The last of the Nicholases

Zhayynn James called last month and asked if I could write a foreword for his book. I asked if it was about the Nicholases and he said yes. It has been a favourite topic of his when he is not busy with his profession as a landscape architect, and when he is not winning awards for photography. You see, he is the last of the Nicholases.

As to how he, a James, traces his lineage to the Nicholases is something he has explained patiently to me a few times, but I always lose the thread somewhere. What is important is that he takes us back in time to the 1780s in the history of our city. It was when seven wells in the George Town area were the principal source of water supply to Fort St George. Initially transported by bullock carts, piped water had come in the 18th century to the Fort from the area that had by then become Seven Wells, thanks to the initiative of George Baker, who profited by it and had a street named after himself in George Town.

In the 1780s, Madras was threatened by Hyder Ali. The master strategist had determined that Seven Wells was the chicken neck to the Fort. Located as it was to the north of George Town, it was some distance from the Fort and in an isolated area. If the water supply to the Fort could be cut off, Madras was as good as his. But he had not contended with a Nicholas, “an Irishman of the eighteenth century, and by repute somewhat of a desperate character in his own country,” to quote from J Chartres Molony’s A Book of South India. This Nicholas, as per Molony, saved the water supply during “the stormy days of Hyder’s raids” and was named Custodian of the Seven Wells. Not just that, the title and emoluments that went with it were bestowed on the family for 125 years.

Molony has it that the saviour of the water supply was Sylvester Nicholas but HD Love, our city’s definitive historian in his Vestiges of Old Madras says the given name of that first Nicholas is lost and second in line was Sylvester. Love, who incidentally does not mention the story of the first Nicholas standing guard over the water, gives us the lineage thereafter till 1905. Sylvester, nephew to the first Nicholas, was guardian till death in 1858 and was succeeded by his son Joseph who was custodian till 1871. EAS Nicholas succeeded him and remained in charge till 1905.

By the time Molony came to Madras, the custody was over but E.A.S. Nicholas, whose given name we know from Molony to be Evelyn, still lived at the Seven Wells premises. That was one of the perks, as was a salary of ten pagodas a month. In Sylvester’s time this was ample enough for him to maintain a horse, a carriage and a palanquin. But by Evelyn’s time inflation had made sure this was a pittance. There are some discrepancies in the various accounts we have. As per Love, the custody expired in 1905, which tallies roughly with Hyder Ali invading Madras in 1780. The Nicholas family records claim it was from 1800 to 1925. This is at odds with Molony as well, for he writes that it was over by the time he came to Madras, which was between 1914 and 1920.

It was S. Muthiah who first introduced me to Zhayynn. We invited him to deliver a talk during one Madras Week on the Nicholases. Which brings me to the present. Zhayynn has written a fictional work based on fact (Muthiah used to call this the faction genre). The Keeper of the Wells is the title, and it is all set to be launched at the Victoria Public Hall (yay!) on July 11. In it the first of the Nicholas gets a name – John. Zhayynn was given that piece of information by yet another Nicholas, now living somewhere abroad and who had it in his family archives. Many of the Nicholases are by the way, enjoying eternal rest at the St. Roque’s cemetery in Old Washermanpet.

The book when released, will join the subset of fictional works based on Madras. The first I can think of is In Old Madras by Bithia Mary Croker, published in 1913. In it, a Captain Mallender comes here to look for an uncle who has long vanished. Muthiah made me read it and I found precious little about the city in it. In recent years we have had several more, especially in Tamil. The city has come alive in the writings of Jayakanthan and Ashokamitran to just name two. I trust Zhayynn’s, when released will add to the English corpus.

(Sriram V. is a writer and historian)