William Nicol (1744–1797) was a Scottish schoolmaster, and, if ill-tempered and vain, one of Robert Burns's close friends. He was born in Annan parish at Dumbretton, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Burns referred to him in one letter as "Kind hearted Willie" and he accompanied the poet on his August 1787 tour of the Highlands. Burns's third son, William Nicol, born at Ellisland Farm in 1791, was named after his friend, the poet commenting that his newborn son had "that propensity to witty wickedness and manfu' mischief, which even at twa days auld I foresaw would form the striking features of his disposition."
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Life and character
Nicol's father was a tailor from Ecclefechan who died in poverty when his son was very young. Nicol married Janet Cairns of Torr. Lagganpark on the Keir Hills in the Parish of Glencairns was purchased by the couple using Janet's inheritance, from William Riddell of Camieston, for £1700. Nicol had asked Burns to assess the 340-acre property however he sent two friends in his place as he was too ill to assist his friend. He wrote to Nicol and advised that he should make the purchase, which Nicol did in 1790. Burns did manage a visit to Lagganpark a few months later and, showing a solid grasp of geology, gave a detailed description of valuable limestone deposits that he found on the estate.
Nicol probably purchased Lagganpark as an investment for his retirement with a prospective rental to a tenant of 70 guineas per annum, however in April 1797 Nicol, aware of his ill health, sold the estate a few days before his death from jaundice, cirrhosis of the liver and other complications.
Nicol was at first educated by John Orr, an itinerant teacher. As a teenager Nicol set up his own elementary school in his mother's house. He attended Annan Academy and then studied Theology, changed to Medicine and then to Classics at Edinburgh University. Aged 30, in 1774, taking part in open competition for the post of Classics teacher at the High School in Edinburgh he was successful and earned a reputation as an excellent scholar, but a very harsh disciplinarian. In his Memorial of His Times, Lord Cockburn commented on Nicols "constant and indiscriminate harshness" that was "very hurtful to all his pupils", however an Edinburgh lawyer and writer to the signet, Alexander Young of Harburn, regarded Nicol as "one of the greatest Latin scholars of the age." Sir Walter Scott wrote that Nicol was "worthless, drunken and inhumanly cruel to the boys under his charge."
Nicol set up his own school after leaving in 1795 the High School due to a physically violent quarrel with Dr. Alexander Adam, the Rector. For two years he ran his school successfully up until his death in April 1797 and is thought to have been buried in the Old Carlton Burying Ground.
He was frequently employed, at very reasonable fees, by graduates at Edinburgh University to translate their Medical Law theses into Latin, however he often struggled to get these small payment and he had to employ the aforementioned Alexander Young of Harburn to pursue his debtors. Young felt it prudent to part company however, after Nicol, hearing of how the lawyer William Roscoe had doubted Nicol's claim for payment "fell into an extravagant rage, swore the most unseemly of oaths and uttered the grossest blasphamies."
He was a member of the Canongate Kilwinning Lodge No.2, however his vain, irascible and unpredictably ill tempered personality meant that he was not popular in Edinburgh society.
Charles Hope, Lord Granton, commented that he considered that Nicol was responsible for many of Burns's misfortunes and that "his passions were quite ungovernable, and that he was altogether a most ungovernable savage."
Association with Robert Burns
It is not known how they met, however Burns and Nicol became friends in 1787 and he stayed with the Nicol in Buccleugh Pend near St Patrick Square before Nicol accompanied the poet on his August 1787 tour of the Highlands, however the journey, in a chaise at the 15 years older Nicol suggestion, and mostly at Burns's expense, was still blighted by Nicol's ill temper and their friendship was sorely tested.
Whilst at Stirling, after viewing the castle, Burns engraved on a window pane at Wingate's Inn the following controversial lines;
Some authors have tried to suggest that they were actually written by William Nicol who held strong pro-Jacobite views.
Famously Nicol took offence when Burns was invited to dine with the 4th Duke and Duchess of Gordon and he felt forced to reject the invitation rather than journey on without Nicol's company. Burns had left Nicol at Fochabers at the inn where they were staying, however feeling neglected, Nicol packed and was ready to leave despite the fact that Burns, rather than a servant of the duke as offered, had come back to collect him.
Burns commented to James Hoy, the Duke of Gordon's librarian and companion: "I shall certainly, among my legacies, leave my patent curse to that unlucky predicament which hurried me, tore me away from Castle Gordon. May that obstinate son of Latin prose be curst tp Scotch-mile periods, and damn'd to seven league paragraphs; while Declension and Conjugation, Gender, Number and Time, under the ragged banners of Dissonance and Disarrangement eternally rank against him in hostile array!!!"
Burns also commented that his tour with Nicol was "Like travelling with a loaded blunderbuss at full cock."
In March 1788 Burns commented in a letter to William Cruikshank that "I would send my compliments to Mr Nicol, but he would be hurt if he knew I wrote to any body and not to him."
Following a careless remark to another mutual friend, William Cruikshank, Nicol threatened, in a good natured fashion, to have Burns "summonds to compear and declare" for passing on a very negative assessment of Nicol made by Agnes Maclehose. Burns wrote to Robert Ainslie about this situation on 23 August 1788, the context being a court case that Nicol was fighting against Dr. Adams, Rector of the High School of Edinburgh where Nicol had taught Classics.
Correspondence
Burns wrote his only known letter in pure Scots to "Kind hearted Willie" on 1 June 1787 from, of all places, Carlisle.
In June 1787 Burns wrote to Nicol from Ellisland Farm about the Rev. William Burnside and his wife Anne, complimenting her and saying that "in short - but if I say one word more about her, I shall be directly in love with her."
Francis Wallace was Burns's second son, named for Frances Dunlop, who died at the age of `thirteen. Burns mentioned him in correspondence with Nicol.
Upon his return to Mauchline from Edinburgh Burns wrote to Nicol "the servility of my plebeian bretherin, who perhaps formerly eyed me askance, since I returned home, have nearly put me out of conceit altogether with my species."
In February 1790 Burns wrote enthusiastically to Nicol regarding the great success of a theatrical company at Dumfries and about the plans to build a new theatre there.
Burns wrote "O Mr Nicol, can I ever extinguish the glowing remembrance of you in my bosom! The idea of your uncommon abilities may dissipate a little in comparison, but where, except surrounding the Fountain of Goodness, shall I Find heart to equal yours."
In August 1790 Nicol wrote to Robert Ainslie lampooning Burns for his ambition for promotion in the Excise and his revelling in pride when he achieved it. He was however wrong about the level of promotion:
"To the pride of applauded genius is now superadded the pride of office. He was lately raised to the dignity of an Examiner of Excise, which is a step preparative to attaining that of a supervisor." Nicol also wrote and encouraged Burns to restrain his expression of his political views, only to receive a humorous letter in reply.
A concerned Nicol wrote to Burns regarding the 'Ca Ira' affair at the Dumfries theatre that came close to the poet losing his job, saying