Charles Cooper Nott was born on September 16, 1827 in Schenectady, New York, United States. He was the son of Joel B. and Margaret Cooper Nott. His paternal ancestors were of early Connecticut stock but for two generations the family life had been interwoven with that of Union College of which Nott's grandfather, Eliphalet Nott, had been president, and in which his father was professor of chemistry.
It was but natural that the boy's education, uneventful in its earlier phases, should culminate in his graduation from the college in 1848. For two years thereafter he studied law in Albany and was admitted to the bar in 1850.
Nott moved to New York City where he practised successfully until the outbreak of the Civil War.
Nott secured from Lincoln the manuscript of his address which, with Cephas Brainerd, he published with notes in September 1860.
After the outbreak of the war he entered the Union army under an appointment by General Frémont as captain in the Frémont Hussars. He later served in the 5th Iowa Cavalry and in the New York volunteers. He finally became colonel of the 176th New York Regiment. In June 1863 he was captured at Brashear City, Louisiana, and remained a Confederate prisoner for thirteen months. He did not see further active service and emerged from prison seriously impaired in health.
He returned to the practice of law in New York. The entire course of Nott's later life was determined by his appointment by President Lincoln as judge of the United States Court of Claims on February 22, 1865. He remained a member of that tribunal for forty years, retiring December 31, 1905, and from the time of his promotion by President Cleveland in 1896 he served as chief justice. When Nott took office the Court of Claims was still in its formative period and his life was spent in aiding in the establishment of a system of jurisprudence under which the claims of a contractual or business nature of the citizen against the federal government might be recognized and enforced. The record of his labors is found in opinions spread through forty-eight volumes of the Cases Decided in the Court of Claims. No small part of Nott's service to the Court lay in his reporting of its decisions. From 1867, when the publication of regular reports began, until 1914, Nott served as reporter. Until 1872 he was aided in this labor by Judge Samuel H. Huntington and from that date on by his brother-in-law, Archibald Hopkins. This long series of his reports is broken only in 1882-83 when his illness necessitated a year's absence from all official duties.
Much of his writing was done anonymously in the form of editorials and reviews.
On October 22, 1867 Nott married Alice Effingham Hopkins, the daughter of Mark Hopkins, president of Williams College. Of this marriage there were born a son and a daughter.
