U.S. Representative and federal judge, and his wife Eliza Cockburn, cousin of the late Lord Chief-Justice Sir Alexander Cockburn of England. His father’s ancestors emigrated to the North America around 1635 and settled in Salem, Massachusetts before moving to Suffolk County, New York. Roscoe's maternal grandfather James Cockburn was Scottish by birth, but emigrated to the Bahamas and later to the Mohawk Valley, where he married Margaret Frey, the daughter of a feudal lord. Roscoe was the youngest of seven children, four sons and three daughters. He had two older brothers, Frederick and Aurelian. A third brother also named Roscoe died before this article’s subject was born. Both Roscoes were named for the British author William Roscoe, whom Eliza Conkling read during her pregnancy. Conkling’s mother was said to have a "talent for repartee and brilliant talk" which her son inherited. Childhood At the suggestion of William H. Seward, the Conkling family moved to Auburn, New York via the Erie Canal in 1839. At his new home, Roscoe enjoyed horseback riding, which became a lifelong pursuit. He did not take to academic study, but had a retentive memory. In 1842, Roscoe was enrolled in the Mount Washington Collegiate Institute in New York City. While in New York, Roscoe also studied oratory with his elder brother Frederick. They often practiced their speaking together. After a year at the Mount Washington Institute, Roscoe entered the Auburn Academy and remained there for three years. Even as a schoolboy, Roscoe's intimidating appearance and intellect demanded attention. A childhood friend said young Roscoe "was as large and massive in his mind as he was in his frame, and accomplished in his studies precisely what he did in his social life — a mastery and command which his companions yielded to him as due." Conkling first became interested in politics during his time at Auburn. Through his father, he was acquainted with some of the most prominent men of the era through his father, a leading member of the upstate Whig Party. They included Presidents Martin Van Buren and John Quincy Adams, Governor Enos Throop, Supreme Court Justice Smith Thompson, James Kent, and Thurlow Weed. Fellow Auburn resident William Henry Seward was a friend of Conkling's father and soon of Conkling as well. Law and local politics In 1846, seventeen year-old Conkling moved to Utica to study law in the offices of Joshua A. Spencer and