Joseph Hopper Nicholson (May 15, 1770 – March 4, 1817) was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician from Maryland.

Born in Chestertown, Kent County, Maryland, Nicholson graduated from Washington College in 1787 and studied law.

In Congress, Nicholson was one of the impeachment managers appointed by the House of Representatives in January 1804 to conduct the impeachment proceedings against John Pickering, judge of the United States District Court for New Hampshire, and in December of the same year against Samuel Chase, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Nicholson was significantly ill in February 1801 when the House decided the Election of 1800, yet was carried on a stretcher to the Capitol to vote for Jefferson.

He is interred in the family cemetery on the Lloyd estate of "Wye House" near Easton, Talbot County, Maryland.