214 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°d S. NO 63., Mar. 14. '57. 



advanced." In the second of these, the whole of 

 the Ordinary and Canon of the Mass is given in 

 English ; but whether the translation is Mr. Go- 

 Iher's own, or copied from some older version, I 

 Lave no means of ascertaining. He must have 

 composed these Devotions in the latter part of the 

 seventeenth century, as he died in 1704. It is 

 well known that the Hymns in our Prayer-Books, 

 from the Latin of the Mass and Vespers, were 

 translated chiefly by Dryden and Pope. The 

 usual version of the Dies Ira was by Lord Ros- 

 common. 



3. How was the Mass followed by the laity 

 before the Missal was translated for their use, or 

 before Prayer-Books containing Devotions for 

 Mass, were written or compiled ? Answer. The 

 faithful had their Prymers, Hours, or Prayer- 

 Books in English ; and it is to be presumed that 

 they recited various offices and prayers out of 

 them, while assisting at the Holy Sacrifice. It is 

 true that they did not contain any regular set 

 Prayers for Mass ; but we occasionally find in 

 them devotions for parts of the Holy Scripture. 

 Thus we find in an edition of the Hours of 1507, 

 a form " To answere the preest atte masse whan 

 he sayth. Orate pro me fratres;" "A prayer atte 

 gyvyng of pax ;" "A prayer tofore thou receyve 

 the sacrament ; another whan thou hast receyved 

 it;" "Prayers to the sacrament atte levacion" 

 (the elevation). "When it is borne in mind that 

 very few in those days could read, we must con- 

 clude that they were sufficiently instructed to 

 join their intentions with the priest, and to ac- 

 company him with vocal prayers according to 

 their devotion. F. C. H. 



COLONEL RICHARD NICOLLS, CONQUEROR OF NEW 

 YORK IN 1664. 



(2"'J S. iii. 166.) 

 A Query from a correspondent in America has 

 induced me to look out the paper I send you, 

 which contains some account of the life and family 

 of Colonel Richard Nicolls. For further informa- 

 tion as to his family I must refer your corre- 

 spondent to the forthcoming number of the Topo- 

 grapher and Genealogist. F. N. 



" Those who have 'read the amusing history of New 

 York by Mynheer Knickerbocker, or any other account 

 of the origines of the greatest city of the western continent, 

 are aware, that some two centuries ago it was the prin- 

 cipal settlement in the Dutch plantation of New Nether- 

 lands, and that upon its conquest by the English it sur- 

 rendered its name of New Amsterdam in honour of James, 

 Duke of York, to whom the province, or rather the 

 liberty to conquer it, had been granted by Charles II. 

 They may, perhaps, also remember that the person who 

 established the Anglo-Saxon pre-eminence in this portion 

 of America was Colonel Richard Nichols. I have col- 

 lected the following notes relating to this gentleman, who 

 played so conspicuous a part in American history. 



"Richard Nicolls (in spelling a name so variously 

 written I shall adopt the orthography used by himself) 

 was the fourth Fon of Francis Nicolls, who is described in 

 a pedigree of the family entered in the Heralds' College 

 in 1628, as ' of the Middle Temple, one of the Squiers of 

 the Bath to Sir Edward Bruse, and lyeth buried at Ampt- 

 hill, CO. Bedford.'* His mother was Margaret, daughter 

 of Sir George Bruce of Carnock, Knt., the lineal ancestor 

 of the present Earl of Elgin, and younger brother of Sir 

 Edward Bruce, the favourite servant of James I., and his 

 Master of the Rolls.f Richard Nicolls was born in the 

 year 1624, probabl}' at Ampthill, at which place his father 

 was buried in the same year. Ampthill great park was a 

 royal chase, the custody of which was granted, in 1613, 

 by King James I. to Thomas Lord Bruce, whose son, Ro- 

 bert Bruce, was created in 1664 Viscount Bruce of Ampt- 

 hill, and Earl of Aylesburj\ In the seventeenth century 

 the Nicollses were for many years lessees of Ampthill 

 Park under the Bruce family, and resided at the Great 

 Lodge, or Capital Mansion, as it is called in the Survey of 

 16494 Here Richard Nicolls passed his boyhood under 

 the charge of his mother, who survived her husband, and 

 remained a widow until her death in 1652. He had two 

 brothers, who survived their father, the one, Edward, tea 

 years, and the other, Francis, fis'e j-ears older than him- 

 self. His only sister, Bruce, was thirteen years of age at 

 the time of his birth, and was married shortly after to 

 John Frecheville (son and heir apparent of Sir John* 

 Frecheville of Staveley, co- Derby, Knt.), who, in 1G64, 

 was created Baron Frecheville of Stavele}'. She died in 

 1629, without issue, at the age of eighteen.§ 



"The breaking out of the civil war in 1642 found 

 Richard Nicolls at the university, where, if we can ac- 

 cept the testimony of the epitaph on his monument in 

 Ampthill church, he acquired some distinction in his 

 studies. He was not permitted however to pursue this 

 career; but in 1G43, at the youthful age of eighteen, he 

 was called away to take part in the civil war, which was 

 then actively waging. As might be supposed from his 

 connexions, the sympathies and affections of Richard 

 Nicolls were engaged on the royal side. His mother was 

 one of a family — itself connected with the royal line — 

 which had been caressed and enriched by King James. 

 His uncle, Dr. William Nicolls, a dignitary of the English 

 Church, was indebted to the favour of King Charles for 

 his preferments, having been presented in 1623 to the 

 living of Cheadle in Chester by Charles, Prince of Wales 

 and Earl of Chester, to whom the presentation had fallen 

 by lapse, and was advanced in 1644 to the Deanery of 

 Chester. 



"Richard Nicolls joined the royal forces, in which he 

 received the command of a troop of horse. Each of his 

 brothers commanded a company of infantry on the same 

 side, and distinguished himself by his devotion to the 

 royal cause ; but the favour which their services gained 

 them was more honourable than advantageous. They 

 shared the exile of the royal familj% and following their 

 banished king in his wanderings, Edward, the elder bro- 

 ther, died at Paris, and Francis at the Hague. During 

 the period following the death of King Charles, when the 

 royal family remained in Paris, Richard Nicolls was 

 attached to the service of James Duke of York, whose 

 attendants, as we learn from Clarendon, shared in a more 

 than ordinary degree in the distresses, and also in the 



* Edward Bruce, second Lord Bruce of J^inlop, was 

 made a Knight of the Bath at the creation of Henry 

 Prince of Wales in 1610. CoUins's Peerage, Earl of Ayles- 

 bury. 



t Pedigree, 1628. % Lysons's Bedfordshire, p. 38. 



§ Collectanea Top. et Gen., vol. iv. p. 5, 



