Frederick Whittlesey

Frederick Whittlesey (June 12, 1799 – September 19, 1851) was a U.S. Representative from New York and a prominent jurist and legal educator, and was a cousin of Elisha Whittlesey and Thomas Tucker Whittlesey. He was born in New Preston, Litchfield County, Connecticut, where he pursued academic studies in preparation for a professional career. Raised in New England at the turn of the nineteenth century, he came of age in a period of expanding educational opportunities and increasing political engagement in the young republic.

Whittlesey attended Yale College, then one of the leading institutions of higher education in the United States, and graduated in 1818. At Yale he studied law, laying the foundation for a lifelong involvement in the legal profession and public service. Following his graduation, he continued his legal training in New York, where he completed the requirements for admission to the bar.

He was admitted to the bar in Utica, New York, in 1821 and commenced the practice of law in Cooperstown, New York, early in 1822. Later in 1822 he moved to Rochester, New York, a rapidly growing community in western New York State, where he quickly established himself in legal and civic affairs. In local government he served as Treasurer of Monroe County in 1829 and 1830, an office that reflected both his standing in the community and his experience in public finance and administration.

Whittlesey entered national politics as a member of the Anti-Masonic Party, a significant third-party movement of the era. He was elected as an Anti-Masonic candidate to the Twenty-second and Twenty-third Congresses, serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1831, to March 3, 1835. During his congressional service he was chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of War in the Twenty-third Congress, where he oversaw and reviewed federal spending related to military affairs. After the close of his second term, he declined further congressional service and returned to Rochester to resume the practice of law.

In addition to his private practice, Whittlesey continued to hold important legal and municipal offices in Rochester. He served as City Attorney of Rochester in 1838, acting as the chief legal officer for the city during a period of significant urban growth. His judicial career advanced when he was appointed vice chancellor of the eighth judicial district of New York, a court of equity jurisdiction, a position he held from 1839 to 1847. With the reorganization of the state judiciary that followed the New York constitutional changes of the mid-1840s, he became a justice of the New York State Supreme Court in 1847 and 1848, participating in the work of one of the state’s highest trial courts.

In his later years, Whittlesey turned increasingly to legal education and academic leadership. He became a professor of law at Genesee College (an institution that later became part of what is now Syracuse University) in 1850 and 1851, contributing to the training of a new generation of lawyers in western New York. He also served as Vice President of the University of Rochester, reflecting his broader engagement with higher education and the intellectual life of the region.

Frederick Whittlesey died of typhus fever in Rochester, New York, on September 19, 1851. He was interred in Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, a burial place for many of the city’s leading citizens. His career encompassed service at the local, state, and national levels, and combined legislative work, judicial office, and legal scholarship during a formative period in New York and United States history.