Books by Alexander Nicolson

Alexander Nicolson, later known as Sheriff Nicolson, was born on September 27, 1827 in Husabost on the Isle of Skye. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh where he abandoned his calling to the ministry of the Free Church of Scotland and worked as a journalist before turning to the law. He was called to the Scottish Bar in 1860. In 1865 he was appointed Assistant Commissioner by the Scottish Education Commission, which took him around the schools of the islands inspecting them, before becoming Sheriff-Substitute of Kirkcudbright in 1872. Later he took up a similar position in Greenock and he acted as a commissioner in the Crofting Commission of 1883. Nicolson died on January 13, 1893 in Edinburgh. His book, originally called "A Collection of Gaelic Proverbs and Familiar Phrases" was published in 1881.