Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/317

 COCKRILL

CODDINGTON

1832; son of Joseph and Nancy Cockrell, and grandson of Simon Cockrell. He was educated at the common school and at Chapel Hill college, left school to follow the gold seekers to California in 1849, and returned to Missouri in 1853 where he ■engaged in farming. In 1861 he joined the Con- federate army and served through the war. After the surrender he removed to Texas, settling in Grayson county, where he was engaged in farm- ing, studied and practised law, and was elected county judge. In 1883 he removed to Jones county where he was appointed by Governor Ire- land district judge in 1885. He was elected to "the same office in 1886 and re-elected in 1890. He was a representative in the 53d and 54th con- gresses, 1893-97, and at the expiration of the latter congress he retired from public life.

COCKRILL, Stirling Robertson, jurist, was born in Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 26, 1847. His ancestors in America were of the Harding, Rob- ertson and Cockrill families of Virginia, and in England and Scotland in a direct line from Rob- ert Bruce, through Sir Thomas Moore, to Brevard Moore, the common ancestor of Judge Cockrill's mother and of Gen. Robert E. Lee. He attended .school in ISlashville till 1863, when, with the non-combatant members of the family, he was sent .south by the Federal army. He attended a military school at Marietta, Ga., and in 1864 joined the Confederate army and fought in the defence of Atlanta, Ga., and with Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's army in the Carolinas up to the time of the surrender. He w^as graduated at Washington and Lee university, A.B., in 1869, and at the Cumberland university, Lebanon, Tenn., LL.B., in 1870. He settled in the practice •of law at Little Rock, Ark., and in 1872 was mar- ried to Mary Ashley Freeman, granddaughter of ithe Rt. Rev. Geoi'ge W. Freeman, P.E. })isliop of Arkansas, and of Senator Chester Ashley. He became a law partner with A. H. Garland, and in 1884 was elected to the office of chief justice of the supreme court of Arkansas, made vacant by the death of Chief Justice English.

CODDING, James H., representative, was born in Pike township, Bradford county. Pa., July 8, 1849. He removed with his parents to Towanda in 1854; was educated at Susquehanna •collegiate institute and in 1868 engaged in the hardware business. He studied law, was ad- mitted to the bar in 1878 and practised in To- wanda. He was a Republican representative from the 15th district of Pennsylvania in the 54th and 55th congresses, 1895-99, retiring at the close of the latter congress.

CODDINQTON, Wellesley Perry, educator, was born in Sing Sing, N.Y., Oct. 23, 1840; son of David Cook and Hannah (Perry) Coddington;

grandson of Millard and Phoebe (Cook) Codding- ton and great-grandson of Jotham and Mary (Millard) Coddington. His first American ances- tor, John Coddington of Woodbridge, N.J., was born abovit 1655 and bought land in Woodbridge in 1683. Wellesley was graduated at Wesleyan university in 1860 and the same year taught in the Troy conference seminary, Poultnej', Vt., removing in 1862 to the Amenia seminary, Dutchess county, N.Y., where he was a teacher of ancient languages and in 1863 was acting principal of that institution. In 1864 he became teacher of Greek in Cazenovia seminary, N.Y.; was transferred to the Oneida conference of the Methodist Episcopal church in 1865, and was ap- pointed professor of modern languages in Genes- see college. In 1868 he was transferred to the chair of Latin and Greek, holding the same until 1871, when the college was removed to Syracuse, N.Y., and took the name of the Syi'acuse univer- sity. He continued in the same chair until 1891, having added to his duties the chair of ethics and Christian evidence. In 1891 he was promoted to the chair of philosophy and pedagogy. He re- ceived the honorary degree of S.T.D. from Ham- ilton college in 1881.

CODDINQTON, William, governor of Rhode Island, was boi-n in Lincolnshire, England, in 1601. He was appointed an assistant to Governor Vane of the Massachusetts Colony and arrived in Salem, June 12, 1630. Besides his official duties as a member of the court of assistants he was a trader in Boston and the owner of a prop- erty at Braintree. In the election of 1637 his name was dropped from the roll of magistrates and the next day, with the defeated governor, he was chosen deputy to the court from Boston. He defended Mrs. Hutchinson and opposed the banishment of Wheelwright, but as he could not overcome the Winthrop persecutions, he, with John Clark, headed a party of eighteen, who de- parted on April 26, 1638, from Massachusetts, de- termined to settle on Long Island or further south. Persuaded by Roger Williams, they se- lected Aquidueck island where they signed an agreement to be '" judged and guided bj- the ab- solute laws of Christ." Coddington was made jvidge with three elders as council. In 1640 the people voted to abolish the titles of judge and elder and substitute those of governor with a deputy and four assistants. He was the governor of Portsmouth and Newport, 1640^7, until the island was incorporated with the Providence Plantations when he was assistant, from New- port, to President Coggeshall. In 1648 he was elected president but in consequence of the dis- turbances in the colony he withdrew from the Plantations in May, 1649. Failing in an effort to unite Rhode Island with the confederacy of