George W. Cooley (July 28, 1811 – October 26, 1869) was an American lawyer and politician who served as Commonwealth Attorney of

Suffolk County, Massachusetts Suffolk County is located in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 797,936, making it the fourth-most populous county in Massachusetts. The county comprises the cities of Boston, Chel ...

Early life

Cooley was born on July 28, 1811, in Deerfield, Massachusetts. In 1835 he was admitted to the Maine bar. He later moved from

Bangor, Maine Bangor ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat of Penobscot County. The city proper has a population of 31,753, making it the state's 3rd-largest settlement, behind Portland (68,408) and Lewiston (37,121). Modern Bangor ...

, to Boston and on April 13, 1843, he was admitted to the Suffolk County bar. In 1854 he represented Boston in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

District attorney

On September 5, 1854, he was appointed Commonwealth Attorney of Suffolk County to succeed

George P. Sanger George Partridge Sanger (November 27, 1819 – July 3, 1890) was an American lawyer, editor, judge, and businessman who served as the United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts from 1873 to 1886 and was the first president of the J ...

, appointed judge of the Court of Common Pleas. In 1860, Cooley was committed to the McLean Asylum for the Insane. On January 14, 1861, Massachusetts Attorney General

Stephen Henry Phillips Stephen Henry Phillips (August 16, 1823 – April 9, 1897) was an American lawyer who served as the Attorney General of Massachusetts and the Kingdom of Hawaii and as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and on King Kamehameha V's Privy Council. Ea ...

petitioned the

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) is the court of last resort, highest court in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Although the claim is disputed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the SJC claims the di ...

at the behest of Governor John Albion Andrew for Cooley's removal on the grounds that he was unable to perform the duties of his office due to "derangement and enfeebling of the intellect". It was the first time in the history of the Commonwealth that the Attorney General had petitioned for the removal of a district attorney. As Cooley was confined to the asylum, the court appointed Benjamin Butler to serve as his guardian ''ad litem''. On February 4, 1861, the Court removed Cooley from office. Cooley died on October 26, 1869, at McLean Asylum.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooley, George W. 1811 births 1869 deaths District attorneys expelled from public office District attorneys in Suffolk County, Massachusetts Massachusetts Whigs McLean Hospital patients People from Deerfield, Massachusetts Lawyers from Bangor, Maine Lawyers from Boston 19th-century American lawyers Maine Whigs