Nicholas Fish II (February 19, 1846–September 16, 1902) was a United States diplomat who served as the ambassador to Switzerland from 1877 to 1881 and the ambassador to Belgium from 1882 to 1885. In a widely reported crime of the time known as the "sensation of the day,"[4] Fish was murdered while leaving a New York City bar.[5][6]
Fish was a member of the long prominent, and wealthy, Fish family that was closely associated with politics from the Revolutionary War times through modern times with members serving as Lt. Governors and Governors of New York, members of the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, and many diplomats.[5]
Following his graduation from law school, he practiced law in New York City, then went into the diplomatic service.[5]
Appointed as the Second Secretary of Legation at Berlin (1871), he became Secretary (1874) and acted in the continued absence of his chief as chargé d'affaires, held the latter position in Switzerland (1877–81) and then served as minister to Belgium (1882–86). He returned to New York City in 1887 and became a member of the banking firm of Harriman & Co. at 120 Broadway, of which his brother Stuyvesant was the President.[5]
Elizabeth Fish (1870–1954),[15] who married Robert Burnside Potter, an architect who was the son of Maj. Gen. Robert Brown Potter and the nephew of Bishop Henry Codman Potter, in 1889.[6]
Fish was fatally assaulted in New York City on September 16, 1902, after spending several hours in the company of two women at the Ehrhard Brothers saloon at 265 West 34th Street, off of Eighth Avenue.[4] According to The New York Times, the two women he was with that night "were well known in that vicinity. They live in West Thirty-fourth Street, between Ninth and Tenth Avenues, and are usually accompanied by two men, one a salesman of jewelry."[4] Fish died from blunt force trauma to the head after being struck while exiting the saloon.[17][18] Thomas J. Sharkey was convicted of manslaughter and subsequently sentenced to ten years in prison. Fish was buried at Saint Philip's Church Cemetery in Garrison, New York.[5] In 1903, his widow sold their home in Irving Place.[19] She died in 1908.[1]
Descendants
Through his daughter Elizabeth, he was the grandfather of Hamilton Fish Potter (d. 1978), a member of the New York State Assembly,[20] and the great-grandfather of Hamilton Fish Potter, Jr. (d. 1997), also a Harvard lawyer who worked in banking.[21]
^Baird, William Raimond (1879). "Delta Psi". American College Fraternities: A Descriptive Analysis of the Society System in the Colleges of the United States, with Detailed Account of Each Fraternity (1st ed.). Philadelphia, PA: J. P. Lippman & Co. pp. 59–61 – via The Hathi Trust.
^Thayer, William Roscoe; Castle, William Richards; Howe, Mark Antony De Wolfe; Pier, Arthur Stanwood; Voto, Bernard Augustine De; Morrison, Theodore (1903). The Harvard Graduates' Magazine. Harvard Graduates' Magazine Association. p. 307. Retrieved 4 January 2018.