William Nichols

William Nichols was a hosier by trade. He had once been a deacon in the Baptist church at Friar Lane in Nottingham. In 1807 he became pastor of the Baptist congregation at Collingham, replacing Thomas Latham. He remained as pastor until his death in 1835. During his time at Collingham he assisted in the formation of the Baptist meeting at Sutton-on-Trent, and preached regularly at Besthorpe and Girton. The Collingham church hosted several meetings of the Baptist Missionary Society during Nichols’s tenure, with sermons preached there by John Sutcliff, Robert Hall, and William Steadman. The Collingham Church Book notes that Nichols discharged his duties “faithfully and affectionately” and was always “ready to employ his efforts in promoting the cause of Christ both in this and other places, assisting in the support of most religious institutions, and owning a readiness to help neighbouring churches who stood in need of his aid, and to whom it pleased God to grant a considerable portion of success during his ministry among us, and was the principal cause of establishing the Baptist interest in Sutton-on-Trent, and which cause was chiefly supported by him for more than twenty years.” See F. M. W. Harrison, The Story of the Collingham Baptist Church in the County of Nottinghamshire (Newark: Collingham Baptist Church, 1970), 10-11.