DeLancey Nicoll, Sr.

NICOLL. De Lancey, lawyer, was born at Shelter Island, N. Y., June 24, 1854, son of Solomon Towuseud and Charlotte Ann (Nicoll) Nicoll. He is descended from Matthias Nicoll, who was a graduate of Cambridge and a lawyer of the Inner Temple, who came to America in 1664 with his uncle. Sir Richard Nicoll, the first English governor of New York : he was mayor of New York city in 1671 ; speaker of the first colonial assembly in 1683,

and the first judge of the New York court of Oyer and Terminer. From this first paternal ancestor in America the line of descent is traced through his son William, who married Ann Van Rensselaer, of the famous Van Rensselaer family of Albany ; through their son Benjamin, who married Charity Floyd ; through their son Benjamin, who married Mary M.

Holland; through their son Henry, who married Elizabeth Woodhull, and through their son, Edward Holland, who married Mary Townsend, and who were the grandparents of I)e Lancey Nicoll, the subject of this sketch. Mr. Nicoll's father, Solomon Townsend Nicoll (1813-63), was a successful East India merchant of New York city, who married his cousin, and who was the younger brother of Henry Nicoll, who became a prominent lawyer

of New York city, and was a member of congress during 1847-49. Mr. Nicoll's ancestor, William Nicoll, was the founder of Islip, having received from the crown a grant of land ten miles square in Suffolk county, upon which he settled and named it after his old English family home.

De Lancey Nicoll received an academic education at Flushing Institute, the Cheshire (Conn.) Academy, and the famous St. Paul's School in Concord, N. H. He finished his studies ut Princeton College, where he was graduated in the class of 1874 with high honors. Having determined to follow the law, he entered the Columbia Law

School in New York and became clerk in the law office of Clarkson N. Potter. Upon his admission to the bar in 1876, he formed a partnership with Walter D. Edmunds, and soon gained recognition in his profession. He was assistant district attorney of New York city, 1885-88, under Randolph B. Martine, and gained distinction while in that office. Upon resuming his private practice, he entered the law firm of Cowen, Dickerson, Nicoll

& Brown. Mr. Nicoll had been the unsuccessful candidate for the office of district attorney on the Republican and Independent ticket in 1887, but at the next election he was the nominee on the Democratic ticket, and was elected, serving as district attorney during 1892-94. Upon retiring from office his law firm was Nicoll, Anable & Lindsay, which continues to the present time (1909). Mr. Nieoll was a member of the constitutional

convention in 1894. Among the important cases that Mr. Nicoll has handled successfully arc: The Aldennanic prosecution for bribery connected with the Broadway railroad franchise; People v. Jaehne; People v. O'Neil; People v. McQuade; People v. Sharp; the Richardson will case; the will of Gen. Samuel Thomas; the will of RusseH Sage; the defense of all proceedings against the American Tobacco Company by the United Slates, including Hale v. Henkel ; anil the litigation of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company in New York. He is a member of the Union, Metropolitan, Tuxedo, Racquet, Riding, University, Manhattan, Princeton, and Democratic clubs of New York. Mr. Nicoll was married Dec 11, 1890, at Ossining, N. Y., to Maud, daughter of Richard Cuyler Churchill, lieutenant of the 4th artillery, U. S. A., and has one son, De Lancey Nicoll, Jr., and one daughter, Josephine Churchill Nicoll.