1800-1885
Thomas W. Clerke served in 1860, 1868. Born in 1800 in Ireland. Was qualified to become a solicitor of the Court of Chancery in 1829. Editor, A Popular and Practical Education to Law Studies (1846). Elected to state supreme court, 1854. His rumored resignation prompted a petition by 300 members of the bar to dissuade him (The New York Times, Oct. 29, 1869). Died in Dec. 15, 1885 in Manhattan, and is buried in Schenectady, 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.