George Rex Davis (1788 Johnstown, then in Montgomery County, now in

Fulton County, New York Fulton County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. It forms part of the state's Mohawk Valley region. Its county seat is Johnstown. At the 2020 U.S. census, the county had a population of 53,324. The county is named in honor of Robert F ...

– June 24, 1867

Troy Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in prese ...

Rensselaer County, New York Rensselaer County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 161,130. Its county seat is Troy. The county is named in honor of the family of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the original Dutch owner of the l ...

) was an American lawyer and politician from

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. He was

Speaker of the New York State Assembly The speaker of the New York State Assembly is the highest official in the New York State Assembly, customarily elected from the ranks of the majority party. As in most countries with a British heritage, the speaker presides over the lower hous ...

in 1831 and 1843.

Biography

He removed to

Hoosick Falls, New York Hoosick Falls is a village in Rensselaer County, New York, United States. The population was 3,501 at the 2010 census. During its peak, in 1900, the village had a population of approximately 7,000. The village of Hoosick Falls is near the center ...

, and opened a tailor shop there. Later he studied law, and was admitted to the bar about 1810, and commenced practice there. He married Amy Lottridge (1793–1856), and their only daughter was Charlotte M. Davis who married Thaddeus W. Patchen in 1837. In 1814, one hundred and twenty-eight volunteers under George R. Davis joined the State Militia, and all marched from Troy to

Plattsburgh Plattsburgh ( moh, Tsi ietsénhtha) is a city in, and the seat of, Clinton County, New York, United States, situated on the north-western shore of Lake Champlain. The population was 19,841 at the 2020 census. The population of the surrounding ...

, but the

Battle of Plattsburgh The Battle of Plattsburgh, also known as the Battle of Lake Champlain, ended the final British invasion of the northern states of the United States during the War of 1812. An army under Lieutenant General Sir George Prévost and a naval squadro ...

had been fought before they reached there. When he became a judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Rensselaer County in 1829, he moved to the county seat

. In 1830, under the provisions of the Safety Fund Law, he was appointed Bank Commissioner, and served five terms until 1840. He was a member from Rensselaer County of the

New York State Assembly The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. The Assem ...

in 1819, 1830, 1831, 1842 and 1843; and was Speaker in 1831 and 1843. He was First Judge of the Rensselaer County Court from 1838 to 1847. He died drowning. His granddaughters Mary and Caroline Patchen, aged 23 and 20, also died drowning, in a shipwreck on

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...

in June 1868.

References

External links

Political Graveyard
History of Hoosick NY
''History of Political Parties in the State of New-York''
by John Stilwell Jenkins (Alden & Markham, Auburn NY, 1846)
''The New York Civil List''
compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (pages 39, 269 and 363; Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858)

Genealogy of his wife, at RootsWeb {{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, George Rex 1788 births 1867 deaths American militia generals People from New York (state) in the War of 1812 Deaths by drowning in New York (state) New York (state) state court judges Politicians from Troy, New York Speakers of the New York State Assembly Democratic Party members of the New York State Assembly People from Hoosick Falls, New York 19th-century American legislators 19th-century American judges