De Lancey Nicoll (June 24, 1854 – March 31, 1931) was a

New York County District Attorney The New York County District Attorney, also known as the Manhattan District Attorney, is the elected district attorney for New York County (Manhattan), New York (state), New York. The office is responsible for the prosecution of violations of New ...

Early life

De Lancey Nicoll was born on Shelter Island on June 24, 1854. He was the son of Solomon Townsend Nicoll (1813–1864) and Charlotte Anne Nicoll (1827–1891). State Senator

Courtlandt Nicoll Courtlandt Nicoll (December 2, 1880 in New York City – September 20, 1938 in Water Mill, Suffolk County, New York) was an American lawyer and politician from New York. Early life He was the son of Benjamin Nicoll (1855–1921) and Grace Davi ...

(1880–1938) was his nephew. He attended St. Paul's School in

Concord, New Hampshire Concord () is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Hampshire and the seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2020 census the population was 43,976, making it the third largest city in New Hampshire behind Manchester and Nashua. The village of ...

; and graduated from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

in 1874, and from

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

in 1876.

Career

After serving in private practice, he was appointed Assistant

by D.A. Randolph B. Martine in 1885. In November 1887, he ran on the Citizens Reform, Republican and Irving Hall (a faction of Anti-Tammany Democrats) tickets to succeed Martine as D.A., but was defeated by his fellow Assistant D.A.

John R. Fellows John R. Fellows (July 29, 1832 – December 7, 1896) was an American lawyer and politician from Arkansas and New York (state), New York. He served as New York County District Attorney (1888-1890, 1894-1896), and a member of Congress from New Yo ...

who ran on the

Tammany Hall Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It became the main loc ...

/ County Democracy (the larger faction of Anti-Tammany Democrats) ticket. Upon taking office in January 1888, Fellows dismissed Nicoll from the office of Assistant D.A. In November 1890, Nicoll ran on the

ticket to succeed Fellows as D.A., and was elected. Nicoll was D.A. from January 1891 until the end of 1893. Afterwards he resumed the practice of law. In

1896 Events January–March * January 2 – The Jameson Raid comes to an end, as Jameson surrenders to the Boers. * January 4 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state. * January 5 – An Austrian newspaper reports that Wil ...

, Nicoll was among the Democrats who repudiated

William Jennings Bryan William Jennings Bryan (March 19, 1860 – July 26, 1925) was an American lawyer, orator and politician. Beginning in 1896, he emerged as a dominant force in the History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, running ...

and campaigned for Republican

William McKinley William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. As a politician he led a realignment that made his Republican Party largely dominant in ...

. In 1904, he was chosen by Chairman

Thomas Taggart Thomas Taggart (November 17, 1856March 6, 1929) was an Irish-American politician who was the political boss of the Democratic Party in Indiana for the first quarter of the twentieth century and remained an influential political figure in loca ...

as Vice Chairman of the

Democratic National Committee The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the governing body of the United States Democratic Party. The committee coordinates strategy to support Democratic Party candidates throughout the country for local, state, and national office, as well a ...

. He successfully represented

Joseph Pulitzer Joseph Pulitzer ( ; born Pulitzer József, ; April 10, 1847 – October 29, 1911) was a Hungarian-American politician and newspaper publisher of the ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' and the ''New York World''. He became a leading national figure in ...

and the ''

New York World The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publi ...

'' in a

libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

case that went to the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

in 1910 regarding press freedom. During the 1908 U.S. presidential campaign, the ''New York World'' had published an account of how a consortium involving President

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

's brother-in-law Douglas Robinson, U.S. Secretary of War

William H. Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...

's brother

Charles P. Taft Charles Phelps Taft (December 21, 1843 – December 31, 1929) was an American lawyer and politician who served as editor of the ''Cincinnati Times-Star'' and owned both the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs baseball teams. From 1895 to 1897, ...

William Nelson Cromwell William Nelson Cromwell (January 17, 1854 – July 19, 1948) was an American attorney active in promotion of the Panama Canal and other major ventures especially in cooperation with Philippe Bunau-Varilla. Life and career He was born and rais ...

and

J. P. Morgan John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known ...

had bought the French

Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a conduit ...

company for US$4,000,000 and re-sold it to the U.S. government for US$40,000,000, thus netting a fortune of about US$36,000,000.

Personal life

On December 11, 1890, he married Maud Churchill (1871–1924). Together, they were the parents of: * De Lancey Nicoll Jr. (1892–1957), also an attorney. * Josephine Churchill Nicoll (1894–1915), who died at age 19. Nicoll died at his home at 23 East 39th Street in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. He left a fortune of nearly a million and a half dollars.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nicoll, Delancey 1854 births 1931 deaths People from Shelter Island, New York New York County District Attorneys Columbia Law School alumni Princeton University alumni Presidents of the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York

Early life

Career

Personal life

See also

References

External links