NICHOLAS, Thomas (c.1575-1638), of Stratton, nr. Cirencester, Glos.

Nicholas was trained for the law, and shared chambers in the Temple with Thomas Stephens†, which he surrendered on his marriage to the widow of a friend of his father’s, ‘a gentlewoman of a noble house’ and presumably a kinswoman of Sir Mervin Audley*. From her first husband she inherited estates in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, including Stratton, one-and-a-half miles from Cirencester. MTR, 451; C142/684/50; PROB 11/104, f. 287. Returned for Cirencester in 1620, his appointment to the committee to consider a bill for the repair of Tewkesbury bridge on 5 May 1621 is his only appearance in the parliamentary record. CJ, i. 609b. Omitted from the commission of the peace in the new reign, he was restored on the intervention of his ‘cousin’ Edward Nicholas*. CSP Dom. 1625-6, p. 294. During his shrieval year he joined in the widespread Gloucestershire opposition to the Forced Loan. He was imprisoned in the Fleet and confined in Northamptonshire until January 1628. Ibid. 1627-8, p. 59; APC, 1627, pp. 125, 374, 449; 1627-8, p. 217. In 1631 he compounded for knighthood at £46 13s. 4d. E407/35, f. 80v. He drafted his will on 11 Aug. 1638. Being childless, he had arranged for the sale of his estate, to provide for his wife and to pay bequests, amounting to over £6,000, to his sisters and their children. PROB 11/180, f. 224. He died two or three days latter, aged 63, and was buried at Stratton. Rudder, 710. None of his descendants sat in Parliament.