1818-1902
Noah Davis Jr. served in 1865. Born in Haverhill, N.H., Sep. 10, 1818, and raised in Albion (Orleans County) and Buffalo. In Albion, he formed a partnership with Sanford E. Church (who would become Court of Appeals chief judge from 1873 to 1880). Supreme court justice, eighth judicial district, 1857-1868; U.S. Congressman (Republican), 1869-1870; U.S. attorney, Southern District of New York, 1870=1872; supreme court justice, first department, 1874-1886. Presided over the William “Boss” Tweed trials in New York City in 1873. Died Mar. 20, 19-2. See generally G. Myers, The History of New York, Boni & Liveright (1917); H.L. Clinton, Celebrated Trials: With Nine Portraits, New York (1897); Judge Davis and His Contempt Proceedings 12 Alb LJ 103 (1875-1876); Judge Davis and Six Gentlemen of the New York Bar, by a member of the Procession New York (1874); Judge Davis on Contempt, 11 Alb LJ 408 (1876); “The Contempt Case: Judge Davis and the Tweed Counsel,” The New York Times, Nov. 25, 1873 p.2, 2 McAdam, History of the Bench and Bar of New York, New York History Co. (1897), p. 123; biography at 66 Alb LJ 343 (1904-1905). Full-page illustration in Harper’s Weekly, Dec. 13, 1873; Myers, The History of Tammany Hall, ch. 25, Collapse and Dispersion of the “Ring” 1871-8172; http://politicalgraveyard.com; http://bioguide.congress.gov. Obituary, The New York Times, Mar. 21, 1902. Internment at Mt. Albion, Albion, N.Y.
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.