1. Francis Nicholson previously was the Governor of Nova Scotia from 1712 to 1715, the Governor of Virginia from 1698 to 1705, the Governor of Maryland from 1694 to 1698, the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia from 1690 to 1692, and the Lieutenant Governor of the Dominion of New England from 1688 to 1689.
Francis Nicholson himself was caught up in the civil unrest from Leisler's Rebellion in New York Town, and afterwards fled to England.
Francis Nicholson next served as lieutenant governor or governor of the colonial Provinces of Virginia and Maryland.
Francis Nicholson supported the founding of the College of William and Mary, at Williamsburg, Virginia, and quarreled with Andros after Andros was selected over him as Governor of Virginia.
Francis Nicholson rose to the rank of Lieutenant-General, and died a bachelor in London, England, in 1728.
Francis Nicholson supported public education in the colonies, and was a member of both the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts and the Royal Society.
Francis Nicholson was one of the earliest advocates of colonial union, principally for reasons of defense against common enemies.
Francis Nicholson served as a page in the household of Charles Paulet, under whose patronage his career would be advanced.
Francis Nicholson waited on Paulet's daughter Jane, who married John Egerton, Earl of Bridgewater, another patron who promoted his career.
Francis Nicholson distinguished himself in the service, carrying dispatches between the enemy Moroccan camp, Tangier, and London.
Francis Nicholson was probably with the regiment when it put down Monmouth's Rebellion in 1685, but his role in some of the more unsavory behaviour on the part of Kirke's troops is unknown.
Under the cover of delivering a letter protesting a variety of issues to the Acadian governor, Francis Nicholson made careful observations of Port Royal's defenses.
Francis Nicholson impressed Andros in this service, and was appointed to the dominion's council.
Francis Nicholson was commissioned the dominion's lieutenant governor, and traveled with Andros to New York to take control of those colonies.
Francis Nicholson was at first seen as an improvement over the Catholic Thomas Dongan, the outgoing governor.
However, the province's old guard was unhappy that Andros removed all of the provincial records to Boston, and then Francis Nicholson alarmed the sometimes hardline Protestant population by preserving the trappings of the chapel in Fort James that Dongan and the handful of New York's Catholics had used for worship.
When news of the Boston revolt reached New York a week later, Francis Nicholson took no steps to announce news of it, or of the revolution in England, for fear of raising prospects of rebellion in New York.
Francis Nicholson, who was well known for his temper, told the officer "I rather would see the Towne on fire than to be commanded by you".
Rumors flew around the town that Francis Nicholson was in fact prepared to burn it down.
The next day Francis Nicholson summoned the officer, and demanded he surrender his commission.
Abraham de Peyster, the officer's commander and one of the wealthiest men in the city, then engaged in a heated argument with Francis Nicholson, after which de Peyster and his brother Johannis, a militia captain, stormed out of the council chamber.
An officer was sent to the council to demand the keys to the powder magazine, which Francis Nicholson eventually surrendered, to "hinder and prevent bloodshed and further mischiefe".
Francis Nicholson did so, and the rebels issued a declaration that they would hold the fort on behalf of the new monarchs until they sent a properly accredited governor.
Francis Nicholson was lieutenant governor of Virginia until 1692, serving under the absentee Governor Lord Howard of Effingham.
Francis Nicholson worked to improve the provincial militia, and approved the establishment of additional ports of trade in the province.
Francis Nicholson recommended to the King that, in order to better establish a common social order and a coordinated defense, Crown Rule should be established over all of the colonies as quickly as possible, including the conversion of the proprietary colonies to crown colonies.
One contemporary chronicler wrote that Francis Nicholson "especially [resented] Sir Edmund Andros, against whom he has a particular pique on account of some earlier dealings", and Francis Nicholson, placated with the lieutenant governorship of Maryland, worked from then on to unseat Andros.
Francis Nicholson was still in England in 1693 when Maryland Governor, Sir Lionel Copley died.
Andros refused, and Francis Nicholson appealed to the Lords of Trade.
Francis Nicholson, a committed Anglican as a member of the Church of England, sought to reduce Roman Catholic influence in the Maryland government, and moved the old colonial capital from the Catholic stronghold of St Mary's City in southern Maryland's St Mary's County along the Potomac River to what was then called "Anne Arundel's Town", which was later renamed "Annapolis" in honour of the future monarch, Princess Anne.
Architectural historian Mark Childs describes Annapolis, along with Williamsburg, Virginia, which Francis Nicholson laid out during his later tenure there, as some of the best-designed towns in the British Empire.
Francis Nicholson was a supporter of public education, promoting laws to support it, and funded the construction of "King William's School".
Francis Nicholson became embroiled in a dispute with William Penn from the Middle Atlantic colony to the north, over how to deal with the issue of piracy.
In Maryland, Francis Nicholson vigorously cracked down on the practices of some colonists to tolerate pirates, who brought goods and hard currency into the provinces.
Aware that Penn's governor William Markham was similarly tolerant, Francis Nicholson ordered that ships destined for Pennsylvania be stopped and searched in Maryland waters, and collected duties if they were carrying European finished goods.
Penn protested to the Board of Trade, and the dispute subsided when Francis Nicholson moderated his tactics.
The Andros rule had been so unpopular in Virginia that Francis Nicholson's instructions gave him little leeway in acting without their consent.
At one point Francis Nicholson characterized the Virginia council as "mere brutes who understand not manners".
Francis Nicholson made a number of unsuccessful attempts to alter the balance of power, including moving the provincial capital from Jamestown to Middle Plantation, which was renamed Williamsburg.
Francis Nicholson was exposed to French activities on the Mississippi River while governor of Maryland.
Francis Nicholson reiterated the warning in a 1698 report, and suggested that the Board of Trade issue instructions to all of the governors encouraging the development of trade with Indians across the Appalachian Mountains.
Francis Nicholson actively promoted the idea of expansionist trade on the frontier with other colonial governors, including Bellomont of New York, and Blake of South Carolina.
Francis Nicholson returned to London, where he was active in the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and was awarded membership in the Royal Society for his scientific observations of North America.
Francis Nicholson acted as a consultant to the Board of Trade, and thus maintained an awareness of colonial issues.
Francis Nicholson recruited Nicholson to join the effort, which was to include a sea-based attack on Quebec with Royal Navy support, and a land-based expedition to ascend the Hudson River, descend Lake Champlain, and attack Montreal.
Francis Nicholson was given command of the land-based effort while Vetch was to command the provincial militia of New England that were to accompany the fleet.
Francis Nicholson was able to draw on his earlier connections to New York's aristocracy to recruit the needed forces from there, with additional units coming from New Jersey and Connecticut.
Francis Nicholson published an account of the expedition in his 1711 Journal of an Expedition for the Reduction of Port Royal.
The victorious Francis Nicholson returned to England to petition Queen Anne for another expedition to capture the center of New France, Quebec.
The resulting naval expedition was led by Admiral Hovenden Walker, and Francis Nicholson led an associated land expedition that retraced the route he had taken in 1709 toward Lake Champlain.
Francis Nicholson returned to London after the failed expedition, and began working to acquire for himself the governorship of Nova Scotia.
Vetch and the Tory ministry then in power disagreed on how to handle affairs, especially with respect to the resident French Catholic population, and Francis Nicholson capitalized on these complaints.
Francis Nicholson's commission included the governorship of Placentia, and authority as auditor of all colonial accounts.
Francis Nicholson only spent a few weeks in Port Royal in 1714, leaving most of the governance to lieutenant governor Thomas Caulfeild.
Francis Nicholson issued order restricting the interaction between the troops and the town, resulting in the further reduction of already-poor morale in the Port Royal garrison.
Francis Nicholson cracked down on open trade between British colonial merchants and the French, requiring the licensing of any British merchant wanting to trade at French ports.
Francis Nicholson spent most of his time as Nova Scotia governor in Boston, where he devoted a significant amount of time investigating Vetch's finances.
Francis Nicholson next served as the first royal governor of South Carolina from 1721 to 1725.
The colonists had rebelled against the rule of the proprietors, and Francis Nicholson was appointed in response to their request for crown governance.
The rebellion had been prompted by inadequate response by the proprietors to Indian threats, so Francis Nicholson brought with him some British troops.
Francis Nicholson established a council composed primarily of supporters of the rebellion, and gave it significant latitude to control colonial affairs.
Francis Nicholson established local governments modeled on those he set up in Maryland and Virginia, including the 1722 incorporation of Charleston.
Francis Nicholson expended both public money and his own to further both education and the Church of England, and introduced ground-breaking judicial administration into the colony.
Francis Nicholson negotiated agreements and territorial boundaries with the Cherokee, and promoted trade, pursuing policies similar to those he had advocated while in Maryland and Virginia.
Francis Nicholson introduced a commissioner of Indian affairs into the colonial government, a post that survived until the crown assumed the duties of managing Indian affairs in the 1750s.
Francis Nicholson returned to London in 1725, carrying with him Cherokee baskets that became part of the earliest collections in the British Museum.
Francis Nicholson courted the teenage Lucy Burwell of the Burwell family of Virginia at the turn of the 18th century.
Francis Nicholson continued to press Burwell and her parents for the match he desired.
Francis Nicholson was buried in the parish of St George Hanover Square.
Francis Nicholson was, according to historian George Waller, "subject to fits of passion".