William Michael Cocke (July 16, 1815 – February 6, 1896) was an American politician who represented Tennessee's second district in the United States House of Representatives.
Biography
Cocke was born in Rutledge, Tennessee on July 16, 1815. He pursued classical studies and graduated from East Tennessee College at Knoxville, Tennessee. He studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practiced in Rutledge and Nashville. Cocke was Clerk of Grainger County Circuit Court from 1840-1845. He served as a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives.
On January 15, 1835, he married his first cousin, Sarah Frances Cocke, daughter of Willis and Margaret E. Rogers Cocke. They had seven children. There were no children by his second marriage to Amanda Grigsby, nor his third to Noel.
Career
Cocke was elected as a Whig to the Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth Congresses. He served from March 4, 1845 to March 3, 1849. During the Thirtieth Congress, he was chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Revolutionary Pensions. He was not a candidate for re-election in 1848.
