William Durkee WILLIAMSON, Congress, ME (1779-1846)

1779-1846

WILLIAMSON, William Durkee, a Representative from Maine; born in Canterbury, Conn., July 31, 1779; moved in boyhood with his father to Amherst, Mass.; attended the common schools and Williams College, Williamstown, Mass.; was graduated from Brown University, Providence, R.I., in 1804; studied law; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Bangor, Maine (then a district of Massachusetts), in 1807; State’s attorney for Hancock County 1808-1815; postmaster of Bangor, Maine, 1810-1821; member of the Massachusetts State senate from 1816 until the separation of Maine from Massachusetts in 1820; served in the Maine State senate in 1820 and 1821 and was elected its president both years; as president of the senate he became Governor upon the resignation of Governor King in 1821; elected to the Seventeenth Congress (March 4, 1821-March 3, 1823); was not a candidate for renomination in 1822; judge of probate for Penobscot County 1824-1840; bank commissioner 1838-1841; died in Bangor, Maine, May 27, 1846; interment in Mount Hope Cemetery.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present