James Hooker was an American lawyer and politician from New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

.

Life

He was the son of Captain James Hooker (1742-1805), a merchant, and his third wife, Mary (Chaffee) Hooker. He graduated from Yale College

Yale College

Yale College was the official name of Yale University from 1718 to 1887. The name now refers to the undergraduate part of the university. Each undergraduate student is assigned to one of 12 residential colleges.-Residential colleges:...

 in 1810, and then studied law at the Litchfield Law School

Litchfield Law School

The Litchfield Law School of Litchfield, Connecticut, was the first formal school offering training for the legal profession in the United States. It was established in 1784 by Tapping Reeve, who would later became the Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court...

. 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

Erie Canal Commission

The New York State Legislature appointed in 1810 a Commission to Explore a Route for a Canal to Lake Erie, and Report which became known as the Erie Canal Commission...

and was legislated out of office by the Act of May 6, 1844, which re-organized the Canal Commission.

Sources

• The New York Civil List compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (pages 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 0788443852 , ISBN 9780788443855 ; vol. 2, page 667)
• The Yale Literary Magazine (Herrick & Noyes, 1859, vol. 25, no. 1, October 1859, page 44)
• http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9401E3DD123EE73BBC4953DFB4668382669FDE Death notice of his wife, in NYT on February 1, 1879 (giving correct sequence of first names)
• http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=980DE2DD123EE73BBC4A53DFB4668382669FDE His wife's obit, in NYT on 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)