William Cocke

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William Cocke

William Cocke (* 1748 in Amelia County , Colony of Virginia , † August 22, 1828 in Columbus , Mississippi ) was an American politician of the Democratic Republican Party . From 1796 to 1797 and from 1799 to 1805 he served in the US Senate for the state of Tennessee .

biography

Cocke was born in Amelia County in what was then the colony of Virginia. His parents were immigrants from England . He was the sixth of ten or eleven (exact information is not known) children. He was schooled at home and then began law study. He was admitted to the Virginia bar and from then on worked in a small law firm.

However, Cocke spent little time in the firm, rather he first made political attention when he was elected to the House of Burgesses of Virginia. In 1776 he left Virginia to settle in what is now Tennessee. There he was 1796 delegate of Congress, which drafted the Constitution of the state of Tennessee. Cocke was sent to the US Senate , alongside William Blount, as the first Senator from the new state of Tennessee. He took up his mandate on August 2, 1796. His term ended on March 4, 1797. However, the Tennessee State Congress could not agree on a successor, so that Cocke was nominated by Governor John Sevier for the vacant seat (which he had originally held). He remained in office until September 26, 1797, when his successor Andrew Jackson took over his seat. Cocke was again sent to the Senate by the Tennessee State Congress, this time from 1799 to 1805 as the successor to Joseph Anderson . His successor was Daniel Smith .

In 1809, Cocke was elected as a judge in a Tennessee state court. He served there until 1813 when he moved to Mississippi. There he was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives in the same year . In 1814 he was appointed Indian agent for the Chickasaw by US President James Madison . Cocke died on August 22, 1828 in Columbus and was buried there.

The Cocke County , Tennessee is named after him. His son John Alexander Cocke , like his son William Michael Cocke, was a member of the US House of Representatives .

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