- Title
- North Carolina historical review [1954 : October]
-
-
- Date
- October 1954
-
-
- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
-
North Carolina historical review [1954 : October]
Hits:
(0)
























The North Carolina
Historical Review
Volume XXXI October, 1954 Number 4
THE NICHOLITES OF NORTH CAROLINA
By Kenneth L. Carroll
During the last quarter of the eighteenth century there
existed in Guilford County a group of people known as the
Nicholites. This band of believers, who lived near Deep
River, was an off-shoot of a larger body which settled on the
Delaware- Maryland border.1 Like those who remained in
Maryland and Delaware, the Nicholites of North Carolina
took their name from Joseph Nichols, the founder of their
religious society.
Joseph Nichols, the little-known spiritual leader whose
religious call took him on preaching trips throughout Dela¬
ware, both shores of Maryland, and to Philadelphia, was
born near Dover, Delaware, about 1730. In his youth and
early manhood his vivacity and humor led many of his neigh¬
bors to seek his company, so that on Sundays (or first-days
as the Nicholites came to call them) and at other times of
leisure many of his companions gathered to share in his
entertaining pastime.
It was at one of these gatherings for pleasure that one of
Nichols’s close friends was taken ill and died suddenly at the
place where they had assembled. This event was credited by
Nichols as having awakened his attention, showing him the
uncertainty of life, and bringing about a radical change in
his character.2 When his neighbors gathered around him
1 Concerning the Nicholites in Maryland and Delaware, see Kenneth L.
Carroll, “Joseph Nichols and the Nicholites of Caroline County, Mary¬
land,” Maryland Historical Magazine, XLV, 47-61; and “More About the
Nicholites,” Maryland Historical Magazine, XLVI, 278-289.
2 Samuel M. Janney, History of the Religious Society of Friends, from
its Rise to the Year 1828 (Philadelphia, 1867), III, 493.
[ 453 ]
Select what you would like to download. If choosing to download an image, please select the file format you wish to download.
The Original File option allows download of the source file (including any features or enhancements included in the original file) and may take several minutes.
Certain download types may have been restricted by the site administrator.