William Cocke

William Cocke
United States Senator from Tennessee
In office August 2, 1796 – September 26, 1797
Preceded by	(none)
Succeeded by	Andrew Jackson
In office March 4, 1799 – March 4, 1805
Preceded by	Joseph Anderson
Succeeded by	Daniel Smith
Member of the Mississippi House of Representatives
In office 1813
Personal details
Born	1748 Amelia County, Colony of Virginia, British America
Died	August 22, 1828 (aged 79–80) Columbus, Mississippi, U.S.
Political party	Democratic-Republican

William Cocke (1748 – August 22, 1828) was an American lawyer, pioneer, and statesman. He has the distinction of having served in the state legislature of four different states: Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi, and was one of the first two United States senators for Tennessee.

William was born in Amelia County, Virginia in 1748. He was of English descent. He was the sixth of ten or eleven children of Abraham (c.1695–1760) and Mary (Batte) Cocke. William was educated at home before reading law. He was admitted to the bar in Virginia and engaged in a limited law practice.

Cocke spent more time on the frontier than he did in a law office. He was involved in exploration in the company of Daniel Boone, seeing much of what was to become eastern Kentucky and East Tennessee. He was elected a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses and a colonel of militia; in 1776, he led four companies of that militia into to what became Tennessee for action against the Indians. Later that year, he left Virginia and moved to what was to become Tennessee. During the attempted organization of the State of Franklin, Cocke was elected as the would-be state's delegate to the Congress of the Confederation.

In 1796, Cocke was chosen as a delegate to the convention that wrote the first Tennessee Constitution. The newly formed government then selected Cocke to be one of the new state's initial senators, along with William Blount. Cocke and Blount then presented their credentials to the United States Senate on May 9, 1796. The Senate refused to seat Cocke and Blount while they debated the admission of Tennessee into the Union. When Tennessee was finally admitted on June 1, the issue of Cocke and Blount's seating was again raised. The Federalist Senate held by a narrow margin (11–10) that Cocke and Blount's election was illegal because it had occurred without Congressional authorization. The Tennessee legislature duly reselected Cocke and Blount on August 2.

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