ROCHESTER, William Beatty, a Representative from New York; born in Hagerstown, Md., January 29, 1789; attended the public schools and was graduated from Charlotte Hall, St. Mary’s County, Md.; was aide-de-camp to General McClure in the War of 1812; studied law; was admitted to the bar and began practice in Bath, N.Y.; moved to Angelica, N.Y.; member of the state assembly in 1816-1818; elected as a Republican to the Seventeenth Congress and reelected as a Crawford Republican to the Eighteenth Congress and served from March 4, 1821, until his resignation in 1823; state circuit judge for the eighth circuit from April 21, 1823, until 1826, when he resigned; unsuccessful Democratic candidate for governor in 1826; secretary to special Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Colombia, in 1826; Chargé d’Affaires to Central America in 1827; settled in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1828; president of the branch bank of the United States at Buffalo, N.Y.; president of the Bank of Pensacola, Fla.; director of the Alabama & Florida Railroad Co. in 1837 and 1838; was lost in the wreck of the steamer Pulaski off the coast of North Carolina June 14, 1838.
