1803-1889
William Johnson Bacon served in 1860, 1868. Born in Williamstown, Mass., Feb 18, 1803. Graduate of Hamilton College, 1822; Litchfield Law School, 1824. Elected to state assembly 1850, 1851. Elected justice of the supreme court, fifth judicial district, in 1854 and again in 1862, serving until 1870. Elected (as a Republican) to the U.S. Congress, served 1877-1879. Judge Bacon concurred in Lemmon v. the People (20 NY 562 [1860]), the court’s antislavery opinion. Died in Utica, N.Y., Jul. 3, 1889; interment at Forest Hill Cemetery. See http://bioguide.congress.gov.
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.