Life
He was the first child of Col. Nathaniel Rochester (1752–1831), founder of the City of Rochester, New York, and Sophia (Beatty) Rochester (1768–1845). He attended the public schools and graduated from Charlotte Hall Military Academy. In 1812, he married his first wife Harriet Irwin (d. 1815), and their son was Nathaniel Montgomery Rochester (1813–1823).
During the War of 1812, Rochester was an aide-de-camp to Gen. George McClure. After the war, he studied law with his uncle Judge Adam Beatty and with Henry Clay, was admitted to the bar, and began practice in Bath, New York. Later, he removed to Angelica, New York. On January 31, 1816, he married his second wife Amanda Hopkins (d. 1831), and their children were James Hervey Rochester (1819–1860), Harriet Louisa (Rochester) Bull (1821–1854), Sophia Elizabeth Rochester (1823–1824), William Beatty Rochester (1826–1909) and Nathaniel Elie Rochester (1829–1833).
Rochester was a member of the New York State Assembly (Allegany and Steuben Co.) in 1816-17 and 1818. Rochester was a presidential elector in 1820, voting for James Monroe and Daniel D. Tompkins.
Rochester was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the 17th, and re-elected as a Crawford Democratic-Republican to the 18th United States Congress, holding office from December 3, 1821, to April 21, 1823 when he resigned upon his appointment as Judge of the Eight Circuit Court. He resigned from the bench to run on the Bucktails ticket for Governor of New York in 1826, but was narrowly defeated by DeWitt Clinton.
He was Secretary to the Special Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Colombia in 1826, and Chargé d'affaires to Central America in 1827-28. In 1828, he was appointed by Nicholas Biddle as President of the branch of the Second Bank of the United States at Buffalo, New York, remaining there until 1836. On April 9, 1832, he married his third wife Eliza (Hatch) Powers (1800–1885, widow of Gershom Powers), and their children were Eliza Hatch Rochester (1833–1868) and George William Rochester (1835–1837).
He later served as President of the Bank of Pensacola, Florida and a director of the Alabama and Florida Railroad. Rochester died in the wreck of the steamer Pulaski off the coast of North Carolina on June 14, 1838.
Mayor Thomas H. Rochester was his brother.
Read more about this topic: William B. Rochester
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment, but never with a view to injury and wrongdoing. Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course. Similarly, I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion. I will keep pure and holy both my life and my art.”
—Hippocrates (c. 460–c. 370 B.C.)
“This life we live is a strange dream, and I don’t believe at all any account men give of it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The life of a good man is a continual warfare with his passions.”
—Samuel Richardson (1689–1761)