Francis Nicholson ( 1655 - 1728 )

Birth: Downholme Park, near Richmond, Yorkshire (12 November 1655) Death: London (05 March 1728) Burial: Parish of St George, Hanover Square, Westminster Profession: Soldier Career: Page to the Marchioness of Winchester; Commission in army as Ensign (09 January 1678), Lieutenant (06 May 1684), Captain of a company of Foot for New England (1686); Lieutenant- Governor of New York (1686-1689) when, after an uprising, he took ship for England; Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, where he founded a number of schools and the College of William and Mary (1690-1694); Governor of Maryland (1694-1698); Governor of Virginia (1698-1705); fought against the French in Canada and Acadia [Nova Scotia]; Governor of Acadia (1712-1715); Brigadier-General (1720); Governor of South Carolina (1720-death); retired to England (1725) but kept his position; left the bulk of his property to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospal; his executors were Abel Ketelby (FRS 1720) and Kingsmill Eyre (FRS 1726) Honours: Possibly Kt 1720, although this is not corroborated by Dalton or Shaw Membership: Fellow Election Date: 4/12/1706 Council: Council (1719, 1725, 1727).