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William J. Hickey

New York politician and judge

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 24, 2026
Entity authorityQ16225842 ↗
Source-derived summary

William J. Hickey (December 1873 – December 22, 1953) was an American lawyer and politician from New York.

Life

Born on a farm in Orleans County, New York, Hickey attended Buffalo's Medina Academy and read law under the supervision of the Norton law firm to gain admission to the bar in New York in 1906.

Hickey was a member of the New York State Assembly (Erie Co., 1st D.) in 1922, 1923 and 1924. He was a member of the New York State Senate (48th D.) from 1925 to 1932, sitting in the 148th, 149th, 150th, 151st, 152nd, 153rd, 154th and 155th New York State Legislatures. He was a close ally of state senator John Knight, who would go on to become a federal judge.

He was Chairman of the Erie County Republican Committee. He resigned the post in September 1935 to get nominated for the Supreme Court.

He was a justice of the New York Supreme Court (8th D.) from 1936 to 1943.

Hickey never married, and had no immediate survivors, having outlived his only brother, Indiana politician Andrew J. Hickey, by over a decade. Hickey died in a hospital in Buffalo, weeks after his 80th birthday.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “William J. Hickey” is new York politician and judge. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through William, Hickey and York, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1873, 1953, 1906, 1922—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1873-12. For this dossier, William, Hickey and York is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “new York politician and judge” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16225842. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1873, 1953, 1906 and 1922.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “William J. Hickey”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow William J. Hickey primary sources, William J. Hickey archive and William research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “William J. Hickey”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “William J. Hickey” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.