| De Lancey Nicoll | |
| Office: | New York County District Attorney |
| Term Start: | 1891 |
| Term End: | 1893 |
| Predecessor: | John R. Fellows |
| Successor: | John R. Fellows |
| Birth Date: | 24 June 1854 |
| Birth Place: | Shelter Island, New York, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Manhattan, New York City, U.S. |
| Party: | Republican, Democrat |
| Education: | St. Paul's School |
| Alma Mater: | Princeton University Columbia Law School |
| Parents: | Solomon Townsend Nicoll Charlotte Anne Nicoll |
| Children: | De Lancey Nicoll Jr. |
| Relatives: | Courtlandt Nicoll (nephew) |
| Signature: | Signature of De Lancey Nicoll.png |
De Lancey Nicoll (June 24, 1854 – March 31, 1931) was a New York County District Attorney.
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 (1880–1938) was his nephew.
He attended St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire; and graduated from Princeton University in 1874, and from Columbia Law School in 1876.
After serving in private practice,[1] he was appointed Assistant New York County District Attorney by D.A. Randolph B. Martine in 1885.[2] In November 1887,[3] 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 who ran on the Tammany Hall/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.[4]
In November 1890, Nicoll ran on the Tammany Hall ticket to succeed Fellows as D.A., and was elected.[5] Nicoll was D.A. from January 1891 until the end of 1893. Afterwards he resumed the practice of law.
In 1896, Nicoll was among the Democrats who repudiated William Jennings Bryan and campaigned for Republican William McKinley. In 1904, he was chosen by Chairman Thomas Taggart as Vice Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.[6]
He successfully represented Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World in a libel case that went to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1910 regarding press freedom.[7] [8] During the 1908 U.S. presidential campaign, the New York World had published an account of how a consortium involving President Theodore Roosevelt's brother-in-law Douglas Robinson, U.S. Secretary of War William H. Taft's brother Charles P. Taft, William Nelson Cromwell and J. P. Morgan had bought the French Panama Canal 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.
On December 11, 1890, he married Maud Churchill (1871–1924).[9] Together, they were the parents of:
Nicoll died at his home at 23 East 39th Street in Manhattan.[12] He left a fortune of nearly a million and a half dollars.[13]