diff --git a/R/fromJSON.R b/R/fromJSON.R
index 60ab812d..d396cb1b 100644
--- a/R/fromJSON.R
+++ b/R/fromJSON.R
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
 #' @param simplifyVector coerce JSON arrays containing only primitives into an atomic vector
 #' @param simplifyDataFrame coerce JSON arrays containing only records (JSON objects) into a data frame
 #' @param simplifyMatrix coerce JSON arrays containing vectors of equal mode and dimension into matrix or array
+#' @param nesting allow data frames to contain other data frame as columns
 #' @param flatten automatically \code{\link{flatten}} nested data frames into a single non-nested data frame
 #' @param x the object to be encoded
 #' @param dataframe how to encode data.frame objects: must be one of 'rows', 'columns' or 'values'
@@ -75,7 +76,7 @@
 #' identical(data3, flatten(data2))
 #' }
 fromJSON <- function(txt, simplifyVector = TRUE, simplifyDataFrame = simplifyVector,
-  simplifyMatrix = simplifyVector, flatten = FALSE, ...) {
+  simplifyMatrix = simplifyVector, flatten = FALSE, nesting = TRUE, ...) {
 
   # check type
   if (!is.character(txt) && !inherits(txt, "connection")) {
@@ -98,7 +99,7 @@ fromJSON <- function(txt, simplifyVector = TRUE, simplifyDataFrame = simplifyVec
 
   # call the actual function (with deprecated arguments)
   parse_and_simplify(txt = txt, simplifyVector = simplifyVector, simplifyDataFrame = simplifyDataFrame,
-    simplifyMatrix = simplifyMatrix, flatten = flatten, ...)
+    simplifyMatrix = simplifyMatrix, nesting = nesting, flatten = flatten, ...)
 }
 
 parse_and_simplify <- function(txt, simplifyVector = TRUE, simplifyDataFrame = simplifyVector,
diff --git a/R/simplify.R b/R/simplify.R
index e59206eb..18a8a4cb 100644
--- a/R/simplify.R
+++ b/R/simplify.R
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 simplify <- function(x, simplifyVector = TRUE, simplifyDataFrame = TRUE, simplifyMatrix = TRUE,
   simplifyDate = simplifyVector, homoList = TRUE, flatten = FALSE, columnmajor = FALSE,
-  simplifySubMatrix = simplifyMatrix) {
+  simplifySubMatrix = simplifyMatrix, nesting = TRUE, allowNestHere = TRUE) {
 
   #This includes '[]' and '{}')
   if (!is.list(x) || !length(x)) {
@@ -8,8 +8,8 @@ simplify <- function(x, simplifyVector = TRUE, simplifyDataFrame = TRUE, simplif
   }
 
   # list can be a dataframe recordlist
-  if (isTRUE(simplifyDataFrame) && is.recordlist(x)) {
-    mydf <- simplifyDataFrame(x, flatten = flatten, simplifyMatrix = simplifySubMatrix)
+  if (isTRUE(allowNestHere) && isTRUE(simplifyDataFrame) && is.recordlist(x)) {
+    mydf <- simplifyDataFrame(x, flatten = flatten, simplifyMatrix = simplifySubMatrix, nesting = nesting)
     if(isTRUE(simplifyDate) && is.data.frame(mydf) && is.datelist(mydf)){
       return(parse_date(mydf[["$date"]]))
     }
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ simplify <- function(x, simplifyVector = TRUE, simplifyDataFrame = TRUE, simplif
 
   # apply recursively
   out <- lapply(x, simplify, simplifyVector = simplifyVector, simplifyDataFrame = simplifyDataFrame,
-    simplifyMatrix = simplifySubMatrix, columnmajor = columnmajor, flatten = flatten)
+    simplifyMatrix = simplifySubMatrix, columnmajor = columnmajor, flatten = flatten, nesting = nesting)
 
   # fix for mongo style dates turning into scalars *after* simplifying
   # only happens when simplifyDataframe=FALSE
diff --git a/R/simplifyDataFrame.R b/R/simplifyDataFrame.R
index bd653cf5..63e2ac30 100644
--- a/R/simplifyDataFrame.R
+++ b/R/simplifyDataFrame.R
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-simplifyDataFrame <- function(recordlist, columns, flatten, simplifyMatrix) {
+simplifyDataFrame <- function(recordlist, columns, flatten, simplifyMatrix, nesting) {
 
   # no records at all
   if (!length(recordlist)) {
@@ -26,8 +26,8 @@ simplifyDataFrame <- function(recordlist, columns, flatten, simplifyMatrix) {
   columnlist <- transpose_list(recordlist, columns)
 
   # simplify vectors and nested data frames
-  columnlist <- lapply(columnlist, simplify, simplifyVector = TRUE, simplifyDataFrame = TRUE,
-    simplifyMatrix = FALSE, simplifySubMatrix = simplifyMatrix, flatten = flatten)
+  columnlist <- lapply(columnlist, simplify, simplifyMatrix = FALSE, simplifySubMatrix = simplifyMatrix,
+                       flatten = flatten, nesting = nesting, allowNestHere = nesting)
 
   # check that all elements have equal length
   columnlengths <- unlist(vapply(columnlist, function(z) {
diff --git a/man/fromJSON.Rd b/man/fromJSON.Rd
index d26c7010..d488e06f 100644
--- a/man/fromJSON.Rd
+++ b/man/fromJSON.Rd
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ fromJSON(
   simplifyDataFrame = simplifyVector,
   simplifyMatrix = simplifyVector,
   flatten = FALSE,
+  nesting = TRUE,
   ...
 )
 
@@ -45,6 +46,8 @@ toJSON(
 
 \item{flatten}{automatically \code{\link{flatten}} nested data frames into a single non-nested data frame}
 
+\item{nesting}{allow data frames to contain other data frame as columns}
+
 \item{...}{arguments passed on to class specific \code{print} methods}
 
 \item{x}{the object to be encoded}