William B. Rochester
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William Beatty Rochester (January 29, 1789 - June 14, 1838) was a United States Representative from New York. He was born in Hagerstown, Maryland. He attended the public schools and graduated from Charlotte Hall Military Academy. During the War of 1812, he was an aide-de-camp to General McClure. After the war, he studied law and was admitted to the bar and began practice in Bath, New York. Later, he moved to Angelica, New York.
Rochester was a member of the New York assembly in 1816-1818. He was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Seventeenth Congress and reelected as a Crawford Democratic-Republican to the Eighteenth Congress and served from March 4, 1821, until his resignation in 1823. After Congress, he was a state circuit judge for the eighth circuit from April 21, 1823, until 1826, when he resigned.
Rochester was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Governor of New York in 1826. He was secretary to special Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Colombia in 1826 and Chargé d’Affaires to Central America in 1827. He settled in Buffalo, New York in 1828 and was president of the branch Bank of the United States at Buffalo. He also served as president of the Bank of Pensacola, Florida and director of the Alabama & Florida Railroad Company in 1837 and 1838. Rochester was lost in the wreck of the steamer Pulaski off the coast of North Carolina on June 14, 1838.
