NICOLSON, ROBERT WORMELEY, planter, was born October 12, 1812, at Roseglll, near Urbanna, Middlesex County, Va., and died November, 1895, at Montgomery; son of George Dudley and Sarah Tayloe (Wormeley) Nicolson, the former a native of Yorktown, York County, Va., who later resided at Deer Chase, Middlesex County, a physician who died in early life; grandson of Robert and Elizabeth (Digges) Nicolson, of Yorktown, and of Ralph and Eleanor (Tayloe) Wormeley who lived near Urbanna on the Rappahannock River; and the great-grandson of John Tayloe, of Mount Airy, Va., one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The Nicolson family came from Edinborough, Scotland; the Digges from Kent, England; and the Wormeleys, related to the Virginia Fairfaxes, came to the colony with land grants from the King. Mr. Nicolson was tutored at home, and completed his academic training at William and Mary college, and at Princeton university. He emigrated to Alabama about 1839 or 1840, and bought a plantation near Unlontown. upon which he resided until he removed to Montgomery in 1893. He was a justice of the peace at Uniontown during the seventies and the eighties. He entered the Confederate Army as a private in the "Canebrake rifles," Fourth Alabama infantry regiment, and served one year, during which he participated in the first battle of Manassas, although he was fifty years of age. He was a Democrat; and an Episcopalian. Married: October 12, 1842, at Selma, to Mary, daughter of Gilbert and Martha (Cowles) Shearer; granddaughter of William Marsdon and Anna (Meriweather) Cowles of Augusta, Ga., the former a native of James City County, Va. Children: 1. Gilbert Shearer, m. Rebecca Brown, of Selma; 2. Sarah Tayloe, m. Judge Francis Corbin Randolph, Montgomery; 3. George Andrew, m. Mary Reese, of Atlanta, Ga. Last residence: Montgomery.
Source; History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, Volume 4
By Thomas McAdory Owen, Marie Bankhead Owen