Background
Nicholas Fish was born in New York City of well-to-do parents, Jonathan and Elizabeth (Sackett) Fish, tracing descent on his father’s side from early seventeen th-century colonists of Massachusetts and settlers of Newtown, Long Island.
Nicholas Fish was born in New York City of well-to-do parents, Jonathan and Elizabeth (Sackett) Fish, tracing descent on his father’s side from early seventeen th-century colonists of Massachusetts and settlers of Newtown, Long Island.
After an attendance, but not graduation, at the College of New Jersey, he entered the New York law office 01 John Morin Scott.
In 1775 Fish joined Malcolm’s New York regiment, in which he held the ranks of lieutenant and captain before he became General Scott’s brigade-major, August 9, 1776. He was present at the inglorious encounter on Long Island and was a chronicler of the flight of the militia after the British crossed the river. He was commissioned by Congress, November 21, 1776, as major in the 2nd New York Regiment of the Continental Army. In the following year he took part in the two actions at Bemis Heights leading up to Burgoyne’s surrender.
He was appointed a division inspector under Steuben in 1778, and commanded a body of light infantry at the battle of Monmouth. As major in Clinton’s brigade he served in Sullivan’s expedition against the Indians in 1779. During the next two years he was with Lafayette’s force, becoming Col. Hamilton’s second-in-command in the Yorktown campaign.
He was among the leaders of the American advance party in the assault of the redoubts on October 14, 1781, and organized the defense of the position captured by Hamilton’s unit. Recalling Fish’s part in this operation, Lafayette gave into his custody a wreath presented at the Yorktown ceremony of October 19, 1824, “as a deposit for which we must account to our comrades’’ (A. Levasseur, Lafayette in America in 1824 and 1825, 1829, I, 18485 ).
Through the remainder of the war Fish was with Washington’s main army and was brevetted lieutenant-colonel at its close. Following the resignation of his commission in 1784, he was appointed adjutant-general of the state of New York. In 1793 he was made supervisor of the revenue for the district of New York by President Washington. From 1806 to 1817 he held office as alderman, leading the opposition to Tammany and serving on many civic committees, including that of defense in the War of 1812.
As Federalist candidate for lieutenant-governor, in 1810, he made a strong but unsuccessful run against DeWitt Clinton.
He was a chairman of the board of trustees of Columbia College.
His large and handsome person, and his dashing yet dignified bearing assured him a social popularity which was greatly enhanced by his marriage, on April 30, 1803, to Elizabeth Stuyvesant, a descendant and heiress of the famous Dutch governor.