Born in 1797 to John Nicholl and Judy Birt, Nicholl was educated at Westminster and in 1816 obtained a place at Christ Church, Oxford. He took a first class in Classics before he achieved a Doctor of Civil Law degree in 1825, and was elected as an Advocate of the Doctors' Commons in 1826. In 1838, on the death of his father, he became the successor to the family estate, Merthyr Mawr House
