James Hooker

James Hooker (July 12, 1792 - September 2, 1858 ) was an American lawyer and politician from New York.

Life

Born in Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut, he was the son of Captain James Hooker (1742–1805), a merchant, and his third wife, Mary (Chaffee) Hooker. He graduated from Yale College in 1810, and then studied law at the Litchfield Law School. He married Helen Sarah Reade (1790–1879), and they had two daughters.

He was Surrogate of Dutchess County from 1828 to 1840. In 1836, he was a presidential elector. In February 1840, he was elected by the New York State Legislature one of the canal commissioners and was legislated out of office by the Act of May 6, 1844, which re-organized the Canal Commission.

He died in 1858 in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York.

Sources

• The New York Civil List compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (pp. 42, 328 and 413; Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858)
• Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College by Franklin Bowditch Dexter (H. Holt and Co., 1912, vol. 6, 1805–1815)
• The History of Ancient Windsor, Connecticut (Heritage Books, ISBN 0-7884-4385-2, ISBN 978-0-7884-4385-5 ; vol. 2, p. 667)
• The Yale Literary Magazine (Herrick & Noyes, 1859, vol. 25, no. 1, October 1859, p. 44)
• Death notice of his wife, in New York Times, February 1, 1879 (giving correct sequence of first names)
• His wife's obituary, in New York Times, February 2, 1879 (giving wrong sequence of first names, and erroneously stating she was a granddaughter of Gilbert Livingston, in fact she was a great-granddaughter)