johannes Hopwell, died.	idem.
1464.	Nicholas Fish, L.D., resigned.	idem.
1466.	Richardus  Elkesley,  Doc.B., died.	idem.
1471.	Robertus Echard, died.	idem.
1476.	Thomas Tewe, resigned.	idem.
1477.	Edmundus Holme.	Assignee of Prior and Convent of Lenton.

	List of Rectors.	Patron.
1497.	Johannes Dale, resigned.	Prior   and   Convent of Lenton.
1502.	Thomas Reyner, resigned.	idem.
1503.	Reynaldus Marshall, resigned.	idem.
1531.	Alexander Penhill, Doc.B., died.	idem.
1533.	Thomas Ward.	idem.
1585.	Randulphus Shute, B.A., resigned for the church of St. Peter, Nottingham.	Elizabeth Regina.
1588.	Johannes Lambe.	idem.
1611.	Robertus Malham, M.A., died.	Jacobus Rex.
1622.	Robertus Aynsworth, last incumbent till after the Restoration.	idem, by lapse.
1633.	Johannes Aysthorpe.	Rector of St. Peter's
	1665—1669 vacant.	and sequestrators.
1669.	Samuel Leek. 1672—1681 vacant.
1682.	John Simpson.
1715.	John Abson, M.A.
1749.	George Wakefield, M.A.	George II, rex.
1766.	George  Beaumont,  resigned, buried in the chancel, 1773.	Lord Middleton.
1773.	Charles Wylde, M.A., D.D.	George III, rex.
1835.	William Joseph Butler, M.A.	no record.
1867.	Henry Wright, M.A.	no record.
1872.	George Ruthwen Thornton, resigned for the church of St. Barnabas', Kensington.	no record.
1876.	William Pope, M.A., resigned for the church of Heaton Puncharden, Exeter diocese.	no record.
1905.	John Bernard Barton, M.A.,	Church Pastoral Aid
	resigned for the church of Ronsdon, Exeter diocese.	Society.
1910.	Philip Henry Douglas Ogle, M.A., resigned for the church of St. John, Stamford, Lincoln diocese.	idem.
1916.	William Henry Milner, L.Th. died.	idem.
1920.	John James West, M.A., died.	idem.
1929.	Sidney Metcalfe,M.A.(Camb.), B.D. (Dunelm).	idem.

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Copyright: A P Nicholson | Created: 26-Oct-2008