1817-1900
William Fullerton served in 1867. Born in Minisink, Orange County, N.Y., May 1, 1817. Union College graduate, 1838. In 1852 joined partnership with Charles O’Conor, one of New York’s most prominent lawyers. Renowned for his cross-examination of Henry Ward Beecher in Tilton v Beecher. While on his annual fishing trip with Chester A. Arthur in 1867 appointed to state supreme court and elected without opposition in the next election See 2 McAdam, History of the Bench and Bar of New York, New York History Co. (1897), p. 166. Obituary, The New York Times, May 16, 1900. Calendar of The Historical Society of the Courts of the State of New York, Jun. 2006.
This biography appears in The Judges of the New York Court of Appeals: A Biographical History, ed. Hon. Albert M. Rosenblatt (New York: Fordham University Press, 2007). It has not been updated since publication.