Francis Williams Rockwell (May 26, 1844June 26, 1929) was a United States Representative from Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

. Born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts

Pittsfield, Massachusetts

Pittsfield is the largest city and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County. Its area code is 413. Its ZIP code is 01201...

, his father was Julius Rockwell

Julius Rockwell

Julius Rockwell 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...

, also a member of Congress

United States Congress

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

.

Rockwell attended the public schools and Edwards Place School Stockbridge

Stockbridge, Massachusetts

Stockbridge is a town in Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,947 at the 2010 census...

. He graduated from Amherst College

Amherst College

Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...

 in 1868 and from the law department of Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 in 1871; he commenced the practice of law in Pittsfield in 1871. He was appointed one of the special justices of the district court

District court

District courts are a category of courts which exists in several nations. These include:-Australia:District Court is the name given to the intermediate court in most Australian States. They hear indictable criminal offences excluding treason, murder and, in some States, manslaughter...

 of central Berkshire in 1873, resigning in 1875. He served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives

Massachusetts House of Representatives

The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from single-member electoral districts across the Commonwealth. Representatives serve two-year terms...

 in 1879, and served in the Massachusetts Senate

Massachusetts Senate

The Massachusetts Senate is the upper house of the Massachusetts General Court, the bicameral state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Senate comprises 40 elected members from 40 single-member senatorial districts in the state...

 in 1881 and 1882.

Rockwell was elected as a Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 to the Forty-eighth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of George D. Robinson

George D. Robinson

George Dexter Robinson -Biography:He was born in Lexington, Massachusetts. He attended Lexington Academy and Hopkins Classical School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and graduated from Harvard University in 1856. While at Harvard he was admitted to the Zeta Psi fraternity...

; he was reelected to the Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, and Fifty-first Congresses and served from January 17, 1884, to March 3, 1891. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1890 to the Fifty-second Congress, and resumed the practice of law in Pittsfield until 1916 when he retired. From 1893 to 1916 he was president of the City Savings Bank 1893-1916, and was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1900. He was a member of the Greylock

Mount Greylock

Mount Greylock is the highest natural point in Massachusetts at . Its peak is located in the northwest corner of the state in the western part of the town of Adams in Berkshire County. Although geologically part of the Taconic Mountains, Mount Greylock is commonly associated with the abutting...

 Reservation Commission from 1898 to 1926. He died in Pittsfield, and was interred in Pittsfield Cemetery.

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