Mrs Macgregor Laird
(1812-1898)
16 June 1863

Born in 1812, Eleanor Hester Nicolls was the daughter of Edward Nicolls, a Royal Marines officer and colonial administrator who had served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and in the War of 1812. She was baptised on 19 November 1812 at St Mary Magdalene, Woolwich. 

On 1 August 1837 at Woolwich she married Macgregor Laird, merchant, son of William Laird, merchant. 

The couple appear on the 1851 census living at 7 Crooms Hill in Greenwich with their six children, a niece, a governess and four servants. Mr Macgregor Laird described himself as a ‘Merchant (General).’ Mrs Macgregor Laird gave ‘Kent, Woolwich’ as her place of birth. 

When her husband died in January 1861, many newspapers printed comprehensive obituaries:

‘The name of this gentleman, whose death, which took place on Sunday, we announce with much regret, will be known to all interested in African exploration. At an early age Mr Laird relinquished his interest in an extensive engineering establishment in Liverpool, and was associated with Richard Lander in conducting the first steam expedition up the river Niger, with a view to open up the commerce of the interior. […] He next turned his attention to Transatlantic steam navigation, and by his abilities and enterprise materially contributed to the accomplishment of that great object. […] During the last 12 years of his life Mr Laird devoted his attention exclusively to those objects in which his heart had lain from early youth — the development of the trade and civilisation of Africa, having for many years advocated this as the only means of finally extinguishing the slave trade. […] Unfortunately for the cause of African civilisation, he has been cut off in the midst of these avocations, though it is to be hoped that others will profit by the experience afforded by his operations, and follow the path opened by his enterprise’ (Belfast Mercury, 1 February 1861). 

Eleanor Macgregor lived on for nearly 40 years after her husband, dying at 19 Park Road, Southborough, Tunbridge Wells, on 6 February 1898. She left an estate valued at £5833. 


LAIRD — On the 6th inst., at Southborough, Eleanor Hester, wife of the late Macgregor Laird, and second daughter of the late General Sir Edward Nicolls, KCB, aged eighty-five (Morning Post, 9 February 1898). 


DEATH OF MRS MACGREGOR LAIRD — Mrs Macgregor Laird, widow of the African explorer, died on Sunday last at Tunbridge Wells, where for many years she had resided in retirement. Mrs Macgregor Laird reached the ripe old age of 83 years [sic], and lived to see the lifework of her husband come prominently before the world. Mr Macgregor Laird, from the moment he visited the Niger, was most sanguine of its ultimate value to England, and although many Governments ignored the importance, the closing days of Mrs Macgregor Laird’s life saw the

commencement of an interest in the great river the benefit of which may be reaped by future generations. Mrs Macgregor Laird was a daughter of the late General Sir Edward Nicolls, at one time Governor of Fernando Po [today the island Bioko, part of Equatorial Guinea], where he first met Mr Macgregor Laird. Mr Macgregor Laird himself died at Surbiton in 1860. The funeral of Mrs Macgregor Laird will take place Nunhead today (Liverpool Mercury, 10 February 1898).