William Cocke
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Image:Senatorcocke.jpg William Cocke (September 6, 1747– August 22, 1828) was an American lawyer, pioneer, and statesman. He has the somewhat unique distinction of having served in the state legislature of four different states: Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi, and was the first U.S. Senator for Tennessee.
William was born in Amelia County, Virginia in 1747. He was the sixth of ten or eleven children of Abraham (c.1695-1760) and Mary (Batte) Cocke. William was educated at home before reading law. He was admitted to the bar in Virginia and engaged in a limited law practice.
Cocke spent more time on the frontier than he did in a law office. He was involved in exploration in the company of Daniel Boone, seeing much of what was to become eastern Kentucky and East Tennessee. He was elected a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses and a colonel of militia; in 1776 he led four companies of that militia into to what became Tennessee for action against the Indians. Later that year he left Virginia and moved to what was to become Tennessee. During the attempted organization of the State of Franklin, Cocke was elected as the would-be state's delegate to the Continental Congress.
In 1796 Cocke was chosen to the convention that wrote the first Tennessee state constitution. He was then elected to be one of the new state's initial Senators. While his service in this office is often dated from the date of Tennessee statehood, June 1, 1796, he in fact was sworn in and began his initial Senate service on August 2, 1796. His initial term expired on March 3, 1797.
However, the Tennessee General Assembly initially neglected to elect a Senate successor to Blount; he was subsequently appointed to the post in his former seat by governor of Tennessee John Sevier on April 22, 1797, until the General Assembly belatedly elected his successor, Andrew Jackson. Later he was elected by the Tennessee Assembly to the other U.S. Senate seat, serving in it from March 4, 1799 to March 3, 1805.
Cocke was appointed a judge of the First Judicial Circuit of Tennessee in 1809. He later resigned this position and moved to Mississippi. There he was elected to the state legislature in 1813. He returned to military duty in the War of 1812, serving under Andrew Jackson. In 1814 he was appointed by President James Madison to be Indian agent to the Chickasaw nation; he died in Columbus, Mississippi in 1818 and is buried there.
Cocke County, Tennessee is named in his honor. His son John Cocke (1772–1854) was a four-term U.S. Representative from Tennessee; his grandson William Michael Cocke (1815–1896) was a two-term U.S. Representative from Tennessee.
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