Biography

John Pringle Nichol was an astronomer, teacher, and political science. He was educated at Kings College, Aberdeen. He was appointed Professor of Astronomer at the University of Glasgow in 1836. He gave both public and private lectures on astronomy, which stimulated the formation of an astronomical association. He founded a new observatory, but because of poor administration skills the observatory was taken over by the University in 1844. 
He married Jane Tullis in 1831, with whom he had two children, John Nichols, and Agnes Nichols. After Jane's death in 1850, he married Elizabeth Pease, in 1853.