Nichol, John
John Nichol was the husband of Agnes Nichol (nee Elliott) and died in 2 Percy Terrace on 6 February 1939. He was born in the final quarter of 1859 and his birthplace is recorded as Haltwhistle although his parents were living at Shieldhaugh in the Warksburn at the 1861 Census. Since his mother, Elizabeth was born in Haltwhistle it is possible that she returned to her family for the birth. John’s father, also John, was a shepherd and had been born in Bellingham. It is testimony to the itinerant nature of farm employment that when the 1871 Census was taken John and Elizabeth had five children all of whom had been born in a different parish. In 1871 john Nichol snr. was shepherding in Glanton. In 1881 John was a farm servant living in Hawkhopehill Cottage in a household headed by a shepherd, Adam Nichol (apparently no relation). He married Agnes Elliott in the fourth quarter of 1881. He was still in Falstone in 1891 when he was working as a railway porter but must have spent some time away as their six-year-old daughter, Charlotte had been born in Haydon. He became stationmaster at North Middleton but between 1901 and 1911 changed direction completely to become a farmer at High Stokoe. Identified in the 1911 Census, besides a three-year-old visitor (Agnes Sutherland) there were two farm servants, not identified as relatives, but bearing his wife’s maiden name – Amy Elliott (20) and John William (17) Elliott. Ten years later John was farming at Burnbank and employing James Irving (18) and Jacob Cowan (14). Ada Cowan (16) was also in the house and is thought to have been a domestic servant. As previously noted, John died in 1939 and probate was granted on 19 April 1939 to Alexander Sutherland, retired bank clerk and John Sisterson Sutherland, bank manager. The estate was valued at £2,485 3s 1d. He is buried with Agnes in Falstone Cemetery.