William Robertson Nicoll
Encyclopedia
Sir William Robertson Nicoll CH
(October 10, 1851 – May 4, 1923) was a Scottish
Free Church
minister, journalist
, editor
, and man of letters.
Nicoll was born in Lumsden, Aberdeenshire
, the son of a Free Church minister. He was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School
and graduated MA
at the University of Aberdeen
in 1870, and studied for the ministry at the Free Church Divinity Hall there until 1874, when he was ordained minister of the Free Church at Dufftown
, Banffshire
. Three years later he moved to Kelso
, and in 1884 became editor of The Expositor for Hodder & Stoughton
, a position he held until his death.
In 1885 Nicoll was forced to retire from pastoral ministry after an attack of typhoid had badly damaged his lung. In 1886 he moved south to London
, which became the base for the rest of his life. With the support of Hodder and Stoughton he founded the British Weekly, a Nonconformist newspaper, which also gained great influence over opinion in the churches in Scotland.
Nicoll secured many writers of exceptional talent for his paper (including Marcus Dods
, J. M. Barrie
, Ian Maclaren
, Alexander Whyte
, Alexander Maclaren
, and James Denney
), to which he added his own considerable talents as a contributor. He began a highly popular feature, "Correspondence of Claudius Clear", which enabled him to share his interests and his reading with his readers. He was also the founding editor of The Bookman from 1891, and acted as chief literary adviser to the publishing firm of Hodder & Stoughton.
Among his other enterprises were The Expositor's Bible and The Theological Educator. He edited The Expositor's Greek Testament (from 1897), and a series of Contemporary Writers (from 1894), and of Literary Lives (from 1904).
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. He was knighted
in 1909, ostensibly for his literrary 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.
A list of his publications up to 1902 is included in a monograph on Nicoll by Jane T. Stoddart (New Century Leaders, 1903).
The official biography was written by Nicoll's friend T H Darlow and published in 1925 as a more complete list.
Order of the Companions of Honour
The Order of the Companions of Honour is an order of the Commonwealth realms. It was founded by King George V in June 1917, as a reward for outstanding achievements in the arts, literature, music, science, politics, industry or religion....
(October 10, 1851 – May 4, 1923) was a Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
Free Church
Free Church of Scotland (1843-1900)
The Free Church of Scotland is a Scottish denomination which was formed in 1843 by a large withdrawal from the established Church of Scotland in a schism known as the "Disruption of 1843"...
minister, journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, editor
Editor in chief
An editor-in-chief is a publication's primary editor, having final responsibility for the operations and policies. Additionally, the editor-in-chief is held accountable for delegating tasks to staff members as well as keeping up with the time it takes them to complete their task...
, and man of letters.
Nicoll was born in Lumsden, Aberdeenshire
Lumsden, Aberdeenshire
Lumsden is an inland village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland on the A97 road.-Location:It crowns a rising-ground 745 feet above sea level amid a fertile district...
, the son of a Free Church minister. He was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School
Aberdeen Grammar School
Aberdeen Grammar School, known to students as The Grammar is a state secondary school in the City of Aberdeen, Scotland. It is one of twelve secondary schools run by the Aberdeen City Council educational department...
and graduated MA
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
at the University of Aberdeen
University of Aberdeen
The University of Aberdeen, an ancient university founded in 1495, in Aberdeen, Scotland, is a British university. It is the third oldest university in Scotland, and the fifth oldest in the United Kingdom and wider English-speaking world...
in 1870, and studied for the ministry at the Free Church Divinity Hall there until 1874, when he was ordained minister of the Free Church at Dufftown
Dufftown
Dufftown is a burgh in Banffshire, Scotland.The town was originally named Mortlach in the Middle Ages, until the 19th century when the Earl of Fife built the town as a housing for soldiers returning home from war...
, Banffshire
Banffshire
The County of Banff is a registration county for property, and Banffshire is a Lieutenancy area of Scotland.The County of Banff, also known as Banffshire, was a local government county of Scotland with its own county council between 1890 and 1975. The county town was Banff although the largest...
. Three years later he moved to Kelso
Kelso, Scotland
Kelso is a market town and civil parish in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. It lies where the rivers Tweed and Teviot have their confluence...
, and in 1884 became editor of The Expositor for Hodder & Stoughton
Hodder & Stoughton
Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hachette.-History:The firm has its origins in the 1840s, with Matthew Hodder's employment, aged fourteen, with Messrs Jackson and Walford, the official publisher for the Congregational Union...
, a position he held until his death.
In 1885 Nicoll was forced to retire from pastoral ministry after an attack of typhoid had badly damaged his lung. In 1886 he moved south to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, which became the base for the rest of his life. With the support of Hodder and Stoughton he founded the British Weekly, a Nonconformist newspaper, which also gained great influence over opinion in the churches in Scotland.
Nicoll secured many writers of exceptional talent for his paper (including Marcus Dods
Marcus Dods
Marcus Dods may refer to:*Marcus Dods *Marcus Dods *Marcus Dods...
, J. M. Barrie
J. M. Barrie
Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM was a Scottish author and dramatist, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan. The child of a family of small-town weavers, he was educated in Scotland. He moved to London, where he developed a career as a novelist and playwright...
, Ian Maclaren
Ian Maclaren
Ian Maclaren was a Scottish author and theologian.He was the son of John Watson, a civil servant...
, Alexander Whyte
Alexander Whyte
Alexander Whyte was a Scottish divine. He was born at Kirriemuir in Forfarshire and educated at the University of Aberdeen and at New College, Edinburgh....
, Alexander Maclaren
Alexander Maclaren
Alexander Maclaren was an English non-conformist minister of Scottish origin.-Biography:Maclaren was born in Glasgow, Scotland, the son of David Maclaren, a merchant and Baptist lay preacher. In 1836, his father went to Australia where from 1837 to 1841 he served as Resident Manager of the South...
, and James Denney
James Denney
James Denney, D.D. was a Scottish theologian and preacher.-Early life:Denney was born in Paisley, Scotland, 5 February 1856, to Cameronian parents. His father was a joiner and Cameronian deacon...
), to which he added his own considerable talents as a contributor. He began a highly popular feature, "Correspondence of Claudius Clear", which enabled him to share his interests and his reading with his readers. He was also the founding editor of The Bookman from 1891, and acted as chief literary adviser to the publishing firm of Hodder & Stoughton.
Among his other enterprises were The Expositor's Bible and The Theological Educator. He edited The Expositor's Greek Testament (from 1897), and a series of Contemporary Writers (from 1894), and of Literary Lives (from 1904).
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. He was knighted
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
in 1909, ostensibly for his literrary work, but in reality probably more for his long-term support for the Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
. He was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour
Order of the Companions of Honour
The Order of the Companions of Honour is an order of the Commonwealth realms. It was founded by King George V in June 1917, as a reward for outstanding achievements in the arts, literature, music, science, politics, industry or religion....
(CH) in the 1921 Birthday Honours.
Works
- Calls to Christ, (1877) Morgan & Scott: London.
- The Yale Lectures on Preaching: (1878) Reprinted from the British and Foreign Evangelical Review.
- Songs of Rest [First Series], (1879) Macniven & Wallace, Edinburgh: combined with Second Series (1893), Hodder & Stoughton: London.
- The Incarnate Saviour, (1881) T. & T. Clark: Edinburgh.
- The Lamb of God, (1883) Macniven & Wallace: Edinburgh.
- ‘John Bunyan’ (1884) in The Evangelical Succession, Macniven & Wallace: Edinburgh.
- James Macdonell, Journalist, (1890) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
- 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].
- The Key of the Grave, (1894) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
- Ten Minute Sermons, (1894) Isbister & Co: reprinted 1910, Hodder & Stoughton.
- The Seven Words from the Cross, (1895) Hodder & Stoughton, London.
- When the Worst comes to the Worst, (1896) Isbister & Co.
- ‘Henry Drummond: A Memorial Sketch’, (1897) prefixed to Drummond’s posthumous volume, The Ideal Life, Hodder & Stoughton: London.
- The Return to the Cross, (1897) reprint 1910, Hodder & Stoughton: London.
- Letters to Ministers on the Clerical Life, (1898) (with others) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
- The Ascent of the Soul, (1899) Isbister & Co.
- Letters on Life: by Claudius Clear, (1901) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
- The Church’s One Foundation, (1901) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
- A Memorial Article, Hugh Price Hughes as we knew him, (1902) H Marshall & Son.
- Robert Louis Stevenson, in the Bookman Booklet Series, (1902/6) Hodder & Stoughton, London.
- The Garden of Nuts, (1905) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
- The Day Book of Claudius Clear, (1905) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
- The Scottish Free Church Trust and it’s Donors, (1905) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
- A History of English Literature [3 Volumes, originally published as The Bookman Illustrated History of English Literature] (1906) (with Seccombe) Hodder & Stoughton, London.
- The Lamp of Sacrifice, (1906) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
- ‘Introduction and Appreciation, Memoirs of the Late Dr Barnardo, Mrs Barnardo & James Marchant, (1907) Hodder & Stoughton, London.
- My Father. An Aberdeenshire Minister, (1908) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
- Ian Maclaren, The Life of the Rev. John Watson D.D., (1908) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
- ‘Introduction’ to Jane Stoddart’s Against the Referendum, (1910) Hodder & Stoughton, London.
- The Round of the Clock: The Story of Our Lives from Year to Year [Claudius Clear], (1910) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
- Sermons of C.H. Spurgeon, (N/D: but after 1910) Nelson & Sons: London.
- The Christian Attitude Towards Democracy [reprinted from the British Weekly], (1912) Hodder & Stoughton, London.
- The Problem of ‘Edwin Drood’ (A study in the Methods of Dickens), (1912) Hodder & Stoughton. London.
- A Bookman’s Letters, (1913) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
- The Difference Christ is Making [reprinted from the British Weekly], (1914) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
- Prayer in War Time, (1916) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
- Reunion in Eternity, (1918) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
- Edited with ‘Appreciation’, Letters of Principal James Denney to W. Robertson Nicoll, (1920) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
- Princes of the Church, (1921) Hodder & Stoughton: London.
- 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.
- 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 is included in a monograph on Nicoll by Jane T. Stoddart (New Century Leaders, 1903).
The official biography was written by Nicoll's friend T H Darlow and published in 1925 as a more complete list.