Author: Nichols, Thomas
Biography:
NICHOLS, Thomas (fl 1793-96)
Personal details are wanting, but records show that in the early 1790s he was classified as a "candidate" associated with the New-Britain congregation of Particular Baptists in Rensselaer County NY--a "candidate" being someone with a recognized spiritual gift who had been approved by his home church to preach in neighbouring ones, but who was not yet an accredited preacher. The Baptist leader who endorsed Nichols's hymns, Isaac Backus, described him as "old Mr. Thomas Nichols of Eastgreenwich [NY]" about this time. Nichols also published a prose Discourse on Poverty and Riches (Bennington VT 1796). (David W. Music and Paul Akers Richardson, "I Will Sing the Wondrous Story": A History of Baptist Hymnody in North America [2008] 143; John Apslund, Universal Register of the Baptist Denomination in North America [1794]) HJ