It is well documented that members of the House of Nicolay became highly influential in the spheres of national government, law, the church, academia, military and diplomatic service, as well as the arts.

The earliest known reference to the family de Nicolay begins with Guy (also known as Guglielmo) who was born close to Florence, Italy and accompanied Pope Clement V in around 1305, when the Papacy was first established in Poitiers.

[citation needed] His son, Guy (II) (who had married Jaqueline de Baroncelli) followed his father to France and settled in the town of Bourg-Saint-Andéol in the Province of Vivarais (now the Ardèche).

The growth of the House of Nicolay over the centuries meant that many members rose to positions of national responsibility, including Chancellor to the Kingdom of Naples (1502), Count Antoine de Nicolaï who became Marshal of France in 1775, a General Lieutenant of the Grand Master of Artillery (under the reign of King Louis XIII) several Generals, several Colonels of the Regiment of Nicolay Dragoons, four Bishops, a Vice-Legate of Avignon, Cahors, Béziers and Verdun; this last at the same time as a member of the family was made First Chaplain to Duchess Marie-Josèphe of Saxony, mother of King Louis XVI.

Nicolas de Nicolay served for a time as Geographer-in-Ordinary to Henry II of France and spent most of his adult life traveling throughout Europe and the Turkish Empire.

[4][5] Gaspard was Attendant and Page to Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha[6] and the Nicolay family accompanied her to London, where she was to marry Frederick, Prince of Wales.

[12] Frederick's 6th child was Charles Grenfell Nicolay, a clergyman, geographer and geologist and (with F. D. Maurice) founder of Queen's College, London, the first institution for higher education of women in England.

Sir William went on to become Governor of St Kitts, Mauritius & Dominica and was made a Knight Commander of the Royal Guelphic Order (KCH).

Christian married Miss Turner and had three sons and two daughters, of whom only two survived: Augusta Georgiana Louisa Nicolay, God Daughter to King George IV and also sponsored by the then Queen Consort of Prussia Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz; and Thomas Frederick Nicolay, who became a Lieutenant-Colonel, Staff Surgeon to His Majesty's Forces and Deputy Inspector of Hospitals.

Captain Thomas Frederick of the 1st Madras European Fusiliers married Anne Sophia Hickey, who was a direct descendant of the Royal House of Plantagenet, Counts of Anjou and Kings of England.