Francis Nicholson has been listed as one of the History good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.
Article milestones Date Process Result July 18, 2011 Good article nominee Listed
	A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the " Did you know?" column on October 27, 2005. The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that Francis Nicholson served as colonial governor or acting colonial governor of Nova Scotia, the Province of New York, the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, the Province of Maryland and the Province of South Carolina at various times during his career?

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The College of William and Mary was chartered in 1693. Nicholson did not move the capital of Virginia to Middle Plantation until 1705. Clearly he did not help found the College after the move, which is how the article currently reads. Could somebody with a little more knowledge on this subject please clarify? Also, was Nicholson ever married, and did he have any children? Gnosticdogma 01:51, 17 July 2006 (UTC) reply

He was a bachelor...It would seem that he could not have had a connection with the college but I couldn't confirm. Stormbay 01:28, 20 July 2006 (UTC) reply

"On July 25, 1690, Lieutenant Governor Francis Nicholson authorized several gentlemen to take subscriptions in Virginia for the proposed college" [1]. Apparently, he was involved to some extent prior to the move of the capital. -- Gnosticdogma 18:00, 20 July 2006 (UTC) reply

• • That makes sense. Good work! Stormbay

This review is transcluded from Talk:Francis Nicholson/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Pyrotec ( talk) 18:50, 10 July 2011 (UTC) reply

I will review. Pyrotec ( talk) 18:50, 10 July 2011 (UTC) reply

Initial comments

By now I've done a couple of "speed reads" of this article, but I've not checked of the the references in detail, and it looks to be at or about GA-level, so I will not be "quick failing" it.

I'm now going to start a more detailed review, section by section, but leaving the WP:Lead until last. At this point, I'll be mostly flagging up any "problems" (but if they are minor, I may fix them, if I can, instead of listing them here). This step may take a day or so, but should be finished before the weekend starts. Pyrotec ( talk) 15:42, 13 July 2011 (UTC) reply

• Early life and military service & Dominion lieutenant governor -

• These two sections look OK.

• Virginia and Maryland -

• This section looks OK.

.... Stopping for now. To be continued, later..... Pyrotec ( talk) 16:54, 13 July 2011 (UTC) reply

• Queen Anne's War, Nova Scotia and South Carolina, Later life & Personality -

• These four sections look OK.

• WP:Lead -

• Rather "thin" for any article of this size, but since it both introduces the topic and provides a summary of the main point its probably just about sufficient.

Pyrotec ( talk) 15:05, 18 July 2011 (UTC) reply

Overall comments

GA review – see WP:WIAGA for criteria

A compreshensive, well referenced and well illustrated historical article.

1. Is it reasonably well written?

   A. Prose quality:

   B. MoS compliance for lead, layout, words to watch, fiction, and lists:

2. Is it factually accurate and verifiable?

   A. References to sources:

   B. Citation of reliable sources where necessary:

   C. No original research:

3. Is it broad in its coverage?

   A. Major aspects:

   B. Focused:

4. Is it neutral?

   Fair representation without bias:

5. Is it stable?

   No edit wars, etc:

6. Does it contain images to illustrate the topic?

   A. Images are copyright tagged, and non-free images have fair use rationales:

   Well illustrated.

   B. Images are provided where possible and appropriate, with suitable captions:

   Well illustrated.

7. Overall:

   Pass or Fail:

I'm awarding this article GA-status. Congratulations on producing an informative article. I suspect that this article may have potential as a WP:FAC, but I would strongly recommend WP:PR first. The WP:Lead is rather weak and that would undoughtly need attention if the article is to be taken beyond GA. Pyrotec ( talk) 15:16, 18 July 2011 (UTC) reply

Thanks for your feedback, and taking the time to review this! Magic ♪piano 16:25, 18 July 2011 (UTC) reply

Were Gregorian and Julian calendar really a year apart in those days, or are the death date years given in this article simply a mistake? -- WolfD59 ( talk) 10:27, 31 May 2016 (UTC) reply

The new year began on March 25 in the Julian calendar. As a result, dates between January 1 and March 25 fall in the year before that of the Gregorian calendar. Magic ♪piano 12:10, 31 May 2016 (UTC) reply

It seems that many places of the article give him a knightly title, calling him "Sir Francis Nicholson". However, at the very end of the article there is a note that says that he was never actually knighted, and the claim that he was knighted was misattributed centuries after his death. If that is true, I believe that this article should consistently not use a title that neither he nor any of his contemporaries ever attributed to him LutherVinci ( talk) 03:25, 22 August 2021 (UTC) reply

Agreed (and fixed). Magic ♪piano 10:51, 22 August 2021 (UTC) reply