Anthony Nicholl

Who is Anthony Nicholl?

Anthony Nicholl was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1640 and 1656. He supported the Parliamentary side in the English Civil War.

Nicholl was a member of the Nicholl family of Penvose in Cornwall. His mother Philippa Rouse was a half-sister of John Pym and a second cousin of Sir Francis Drake.

In April 1640, Nichol was elected Member of Parliament for Bossiney in the Short Parliament. He was elected MP for Bodmin for the Long Parliament in November 1640. He was an extreme presbyterian and was one of the eleven members impeached in July 1647. He obtained a speaker's pass to go to Cornwall but was arrested on 17 August and brought back to Thomas Fairfax in Kingston upon Thames. He was well treated and after two days detention was sent to London with an accusation of High Treason. He escaped with the connivance of his captors. He was disabled from sitting in parliament by an order in January 1648, but this was revoked in June 1648. In 1648 he was made master of the Armoury of the Tower as compensation for the loss of his position as customer of Plymouth. He was not recorded as sitting after Pride's Purge in 1648.