Biography of Augustus Bockes
FROM OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE
A DESCRIPTIVE AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD
OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK
PREPARED AND PUBLISHED UNDER THE
AUSPICES OF THE SARATOGIAN
THE BOSTON HISTORY COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 1899
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AUGUSTUS BOCKES. JUDGE AUGUSTUS BOCKES, Saratoga Springs, was born in the town of Greenfield, Saratoga county, N. Y., October
11, 1817, where his parents had resided for many years. His father, Adam Bockes, jr., was a farmer and held various
town offices, among them that of justice of the peace and supervisor.
Judge Bockes’s opportunities for education were confined to common schools of the town in which he lived, supplemented
by two terms at Burr Seminary, Manchester, Vt. He taught school for three terms, one in his native town and two
in the town of Malta. He commenced the study of law in the office of Judiah Ellsworth at Saratoga Springs in 1838;
and continued his studies in the office of William A. Beach, one of the brightest lights of the Saratoga bar, from
whose office he was admitted to the bar in 1843. Immediately after his admission he commenced the practice of his
profession in partnership with Stephen P. Nash (deceased), late of New York city, and soon thereafter formed a
partnership with Mr. Beach, which continued until 1847. He was elected the first county judge of Saratoga county
under the new constitution in June, 1847, and entered upon his official duties July 1 of that year; he was re-elected
for a second term at the November election in 1851 and resigned the office in. 1854. On January 1, 1855, he was
appointed by Governor Clarke a justice of the Supreme Court for the Fourth Judicial District of the State, to fill
the vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge Daniel Cady. At the November election, in 1859, he was elected justice
of the Supreme Court, the place to which he had been previously appointed in 1855, and was re-elected at the November
election in 1867 and was again re-elected in 1875. At the last two elections he was elected without opposition,
and at his last election he was nominated and supported by both political parties. During the year 1867 he was
a member of the Court of Appeals, pursuant to the then Constitution of the State. He was designated by Governor
Dix to the General Term of the Supreme Court for the Fourth Judicial department (an appellate branch of that court
under the amended constitution, which designation relieved him from circuit duty) for the years 1874 and 1875,
and was thereafter redesignated to the same place on the expiration of his several designations by Governors Tilden,
Cornell, Cleveland and Hill respectively. Thus Judge Bockes held judicial positions during a period of thirty-five
years, six years county judge and twenty-nine years justice of the Supreme Court, one year of which latter period
was under appointment by the governor and twenty-eight under elections by the people. During one year (1867) he
was a member of the Court of Appeals, and during fourteen years prior to January 1, 1888, he was a member of the
Appellate division of the Supreme Court under designation by the governors of the State. His last elective term
of fourteen years was abbreviated two years by. constitutional limitation, inasmuch as he attained to seventy years
of age on the 1st of October, 1887. The honorary degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by Union College in 1885.
Judge Bockes married a daughter of Judge William Hay in 1844, and one son was born to them, William Hay Bockes.
Judge Bockes is now living (1899) at the advanced age of eighty-two years.
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