Preface.                    xi

      could only disband his forces in the field, and devote his energies

      to strengthening the frontier.

       In 1713 he was appointed Governor of Nova Scotia, and in 1720

      he was knighted for his many and important services.

       In 1719 the Proprietors of South Carolina were adjudged to have

      forfeited their charter, and the province was made a royal govern

      ment. Maladministration had brought the colony to a sad pass;

      discontent was universal, the Indians were threatening the interior,

      the coast was infested by pirates, the Spaniards were planning an

      attack, and an insurrection had broken out, menacing the govern

      ment. Nicholson arrived in 1721, and was received with universal

      demonstrations of joy. He soon quieted all discontents, cleared the

      coast of pirates, and made a firm alliance with the Indians. Here

      too he promoted the building of schools, contributing liberally from

      his private means, and bringing over teachers from England.

       In 1725 Nicholson returned to England and never revisited Amer

      ica, though he retained the nominal governorship of South Carolina

      until his death, on March 5, 1728 (N. S.). By his will, dated a year

      before his death, he dedicated all his property in Virginia, New Eng

      land and Pennsylvania to missionary purposes.

       Dr. Bray,* in his Memorial on the Present State of Religion on the

      Continent of North America, says of Nicholson:

       “The gratitude which all who are well affected to Christianity do

      owe, more especially the Clergy, and above all myself to that admir

      able Patron of Religion and Learning, Colonel Francis Nicholson, the

      present Governour of Virginia, forbids me to pass over in silence

      those glorious works which he is there carrying on with such unusual

      Application, and which when accomplished must render his Memory

      sweet to all succeeding generations.”

       On March 24, 1900, the Maryland Society of the Colonial Dames of

       *The Rev. Thomas Bray (1656—1730) was appointed by the Bishop of London his Commissary

      in Maryland in 1695, though owing to a defect in the Act establishing the Church of England, he

      could not set out for the Province until 1699. The Maryland clergy being for the most part too

      poor to buy books, Dr. Bray exerted himself for the establishment of parochial libraries in the

      Province, and obtained subscriptions from both archbishops and a number of bishops. His first

      library was established in Annapolis, Queen Anne contributing liberally, and by his exertions no

      less than thirty-nine such libraries were founded in America in his lifetime. In all this good

      work he had the zealous support of Governor Nicholson. He obtained from King william in

      1701 a charter for an association for the propagation of the Gospel in the plantations, and labored

      unremittingly in the causes of missions and education until his death.