Catalogue description Letters received by Robert Nicholson (1802-1886) of Manchester

Robert was the eldest child of Matthew Nicholson (1759-1849) (see 920 NIC/10/9) and his wife Mary. He was born in Manchester but attended Dr. Shepherd's school at Gateacre. Leaving here in 1816 he went to work in Manchester, first with George Clarke & Sons and then with Samuel Alcock. In 1828 he joined his brother-in-law Edward Evans in the firm of Nicholson & Evans, cotton merchants and manufacturers. This partnership was forced into dissolution by the trade crisis of 1848. Robert Nicholson then set up on his own in "the grey Cloth business" and this business still flourished in 1928 as Nicholson, Sons and Co. Ltd.

In 1840 Robert Nicholson had married Margaret (1820-1904), daughter of Samuel Thornely of Liverpool, draper (see 920 NIC/27 for papers relating to the Thornely family).

Throughout his life Robert Nicholson was an active Unitarian. He was a member of the Manchester Atheneum and the Manchester Literary Society, in which he became a friend of Richard Cobden. See pp. 138-143