Sir Thomas Nicolson of Carnock, 1st Baronet (Before 1605 – 8 January 1646) was a Scottish lawyer, landowner, commissioner for Stirlingshire, and postmaster.
Early life
He was the son of John Nicolson of Lasswade (d. 1605) and Elizabeth (née Henderson) Nicolson. His father was a practising advocate at Edinburgh. His elder brother was Sir John Nicolson of Lasswade (grandfather of Sir John Nicolson, 2nd Baronet), was created a baronet in 1629 and died in 1651.[1]
In 1634, Nicolson bought Carnock House near Stirling from John Drummond the grandson of Robert Drummond of Carnock. His son John Drummond of Drummondshall married Margaret Rollock, daughter of his business partner John Rollock, and their lands became the Bannockburn estate. Nicolson was said to have been a great patron and encourager of the minister James Guthrie.[3]
Sir John Nicolson of Tillicoultry (1629–1683), who married Sabina Colyear, daughter of Colonel Walter Colyear.[1]
Jane Nicolson, who made her brother John her heir.[1]
Sir Nicolson died on 8 January 1646 and was succeeded by his eldest son, who became Sir Thomas Nicolson of Carnock, 2nd Baronet.[9]
Descendants
Through his eldest son Sir Thomas, he was a grandfather of Margaret Nicolson (mother of Alexander Hamilton of Ballincrieff, MP for Linlithgowshire and Margaret Nicolson, wife of William Kerr, 3rd Marquess of Lothian) and Thomas Nicolson (1649–1670), who married Jean Napier and succeeded Sir Thomas as the 3rd Baronet in 1664.[10] The 3rd Baronet was the father of Thomas Nicolson (1669–1688), who became the 4th Baronet as well as the 4th Lord Napier, which he inherited from his maternal uncle, Archibald Napier, 3rd Lord Napier. As the 4th Baronet died in 1688, unmarried and childless, the Carnock estate and the baronetcy passed to his paternal uncle, the 1st Baronets grandson, Sir Thomas Nicolson, 5th Baronet (d. 1699).[1]
^Stirlingshire: an inventory of the ancient monuments, Volume 2 (1963), pp. 380-1: David McGibbon & Thomas Ross, The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1885), pp. 490-2.