Thomas Phoenix

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Thomas Phoenix was an American lawyer and politician from New York.

Name

The family name Phoenix, sometimes spelled Phœnix, derives from the homophonous English family name Fenwicks which is pronounced like FENN-ix. (This is quite different from the Greek mythological bird and the Arizona state capital which are pronounced like FEE-nix.) The Fenwicks resided originally at the Fenwick Tower in Northumberland.

Life

Phoenix graduated A.B. from Columbia College in 1795. He was admitted to the bar in 1798.

He was New York County District Attorney from 1835 to 1838. In 1836, he prosecuted Richard P. Robinson for the murder of Helen Jewett, but lost the case to Ogden Hoffman, his predecessor in the D.A's office, who appeared for the defence and secured Robinson's acquittal.

Sources

Prominent Families of New York (page 309)
Catalogue of Officers and Graduates issued by Columbia College (page 47)
Proceedings of the Board of Supervisors (1839, pages 653ff; with a report on his accounts as D.A.)
Documents of the Board of Aldermen (1841–42, Vol. VIII, page 29, rejecting his claim for extra compensation as D.A.)
The New York Civil List compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (page 377; Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858)

Legal offices
Preceded by Ogden Hoffman	New York County District Attorney 1835 - 1838	Succeeded by James R. Whiting

v t e New York County District Attorneys

Riker Colden Riker Gardenier Rodman Maxwell Van Wyck Maxwell Hoffman Phoenix Whiting Paterson McKeon N. B. Blunt Shepard Hall Sweeny J. Blunt Waterbury Hall Garvin Phelps Rollins McKeon Vincent* Peckham Olney Martine Fellows Nicoll Fellows Davis* Olcott Gardiner Philbin Jerome Whitman Perkins Swann Banton Crain Dodge Dewey Hogan Kuh Morgenthau Vance

(*) denotes Acting

Persondata
Name	Phoenix, Thomas
Alternative names
Short description	New York County district attorney
Date of birth
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death

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