The last of the Nicholases – a Madras connect

Zhayynn James called last month and asked if I could write a foreword for his book. I asked if it was about the Nicholases, and he said yes. It has been a favourite topic of his when he is not busy with his profession as a landscape architect, and when he is not winning awards for photography. You see, he is the last of the Nicholases. As to how he, a James, traces his lineage to the Nicholases is something he has explained patiently to me a few times, but I always lose the thread somewhere. What is important is that he takes us back in time to the 1780s in the history of our city. It was when Seven Wells in the George Town area were the principal source of water supply to Fort St. George. Initially transported by bullock carts, piped water had come in the 18th century to the Fort from the area that had by then become Seven Wells, thanks to the initiative of George Baker, who profited by it and had a street named after himself in George Town.