Matthew Charles Nicholson was born on New Year’s Day 1840, the son of Matthew Nicholson (1798-1840) and his wife, Maria née Clayton.  The elder Matthew was connected with John Nicholson & Sons.  In 1861, Matthew Charles was a clerk in a cutlery merchant’s warehouse.  He partnered George Ward as a spring knife manufacturer, but Ward & Nicholson ended in January 1867.   Later that year, Nicholson and his family hastily left for America.  He was in flight from sundry creditors, after running up debts in Sheffield of over £200.  Newspapers related how Nicholson – ‘regarded as a man of probity and integrity … the more so because of his prominent connection with one of the religious sects of the town’ – had toured Sheffield, kitting out himself and his family with expensive jewellery and suits of superfine back cloth (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 24 October 1867).  He left behind only a stock of files, saws, and skates, which were promptly sold for the benefit of creditors.  Nicholson and his family settled in Brooklyn, New York.   In the Census (1875), his occupation was ‘liquors’.  He was naturalised in 1883 and by 1900 he was working in ‘hardware’.  He died at Quincy Street, King’s, Brooklyn, of ‘cerebral apoplexy’ on 9 July 1905.  His estate was worth $23,000.