The Nicol family were so well established in their community that each of Peter and Elizabeth’s children made roots in Stevenston and surrounding towns. Stevenston, Ardeer, Saltcoats, Irvine and Ardrossan are the lifeblood towns of my wife’s family. Many second generation children of the Nicol family may have settled in the area but it was the third generation that flew to other parts of the UK, and other parts of the world.
Peter Nicol and Elizabeth Tevendale, both born in Aberdeenshire in the middle of the 19th Century, made their way to Ayrshire for a better opportunity to make their living and start their family. They moved for economic reasons and for a better life than that which the agricultural labouring way of life in Aberdeenshire had to offer.
Mining for minerals and then helping Alfred Nobel to develop his dynamite industry were the foundation stones for creating the Nicol family in Ayrshire that my wife and her sister belong to.
This week I am writing about their eldest son, James who was one person who did not have a dynamite factory connection, other than of course, his wife.
Before I start it is necessary to list the family again.
| Peter Nicol (Great grandfather) | 1851 – 1928 |
| Elizabeth Nicol nee Tevendale (Great grandmother) | 1851 |
| James Nicol | 1879 – 1934 |
| Peter Nicol Jnr | 1881 |
| George Nicol | 1883 |
| Elizabeth Nicol | 1886 |
| Jane Nicol | 1888 |
| Elspeth Nicol | 1890 |
| Edward Nicol | 1893 |
| Andrew Nicol (my wife’s grandfather) | 1896 – 1966 |
For some reason I am struggling to find James’s birth certificate or registration details. Why this is a challenge I cannot find a reason for. When the good people at the National Records of Scotland scanned and transcribed their records for online research, is it possible that there was a missing page in the register? It will require patience and multiple uses of different name spellings to see if I can find him.
I know that James was born in Stevenston because he is listed in the 1881 Census return, at the age of 2, and described as being born in this town. The Nicol family at that time were living in Seaside Cottages. I have searched early Ordnance Survey maps at the National Library of Scotland (online) and cannot see these cottages named. They were next to Fisherman’s Cottages and the School House. I had hoped to find the school marked on the large scale 25 inch to the mile map but it is not marked. Seaside and Fisherman suggest facing the sea at Ardeer sands and so my current thinking is that these cottages were on Shore Road at that time.
In the 1881 Census return James’s father was described as Private Police Officer at the Dynamite Factory. All munitions’ factories in the UK had to have security and policing. This was a statutory requirement. Peter Nicol had moved from Kilwinning where he was living and working in the iron ore mining industry, to work with the new Nobel factory. It was an enormous site contained within a peninsula that was surrounded by water. There was only one side for entry by land and all workers had to be searched to prevent matches from being taken in. This must have been a challenging place to work for the hundreds of smokers. By the 1930’s there were upwards of 13,000 people, men and women working on the site.
Later, Peter Nicol transferred to other duties.
By 1891, James then had two brothers and three sisters. He was a 12-year-old scholar, and the family were living in Lucknow Cottages in Dynamite Road, just around the corner from Shore Road. James’s father was then a Magazine Keeper, responsible for storing the dynamite and nitro glycerine products being manufactured by Nobel.
I have found no other record or information about James until he married, in 1898. Here then is the Nobel Dynamite connection. James married Helen Leckie Marr who was 21 and she had a job as a Dynamite Worker in Nobel’s factory. Note her middle name. This is most probably her mother’s maiden name as was and sometimes still is, the custom with family names being carried forward. This helps family history researchers because it is another way of confirming a connection or the person that is being sought for. However, James has no connection with the factory other than his father and living in a street with predominantly Nobel factory workers. James was a Merchant Seaman.
The wedding took place on 7th March 1898 in Helen Marr’s house in Dynamite Road, conducted by the Minister of Stevenston. A church wedding could be expensive to arrange and being married at home was a common event in the past. Peter Nicol, James’s younger brother, was one of the witnesses. There was no mention of Helen’s father. Her mother, Jane Marr, was described as a Domestic Servant.
James, a Merchant Seaman, was going to be frequently absent from his family house in the coming years. I have no idea about what trade he was operating in, the home trade or across the Atlantic. Also, the coal industry on the West coast of Ayrshire was a considerable industry with a lot of coal being transported out by ship. He was in an ideal location for his trade because Ardrossan, Irvine and the ports along the Clyde that were in reach by railway, were all at hand for him. The West Coast of Scotland would have been reaching its peak in the shipbuilding and merchant trade at the start of the 20th Century. There is very little to show for it in 2025.
The first Census return to show how the new Nicol family were fairing was in 1901. It should be no surprise that James does not appear. Helen is listed, as also is young Henry, aged 4 months, their first child. James must have been away at sea. Helen, like nearly every woman marrying and having young children, did not have an occupation. Many Census returns might have added a comment under the occupation heading to indicate that the woman was doing Household Duties or something similar. In this Stevenston return there is just a blank space.
So now we know that James and Helen had a son, Henry, born in 1900. Henry Leckie Hughes Nicol was born on 14th April 1900. We know where the name Leckie has come from, Helen wanting to carry it forward, but where the name Hughes came from, I am uncertain. Henry became a Rivetter by trade and I have written about him in a previous post.
There must be other records to be found for James Nicol and his family. For the time being my story ends with Helen’s death and James’s death. I have accessed James’s death certificate and also Helen’s.
James died in May 1934. It is difficult to understand the medic’s writing and the legibility of the certificate, but the words stricture and extravasation can be identified. Whatever he was being treated for might be due to an accident He was being treated at the Western Infirmary in Glasgow. His address was 33 Chapelwell Street in Saltcoats. What is interesting is that Helen and James had another son who I discover for the first time, George Nicol who lived at 53 Chapelwell Street He was the informant of his father’s death for the registration certificate. James Nicol was just 55 years old.
Discovering that James and Helen had a second son, George, led to a successful search for his birth certificate. George Tevendale Nicol was born on 2nd June 1909 at 12 Arthur Street, Saltcoats. This house, and indeed the whole of Arthur Street , was demolished in the 1960’s due to subsidence cause by disused mine workings, and no longer exists. Note George’s middle name, it is the continuation of his grandmother’s maiden name. His father is described as Dynamite Worker. This led me to wonder if he had changed trade or if he was involved in the shipping of the dynamite at the Nobel works. Shipping was the safest way of transporting nitro glycerine products, safeguarding those on land from accidental explosion.
The tragedy of James and Helen’s story is that Helen died just one month after her husband at the age of 56. She died at 1, Bartonholm Road in Saltcoats which was used as a Poor House and an Infirmary. Her cause of death was Chronic Nephritis which today is described as chronic kidney disease. The informant was Harry Nicol, who I take to be Henry. He was living at 2 Hirst Place in Saltcoats. This was a row of three cottages very close to the Saltcoats Harbour. They were demolished before 1990 to make way for new supermarkets on the same land.
Harry and George went on to create another two generations of Nicols, one member of which I am trying to share information with.
In his death certificate, James was described as a Merchant Seaman. In Helen’s certificate James was described as a Ship’s Rigger. He spent most of his working life on ships.
Most of the properties that James and Helen lived in are long gone. They have left hardly any footprint other than their records that give me a chance to piece their story together and bring them closer to us.