Hi Badgen
I've noted your e-mail address (I imagine a passing moderator will delete it when they spot it - they don't like e-mail addresses being on display!). I'll try and dig out my notes on the Nichollses over the next day or two and send you some information. Off the top of my head, I know that Daniel was baptised in Luton in 1831 as Daniel William Nicholls (can't remember which spelling of Nicholls mind), but that his father, another Daniel Nicholls had been buried at Wheathampstead in 1830. I know there's a greater than nine month gap between Daniel senior's burial and Daniel junior's baptism, but I suspect that just means Daniel junior was a few months old when baptised. Daniel's mother was Hannah Filby, who remarried a John Maddox / Maddocks in 1839 in St Albans - you'll find Daniel in the 1841 and 1851 census living with his mother Hannah and step-father John Maddocks - indeed in one of those censuses he's actually listed as Daniel Maddox. In one of them (1841 I think) he's just a couple of doors down from Francis and Mary Warner with children Susan and Maria Hornet, at Back Lane (which I think is now called Coldharbour Lane) in Harpenden.
Daniel senior, who died in 1830, was born about 1780 at Hudnall, near Great Gaddesden, which at that time was a detached part of the parish of Eddlesborough in Buckinghamshire. I've got pretty good information on him up to 1814, because he fell foul of the poor laws that year and was 'removed' from Great Gaddesden to Wheathampstead - I've transcribed the statement he made to the magistrate in 1814. He describes various farms in Bucks and Herts he'd worked at as a young man before joining the West Middlesex Militia about 1802. He then served as a soldier until early 1814 (this is the period of the Napleonic wars of course). On being discharged he returned to the Great Gaddesden area where he'd been born, but was unable to work due to a sprained shoulder. He claimed poor relief from the parish of Great Gaddesden, but they didn't think he was their responsibility - and the magistrate agreed. The last place he'd worked before joining the militia was Wheathampstead, so they decied he was Wheathampstead's responsibility, and the Great Gaddesden church wardens were instructed to deliver him to the Wheathampstead church wardens.
He obviously recovered and married Hannah Filby at Wheathampstead in 1819.
Hope that helps - I'll e-mail you the full information when I've found my notes.
Regards
Richard.
