Julius Rockwell

Julius Rockwell
United States Senator
from Massachusetts
In office
June 3, 1854 – January 31, 1855
Appointed byEmory Washburn
Preceded byEdward Everett
Succeeded byHenry Wilson
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Massachusetts's 7th district
In office
March 4, 1843 – March 3, 1851
Preceded byGeorge N. Briggs
Succeeded byJohn Z. Goodrich
Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
In office
1835–1837
Preceded byWilliam B. Calhoun
Succeeded byRobert Charles Winthrop
In office
1858–1858
Preceded byCharles A. Phelps
Succeeded byCharles Hale
Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
In office
1834–1837
In office
1858–1858
Personal details
Born(1805-04-26)April 26, 1805
Colebrook, Connecticut, US
DiedMay 19, 1888(1888-05-19) (aged 83)
Lenox, Massachusetts, US
Political partyWhig
Other political
affiliations
Republican Party
Alma materYale University
ProfessionLaw

Julius Rockwell (April 26, 1805 – May 19, 1888) was a United States politician from Massachusetts, and the father of Francis Williams Rockwell.

Rockwell was born in Colebrook, Connecticut, and educated at private schools and then Yale, where he studied law, graduating in 1826. He was admitted to the bar and in 1830 commenced practice in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He was elected a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1834 and served four years, three of them as Speaker. Rockwell was appointed commissioner of the Bank of Massachusetts from 1838 to 1840.

In 1842 he successfully ran as a Whig candidate for the House of Representatives and was re-elected three times, serving from 1843 to 1851. He did not seek renomination in 1850. He was a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1853, and was appointed to the Senate in 1854 to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Edward Everett, serving from June 3, 1854, to January 31, 1855, when his successor Henry Wilson was elected. Rockwell voted in the electoral college for the Republican candidate John C. Frémont in the presidential election of 1856.

Rockwell returned to his old post of Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1858, until his appointment to the Massachusetts Superior Court in 1859.[1] He retired as a judge in 1886 and died May 19, 1888, in Lenox, Massachusetts, where he is buried.

  1. ^ Cooke, Rollin Hillyer (1906), Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Berkshire County, Massachusetts Vol. II, New York, N.Y., Chicago, IL: The Lewis Publishing Co, pp. 119–123