Thomas S. Bocock
| Thomas Bocock | |
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| 1st Speaker of the Confederate States House of Representatives |
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In office February 18, 1862 – May 10, 1865 |
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| President | Jefferson Davis |
| Preceded by | Howell Cobb (President of the Provisional Congress) |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Member of the C.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's 5th district |
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In office February 18, 1862 – May 10, 1865 |
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| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's 5th district |
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In office March 4, 1853 – March 4, 1861 |
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| Preceded by | Paulus Powell |
| Succeeded by | Robert Ridgway |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's 4th district |
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In office March 4, 1847 – March 4, 1853 |
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| Preceded by | Edmund Hubard |
| Succeeded by | William Goode |
| Member of the Virginia House of Delegates | |
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In office 1842-1844 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
May 18, 1815 Buckingham, Virginia |
| Died | August 5, 1891 (aged 76) Appomattox County, Virginia |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Alma mater | Hampden–Sydney College |
Thomas Salem Bocock (May 18, 1815 – August 5, 1891) was a nineteenth-century politician and lawyer from Virginia. After serving as an antebellum United States Congressman, he was the Speaker of the Confederate States House of Representatives during most of the American Civil War.
Born at Buckingham County Court House in Buckingham, Virginia, he was the sixth of eleven children born to John Thomas Bocock (a farmer, lawyer, clerk of the Appomattox County Court House and friend of Thomas Jefferson) and Mary Flood (of a powerful and distinguished family which later produced Henry Flood Byrd), Thomas Bocock was educated by his father and other private teachers as a child. He attended Hampden–Sydney College, where he befriended Robert L. Dabney (his rival for class valectedorian) and graduated in 1838.
His oldest brother, Willis Perry Bocock (1807-1887), may have been the most successful lawyer in area (Buckingham County splitting off Appomattox county in 1845), as well as state attorney general beginning in 1852. Although Thomas' legal mentor, Willis resigned his official position and moved to Marengo County, Alabama in 1857 shortly after marrying Mourning Smith, a wealthy widow originally from South Carolina, although returning for family visits. Another elder brother, John Holmes Bocock, became a Presbyterian minister in Lynchburg and then the District of Columbia. A slightly younger brother, Henry Flood Bocock (b. 1817), also became a lawyer, clerk of the Appomattox County courthouse (at the time of Lee's surrender to Grant), director of Farmer's Bank in Lynchburg, as well as Presbyterian lay leader and later trustee of Hampden-Sydney College. Their brothers William Stevens Bocock, Charles Thomas Bocock, and Nicholas Flood married but did not have such distinguished careers, and Milton Bocock died as a teenager; their sisters Amanda, Martha, Mary Matson and Mary Fuquar all married.
Thomas Bocock married his second cousin Sarah Patrick Flood in 1846, but she may have died in childbirth or from complications. They had a daughter Bell (1849-1891). His second wife was Annie Holmes Faulker. They married in Berkeley County, Virginia (later West Virginia) in 1853 and had five children: Thomas Stanley Bocock, Willis P Bocock (1861-1947) and daughters Mazie F., Ella F. and Sallie P. (all of whom married twice).
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