Definition
An archaic orthographic variant of "Lincoln," appearing in early English legal manuscripts and year books. The form reflects medieval scribal and phonetic practices in which place names, particularly those beginning with "Lin-," were abbreviated, contracted, or rendered phonetically in ways that diverged substantially from modern spelling. In legal records, "Nichol" appears as a rendering of the word "Lincoln" — most often in references to the county, city, or legal institutions associated with Lincoln, England.
The term carries no independent legal meaning. Its significance is entirely orthographic and paleographic: a researcher encountering "Nichol" in a manuscript or early printed source must recognize it as a reference to Lincoln rather than as a distinct place name or personal name.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A Scottish and Irish surname transferred from the given name Nicholas.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not separately defined; treated as a variant of the personal name Nicholas or Nicol.
The gap here is complete. In common usage, "Nichol" is a personal surname with no geographic content. In the legal manuscript tradition documented by Burrill, "Nichol" is a place-name variant — a contracted rendering of Lincoln — with no connection to the personal name. A researcher encountering the word in an archival or legal context must resist the natural inference that it refers to a person.
Common Confusion
The most immediate trap is misreading "Nichol" as a personal name — a party, judge, or officer named Nichol or Nicholas — when the source intends a reference to Lincoln. This confusion is compounded in year book entries, where Latin, Law French, and contracted English appear together and proper names are abundant. The secondary confusion is treating the entry as a reference to the coin called a "nickel" or to unrelated legal terms beginning with "Nic-." Neither inference is warranted.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is a navigational hazard, not a substantive legal concept. Researchers working in early English year books, plea rolls, or any source predating standardized orthography may encounter "Nichol" where the substantive reference is to Lincoln — one of the most legally significant places in English legal history, home to Lincoln's Inn, Lincoln Cathedral close (a venue for ecclesiastical jurisdiction), and Lincoln county assizes.
Burrill cites Year Book, Hillary Term, 4 Henry VI, fo. 7, as his authority. Researchers tracing that citation should approach it as a Lincoln reference. The broader lesson is methodological: in manuscript and early print sources, place names are among the most variable elements of spelling. "Lincoln" appears in records as Lincolne, Lyncoln, Lyncolne, Nichole, Nichol, and other forms. Index searches and keyword searches in digitized corpora will fail to surface all instances unless variant spellings are accounted for.
Researchers using Law Mind's corpus of historical legal sources should treat "Nichol" as a search alias for Lincoln when working in pre-1700 English legal materials. The term will not appear as a headword in most legal dictionaries; Burrill's inclusion of it reflects his attention to the practical difficulties of reading early year books.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the only source in the standard historical legal dictionary shelf to record "Nichol" as a legal term of art. His treatment is brief — one sentence with a single year book citation — and his purpose is clearly practical: to alert readers that this strange-looking word is Lincoln. No other major historical dictionary (Jacob, Tomlin, Cunningham, Bouvier) appears to have found the variant significant enough to enter separately, which itself suggests how narrow and source-specific this usage is.
Burrill embeds the entry between unrelated terms (the surrounding entry concerns "niefe," a Law French term for a female villein), which is consistent with alphabetical placement under "Ni-" and confirms the entry is not a cross-reference artifact but an independent entry made on paleographic grounds.
No historical dictionary provides additional context for the range of Lincoln variants or the scribal conventions that produced them. Researchers needing that background should consult paleographic guides to medieval English manuscripts rather than legal dictionaries.
Jurisdictional Note
Relevant only in the context of historical English legal materials. No American, Scottish, or Irish legal usage of "Nichol" as a Lincoln variant has been identified.