Nott was born in Ashford, CT., and was the son of farmers.
In 1795 he enrolled at Rhode Island College (now Brown University). After doing excellent on the entrance exam, he took another exam which he passed. It allowed him to receive a M.A. In the fall of that same year.
In 1796, he married Sarah Maria Benedict. He then moved to upstate New York and became a pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Cherry Valley. Within two years he had founded an academy, published a mathematics text book, and gained a reputation as a powerful preacher and orator.
In 1798, he was named pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Albany, New York. There were a number of prestigious political leaders in the congregation.
In 1800 he was named co-chaplain of the New York State legislature and a trustee of Union College in Schenectady. In 1804 he was named president of the college. His wife passed away that same year.
Under Nott's presidency, Union College flourished and graduated the largest class in the United States.
In 1807 he married his second wife, Gertrude Peebles Tibbits.
Nott was known for his tolerant attitude towards the student body, and Union was home to the first three social fraternities in the US: Kappa Alpha (1825), Sigma Phi (1827) and Delta Phi (1827).
Nott frequently spoke out on current political issues such as abolition, religion, and temperance. He had three famous temperance sermons, The Lectures on the Use of Intoxicating Liquors (1846), Lectures on Temperance (1847), and Lectures on Biblical Temperance (1863). Nott was also an inventor and became the president of the American Association for the Advancement of Education in 1850.
In 1851 Senator James Beekman, launched an investigation into Union College's finances. For years, Nott had been mixing the finances of the college with his own family's finances. The investigation was later dropped and Nott cleared of all charges in 1854, but not after the reputation of the College and of Nott were ruined.
In 1859 Nott ended his career at the College due to a paralytic stroke. He remained as president in title only until his death. He was survived by his third wife Urania B. Sheldon, whom he married in 1842, a year after the death of his second wife.
Schenectady Hall of Fame - Eliphalet Nott