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Francis Nicholson was born in 1655 in
Yorkshire England and was recruited as a page by the
Marquis of Winchester when just a young boy. He made
many connections in the company of the Marquis and in
1678 was off to France to fight as an ensign. He rose to
the rank of captain and was then dispatched to Boston
where he became Sir Edmund Andro's, the governor in
chief f the New England, assistant. He rose to the
rank of governor for Virginia, and Maryland.
He was involved in the
overland thrust, via, Lake Champlain in 1709, but due to
lack of support from the St Lawrence approach, did not
attack and returned to England the following year in
order to solicit support for an attack on Nova Scotia.
In March of 1710, he was named to lead the
expedition against Port Royal in the Annapolis basin and
left Boston in September to attack. The French
surrender on October 13th and the Fort is secured and
Nova Scotia is declared an English colony with Vetch
named as first Governor. Nicolson's next objective was
Quebec City itself and he once again returned to England
to propose his plan of attack.
The plan was to repeat
the double pronged attack which had failed two years
earlier, via Lake Champlain and the St Lawrence. In 1711
Admiral Walker was given command of the fleet that was
to assault the St Lawrence and Nicholson once again took
command of the land forces and headed for Lake
Champlain. Unfortunately for Nicholson, the result were
much the same as previously when Admiral Walker called
ff the attack after losing several ships and hundreds of
me before even reaching Quebec City. Walker called off
the attack and returned to England which once again
forced Nicholson to call off his attack.
Nicholson's remaining years in the
colonies were spent in administrative functions and as
governor of South Carolina. His dream of defeating the
French and capturing Quebec City would have to wait
until 1759 and General Wolfe.
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