William Rumsey (born October 18, 1841, in Bath, New York, died January 16, 1903, in Rochester, New York) was an American lawyer, diplomat and judge. His father was David Rumsey, a prominent lawyer, politician and judge. He attended Williams College from 1858 to 1861, departing for military service in his senior year. Due to his military service, the college eventually awarded him a diploma. A member of the New York State Militia, he was pressed into service immediately upon the outbreak of the Civil War. From April 19, 1861, until his discharge in October 1865, he served in four different posts: as an adjutant-general in a recruiting office in Elmira, as an adjutant with the New York Light Artillery (with which unit he was wounded), as an aide to General Averell (with the rank of colonel) and in another position in West Virginia.
From 1866 to 1868 Rumsey was employed as the private secretary to the United States Minister to Japan. Upon his return home in February 1868, he began the study of law in his father's office. He was admitted to the bar on December 9, 1868. During this time of his study he was also a public speaker for the Republican Party. He practiced law in partnership with his father from his admission to the latter's elevation to the Supreme Court in January 1873 and with a cousin from that time to his own elevation to the bench in 1881.
Rumsey's candidacy for the Supreme Court for the Seventh District in 1880 generated considerable bitterness within the Republican Party. The elder Rumsey had reputedly cut a deal with Steuben County Judge Guy McMaster in 1873 that entailed that he, McMaster, would Succeed Rumsey Sr. Upon the later's retirement. In addition, several factions had grown up in the district Republican bar which had come to a tacit arrangement to rotate the nominations for election to judicial vacancies between them. Rumsey Jr's nomination violated both principles. The opposition press in Rochester, New York, was not impressed "Little is known of the younger Rumsey" wrote the Union & Advertiser, "and the less of that little said, the better." Rumsey captured the fall election in the heavily Republican Seventh District.
Rumsey sat as a trial judge for fifteen years. In 1896, he was dispatched to Manhattan as an Associate Justice of the Appellate Division for the First Department, on which court he remained until the close of 1900. He was then appointed to the Appellate Division for the Fourth Department, on which he remained for nine months. He resigned this last post in October 1901, and sat as a trial judge until his death in Rochester, New York, on January 16, 1903.
Salmon Portland Chase was an American politician and jurist who served as the sixth chief justice of the United States from 1864 to 1873. He had earlier served as the 23rd governor of Ohio, and had also represented Ohio in the United States Senate, and had served as the 25th United States Secretary of the Treasury in the administration of Abraham Lincoln. Chase is therefore one of the few American politicians who have served in all three branches of the federal government, in addition to serving in the highest state-level office. Prior to his Supreme Court appointment, Chase was widely seen as a potential president.
Rufus W. Peckham was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1895 to 1909, and is the most recent Democratic nominee approved by a Republican-majority Senate. He was known for his strong use of substantive due process to invalidate regulations of business and property. Peckham's namesake father was also a lawyer and judge, and a U.S. Representative. His older brother, Wheeler Hazard Peckham (1833–1905), was one of the lawyers who prosecuted William M. Tweed and a failed nominee to the Supreme Court.
Robert Randall Thomas is a former justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois and a former professional football player. He has served as the Illinois Supreme Court Justice for the Second District since December 4, 2000, and as chief justice from September 6, 2005 to September 5, 2008. His political affiliation is Republican.
Richard Carl Wesley is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
William Brewster Williams was a politician and judge from the U.S. State of Michigan.
The 1888 New York state election was held on November 6, 1888, to elect the governor, the lieutenant governor and a judge of the New York Court of Appeals, as well as all members of the New York State Assembly.
David Kellogg Cartter was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician who served as a United States representative from Ohio, Minister Resident of the United States to Bolivia and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia.
David George Larimer is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of New York.
D-Cady Herrick was an American lawyer and politician.
Henry Theodore Kellogg was an American lawyer and politician from New York.
Edward Ridley Finch was an American lawyer and politician.
John H. Van Voorhis was an American lawyer and politician.
Domenick Luciano Gabrielli was an American lawyer, politician and judge.
Donald Stephen Coburn is an American Democratic Party politician and jurist from New Jersey.
Edward Norton was an American lawyer and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California from January 2, 1862, to January 2, 1864.
Benjamin Franklin Graves was a justice of the Michigan Supreme Court from 1868 to 1883.
Ralph Lazier Berkshire was a lawyer, judge, and Republican politician who helped found the state of West Virginia and became the first chief justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia. Although defeated for re-election, Berkshire again served from September 10, 1868 until December 31, 1872, and later represented Monongalia County in the West Virginia Senate (1874-1878) as well as continued practicing law.
Woodrow Wilson appointed three Associate Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States, James Clark McReynolds, Louis Brandeis, and John Hessin Clarke.
Justin Reed Walker is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He was previously a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky from 2019 to 2020.
Gilbert David Blauvelt Hasbrouck was an American lawyer, politician, and judge from New York.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
