152 St. Nicholas’ Hospital, Salisbury. 
his own son, Matthew. Matthew Nicholas was a man of 34, who 
was rector of West Dean and prebendary of Axford, and perhaps by 
this time already canon residentiary, being a great friend of Bishop 
Davenant’s. It may have been with a view to his succession that 
the presentation was given to Mr. Nicholas, his father. 
For the next seventeen years he ruled the hospital from his house 
in the close, leaving a chaplain to inhabit the hospital. The only 
repairs, however, that he executed were in 1634 and 1635. In 
1634 he made, in the hall within the porch, a staircase leading up to 
the old refectory, which he shortened by 15ft. to make a new study 
for the chaplain. The old refectory was thus reduced in dimensions 
to a square of 21ft., and became the chaplain’s drawing-room, which 
it continued to be till the demolition of the whole house in 1884, 
In 1685 he made a private kitchen for his chaplain at the east end 
of the house, strengthening the original wall of the southern tran- 
sept so as to enable it to bear a kitchen chimney ; with an entrance 
hall and back staircase to the chaplain’s room, and also a door into 
the orchard beyond. 
But in 1647 the Commonwealth was set up, and prelacy abolished 
by law. The cathedral property was confiscated, the canons’ houses 
sold, and the palace turned into an inn. Dr. Nicholas, more 
fortunate than the rest, fled to Bristol, where he was also dean, and 
lived there undisturbed though in poverty ; while first John Strickland 
and later (on May 27th, 1647) Frances Rivett, Esq., was nominated 
master of St. Nicholas’ by the Parliament. Dr. Nicholas did not 
dispute the title, but gave into Rivett’s hands the necessary papers, 
accounts, &. The poor inmates were continued as before. A Rev. 
Henry Dent was chaplain during at least seven years (1652—59) of 
the Commonwealth. 
But the Presbyterian party, to which Mr. Rivett seems to have 
belonged, were not long themselves in power. In Salisbury, indeed, 
their power lasted longer than in the country at large. In this 
country they were superseded by Independents, who beheaded the 
King in 1649. But in Salisbury the Presbyterians had a majority 
in the City Council until 1656. In that year the City Council re- 
solved, by an Independent majority, to petition the Protector that 
