Just last week there was a notice in the paper regarding the promotion of Rear Admiral Nicholas!! .................................... WEST BRITON AND CORNWALL ADVERTISER 17 January, 1851 REAR ADMIRAL JOHN TOUP NICOLAS, C.B., K.H., K.C.F.M. The family of NICOLAS, was originally of Britanny, in which province they had large possessions, and were ennobled before the 14th century.*  The representative of the second branch being a Protestant, emigrated on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685; and having settled at East Looe, in Cornwall, became the ancestor of Rear Admiral John Toup Nicolas, born 22nd February, 1788, the eldest son of the late Retired Commander JOHN HARRIS NICOLAS.  This distinguished officer, who has served 30 years on full pay, and mostly on foreign stations, entered the Navy in 1797, on board the ATTACK, gun-vessel, and in September 1799, joined the EDAR, 84, Captain EDWARD BULLER, whom he accompanied into the ACHILLE, 74, in March 1801, and after serving in the NAIAD, 38, rejoined Capt. Buller, in the MALTA, 80. Promoted to the rank of lieutenant of that ship 1st of May,1804, he was present at the defeat of the combined fleet by Sir ROBERT CALDER, 22nd of July, 1805. In June, and October, 1807, he became flag-lieutenant in the QUEEN, 98, and CANOPUS, 80, to Rear-Admiral GEO. MARTIN, on the Mediterranean station; where 12th of Oct., 1809, he was ordered to act as commander of the RED-WING, 18. In the following Dec., finding that he had been promoted 26th of Aug., to the command of the PILOT brig, of 18 guns, he returned to England in April, 1810. Returning with convoy to the Mediterranean, he commenced a series of operations against the enemy along the Italian shores. On June, 24, when in company with the ORTENZIA, schooner, he destroyed five out of a convoy of 51 sail, protected, near the town of St. Lucido, on the coast of Calabria, by a battery, and a body of armed men whose fire killed three of the British. On the 8th of the ensuing month, near the same place, he took and destroyed two gun-boats, three armed scampavias, and 17 sail, of transport-vessels laden with stores and ammunition, for Muryat's army at Scylla. Seventeen days afterwards, being in company with the THAMES. 32, and WEASEL, 18, he assisted at the capture and destruction, under the batteries of Amantea, of a convoy of 31 vessels, also laden for the army of Murat, together with seven large gun-boats and five scampavias - a service which procured him the acknowledgment as well  of the Admiralty as of his Commander-in-Chief. Independently of many gallant exploits performed at Monasteracci, Riacci, Strongoli, Castellar, Policastro, and other places, the PILOT, in company with the THAMES, 32, CAPT. CHARLES NAPIER, came into action, 4th of April, 1812, with a Neapolitan  flotilla, consisting of a brig, three schooners, and  14 gun-vessels, which, owing to a calm, escaped under the strong batteries of Salerno. On the 14th of the ensuing month, the two ships attacked the port of Sapri, and, after having battered for two hours its defences (a strong battery and tower mounting two 32-pounders), compelled it to surrender at discretion. Capt. Nicolas flanked the battery in a judicious manner, and afterwards commanded the launching of 28 vessels laden with oil. In June, 1812, uniting with the EURYALUS, 36, and CEPHALUS, 18, the PILOT suffered severely in her sails and rigging, while engaged in a five hours attempt to destroy a large convoy at Dino, protected by three batteries several gun-boats, and a large body of troops. Between April 1810, and July, 1812, she effected unassisted, the capture, with a lost[sic] of but eight of her people killed, and 24 wounded, of not less than 130 of the enemy's vessels.  In the course of the month last mentioned she was ordered to the Adriatic; and while next cruising between Sicily and the African coast, she succeeded in taking, among other prizes, the French armed-brig HARP. On quitting the Mediterranean, Captain Nicolas received the following gratifying letter from LORD EXMOUTH, dated Palermo, 12th of June, 1814: "As the arrangements are making for the return of the fleet to England, and it will soon fall to the lot of the PILOT to bend her course the same way, I should regret your departure from my command without taking with you my best wishes for your promotion and success, and my testimony and satisfaction on your conduct during the three years you have served under my flag. I have had uniform pleasure in  receiving reports of your gallantry and zeal, and my own observation has confirmed and strengthened your claim to my good opinion, to which no officer under my command has higher pretensions."  Towards the close of 1814, having returned with convoy to England, Capt. Nicolas applied to the Admiralty for leave to have the "PILOT" altered, agreeably to a plan he had formed, by which a shol-hole(sic) between wind and water, in any part of the ship, could be immediately stopped, an object hitherto impracticable, from the arrangement of the bread and store rooms. This request was at once granted, and the suggestion he had made ordered to be carried out in regard to all the 18-gun brigs then under repair at Portsmouth. On the escape of Napoleon Bonaparte from Elba, the "PILOT" was again sent to the Mediterranean. On 17th of June, 1816, being off Cape Corse, Capt. Nicolas brought to action the French frigate Legere, of 28 guns, which vessel made off at the end of the close engagement of nearly two hours, attended with a loss to herself of 22 men killed and 79 wounded; and to the British, with damage to their sails and rigging, of two men killed and twenty-five wounded. The Admiralty, to mark the sense they entertained of his conduct on the occasion, promoted Captain Nicolas, to the rank of Post-Captain, 26th of Aug. 1815; but notwithstanding this gallant action obtained the commendation of the Commander-in-Chief, and the entire approbation of the Admiralty, no other promotion was bestowed although the first lieutenant had been wounded in the conflict, and had served as midshipman in the MALTA, 80, in battle, of 22nd of July 1805, and Mate of the "DEFIANCE" 74, at the destruction of three French frigates at Sables d'Olonne, in 1809 - their lordships having decided that it was contrary ! to the then regulations of the Service to promote the first lieutenant of a sloop of war at the same time with his commander, for the same exploit, however brilliant it might have been. This act of injustice caused LIEUTENANT KEIGWIN NICOLAS to remain without any mark of reward until 1849, when  Sir  FRANCIS BARING, advanced him to the rank of commander "for his long and meritorious services."  On the 4th of the preceding June, Capt. Nicolas formed one of the six Commanders nominated C.B.'s on the extension of the Order of the Bath. In the following October he was presented, in compliment to his services on the coast of Calabria, with the Small Cross of the Order of St. Ferdinand and of Merit, by the King of the two Sicilies; who, on 26th of April, 1816, as an additional mark of his royal approbation, conferred on him the Cross of a Knight Commander of the same Order. After accompanying Lord Exmouth on his visits to Algiers and Tunis, Capt. Nicolas returned to England, and, in July, 1816, was paid off. During the time he had been employed in the Mediterranean, he had frequently attracted the notice of the Admiralty, by the valuable additions he had made to hydrographic knowledge. Obtaining command, 5th of January, 1820, of the EGERIA, 28, he proceeded to Newfoundland, where he for some months discharged the anomalous duties of a naval surrogate, or Judge. A better proof of the satisfactory manner in which he acquitted himself cannot be adduced than the fact that out of more than a thousand cases in which he adjudicated at St. John and Harbour Grace, only three appeals were made, and in each of these his decision was confirmed by the Supreme Court. In May, 1822,  he returned to England; and in November, of that year, in consequence of a dispute which had arisen between the keelmen and the shipmasters and owners at Newcastle, he was sent in command of a small squadron to the river Tyne, to aid the civil power in subduing the alarming insubordination displayed. By firmness,  decision, and forbearance, he succeeded in six weeks, without the occurrence of a single casualty, in fully restoring order; and in such a manner as to elicit the marked approbation of the late SIR ROBERT PEEL, then Minister for the Home Department. The EGERIA being put out of commission in the early part of 1823, Capt. Nicolas, nothwithstanding many applications for employment, remained on half-pay for a period of fourteen years. His exertions in effecting a reduction in the Tonnage duties on British shipping in the Ports of France [were acknowledged in a letter by Lord Granville in March, 1832.]    He was nominated a K. H. 1st of January, 1834, and on the 16th August 1837, appointed to the HERCULES, 74, on the Lisbon station, whence his health obliged him to return in January 1839 - 10 April, in the latter year, to the BELLEISLE, 72, employed on the Mediterranean and Home Stations, 30 September 1841 to the VINDICTIVE, 50. During the three years he commanded that ship he was employed on the East India and pacific stations. On his passage home, he proceeded to Tahiti, where circumstances had arisen which called for his active interference, and afforded him occasion for the display of much zeal, ability, and firmness, in resisting the aggressions of the French on that island. He was awarded the Good Service Pension 9th of November, 1846; and 1st of September, 1847, appointed to the superintendentship of the Victualing Yard at Plymouth. He married, 1st of August, 1818, FRANCES ANNA, daughter of NICHOLAS WERE, Esq., of Landcox, near Wellington, co. Somerset, by whom he has issue four sons and two daughters. His third son, BEVILLE GRANVILLE WYNDHAM, is a lieutenant of the Phaeton; and his fourth son, GRANVILLE TOUP, is a midshipman of the "ASIA". *Vide Nobiliaire Universel de France, vol. 15; and also Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic dictionary, vol. 2, p. 193. Julia Mosman, OPC for St.Austell,Charlestown, and Treverbyn Website at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~staustell W. Briton newspaper transcripts at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~wbritonad Please visit the OPC website at http://cornwall-opc.org