Charles Cooper Nott, Jr.

Charles Cooper Nott Jr. (October 10, 1869 – May 10, 1957) was an American attorney and jurist. He served as judge of the New York General Sessions Court from 1913 to 1939. In 1922 he presided over the obscenity case of James Branch Cabell and Robert Medill McBride for the novel, Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice. In 1939 he presided over the second trial of James Joseph Hines.

Early life Nott was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts, on October 10, 1869. He was the son of Alice Effingham (née Hopkins) Nott and Charles Cooper Nott Sr., the chief justice of the United States Court of Claims.

His great-grandfather was Eliphalet Nott, the longtime President of Union College, and his great-aunt, Sarah Marie Nott, was married to Bishop Alonzo Potter.

Nott graduated from Williams College in 1890, then received his law degree from Harvard Law School.

From November 1913 to 1939 he was a judge for the New York General Sessions Court. Nott wrote in his decision that "...the most that can be said against the book is that certain passages therein may be considered suggestive in a veiled and subtle way of immorality, but such suggestions are delicately conveyed [and that because of Cabell's writing style] ... it is doubtful if the book could be read or understood at all by more than a very limited number of readers."

In 1939, Nott presided over the second trial of James Joseph Hines, the Democratic Party politician who was one of the most powerful leaders of Tammany Hall in New York City, where Hines was found guilty on corruption and conspiracy charges.

Assassination attempt

There was an attempted assassination in 1919 when anarchists planted a bomb at his doorstep. The bomb prematurely exploded, killing both of the bombers. The opinion of the police was that Federal Judge John Clark Knox, who presided over cases during the First Red Scare, may have been the intended target, and the bombers had confused their names.

Dorothy Nott (1898–1899), who died in infancy. Frances Jerome Nott (b. 1900), who first married Stacy Courtis Richmond Jr. (1898–1931) in 1922. After his death, she married James Smith Hemingway Jr. (1899–1961) in 1934. Joel Benedict Nott (1903–1931), who died in an aircrash on Saturday, November 21, 1931, at the New Bern Regional Airport. Lawrence Hopkins Nott (1906–1986), who married Janet Lawton.

After his first wife's death, he remarried to Mary Porter Mitchell (1878–1960) on April 15, 1916, in Williamstown.