Alexander Wilcocks (190)

Alexander Wilcocks (1741–22 July 1801) was a lawyer, judge, and public officeholder, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1768. Born in Philadelphia, he was sent to school rather than following his father into the mercantile trade. In 1761 he graduated from the College of Philadelphia and began a law practice whose success was aided by his 1768 marriage to Mary Chew, daughter of Pennsylvania Attorney General (and fellow APS member) Benjamin Chew, Sr. Not long after, Wilcocks began the first in a series of public offices, serving first on the Common Council in 1770 and then as a justice in the Court of Quarter Sessions and Court of Common Pleas in 1774. He was also active in government in the years leading up to the American Revolution. He was a delegate to the Provincial Convention that met in Philadelphia in 1774 and then in 1776 was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly; he took the oath of allegiance to the new nation in 1778. Following the war, Wilcocks returned to higher education, this time serving as trustee and treasurer of the board for the newly reorganized University of the State of Pennsylvania from 1779 to 1791. While he successfully secured the position of Recorder of Philadelphia in 1789, he failed to reach the office of state treasurer in 1796. During his time in Philadelphia he contributed to a number of local institutions including the City Tavern and the Philadelphia Dispensary. In addition to his father-in-law, his brother-in-law Benjamin Chew, Jr. was an APS member. (PI)