Then he studied law with McDonald, at one time of the firm of McDonald & Ward. He began the practice of law at Sing Sing about 1820, and continued it there till his death, in 1852. He left a widow and two children, -- Elizabeth L., who became the wife of Marlborough Churchill, and Edgar M., who was for many years a successful physician at New Rochelle.

Richard R. Voris was district attorney for several years before the Constitution of 1846.

He was large and portly, of very fine presence and great dignity and courtesy. He was very successful as a jury advocate. His style in speaking was lucid, simple and still ornate, and his delivery was very easy and natural. He has, we think, the reputation of having been the ablest jury orator this county has ever had. Old residents, in speaking of the lawyers of their earlier days, commend Nelson for practical business sense, Minott Mitchell for astuteness, both in counsel and practice, J. Warren Tompkins for general ability, and Voris for eloquence at the bar. They were all undoubtedly lawyers of much more than average ability, and for many j'ears were some or all of them engaged in all the important litigations before the courts of the county.

William W. McClelan practiced somewhat in this county during the first half of this century, especially in the second quarter of it. He was born at Troy, N. Y., in 1788, and was a son of Hugh Stuart McClelan, who was assistant commissary-general of the Continental army during the Revolutionary War, and a distinguished patriot. The familj^ emigrated to this county from Scotland in colonial day.s ; and it has, in its various members, exhibited a good degree of that sturdy independence -and persistence which characterize people of that nationality.