# Jacob Marks > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Jacob_Marks > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Jacob_Marks.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Marks > Source revision: 1354058627 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) **Jacob Marks** (June 24, 1861 – March 20, 1965) was a Jewish-American lawyer, politician, and judge from New York. ## Life Marks was born on June 24, 1861, in [New York City, New York](/source/New_York_City), the son of Wolff Marks and Henrietta Rothschild.[1] Marks attended public school and classes with the [Cooper Union](/source/Cooper_Union). He studied law in the office of [Daniel P. Hays](/source/Daniel_P._Hays). He later studied with the firm Hays & Greenbaum, which included Hays and future New York Supreme Court Justice [Samuel Greenbaum](/source/Samuel_Greenbaum). He was admitted to the bar in 1882 and began practicing law in New York City. By 1905, he was a member of the law firm Marks & Wielar, with offices in 156 [Broadway](/source/Broadway_(Manhattan)). He was counsel in many leading cases involving important questions on commercial, corporation, negligence, and real estate law, and was involved in a number of contested election cases. He was counsel for the successful party in a case regarding a seat in the [New York City Board of Aldermen](/source/New_York_City_Board_of_Aldermen), in which the [Court of Appeals](/source/New_York_Court_of_Appeals) ruled the Board of Aldermen had the power to go behind election results and decide who was elected to the Board.[2] Marks was a delegate to the [1894 New York State Constitutional Convention](/source/Constitution_of_New_York#Constitutional_Convention_of_1894).[3] In the convention, he was the leading advocate for the Extension of the System of Trial by Jury and introduced a constitutional amendment that provided for the constitutional right to a jury trial in proceedings in which the Legislature has the power to abridge that right. A member of Tammany Hall since he was twenty-one, he was a secretary of the Tammany Hall County General Committee for many years, a member of the Law Committee, Secretary of the Twentieth Assembly District General Committee, Chairman of the Twenty-sixth Assembly District General Committee since it was organized, and a director of the Delaware Club, the Democratic organization for the Twenty-Sixth Twenty-sixth district. In 1898, Mayor [Robert Anderson Van Wyck](/source/Robert_Anderson_Van_Wyck) appointed him an Inspector of Public Schools in New York City for a four-year term. In 1904, he was elected to the [New York State Senate](/source/New_York_State_Senate) as a [Democrat](/source/Democratic_Party_(United_States)), representing [New York's 18th State Senate district](/source/New_York's_18th_State_Senate_district) (the 24th, 26th, and 28th [New York County](/source/Manhattan) Assembly Districts). He served in the Senate in [1905](/source/128th_New_York_State_Legislature)[2] and [1906](/source/129th_New_York_State_Legislature). In 1905, he was the first member of the Senate to introduce legislation for a legislative investigation into the life insurance companies.[4] He was subsequently appointed to the Insurance Investigation Committee, which was aided by its counsel Charles Evans Hughes, and the committee reported favorably to many of the reforms Marks previously urged.[5] In 1907, Marks was elected Justice of the Municipal Court for a ten-year term. He was re-elected to the Court in 1917.[1] He served on the Municipal Court until 1928. He then worked as a referee for the [New York Supreme Court](/source/New_York_Supreme_Court). He was still working as referee in 1960, when he was nearly [100](/source/Centenarian).[6] Marks was a member of the [Montefiore Home](/source/Montefiore_Medical_Center), the [YMHA](/source/YMHA), the [Freemasons](/source/Freemasonry), the [Royal Arcanum](/source/Royal_Arcanum), the [Hebrew Orphan Asylum](/source/Hebrew_Orphan_Asylum_of_New_York), and the [Educational Alliance](/source/Educational_Alliance).[2] He attended the [Central Synagogue](/source/Central_Synagogue_(Manhattan)).[1] In 1884, he married Henrietta[6] Barnet. Their children were Dora, Irene, and Josephine.[5] Marks died in New York City on March 20, 1965. He was the last surviving delegate of the 1894 New York State Constitutional Convention.[7] ## References 1. [*Who's Who in American Jewry, 1926*](https://books.google.com/books?id=uWrXAAAAMAAJ). New York, N.Y.: The Jewish Biographical Bureau, Inc. 1926. p. 419. – via [Google Books](/source/Google_Books) 1. Murlin, Edgar L. (1905). [*The New York Red Book*](https://books.google.com/books?id=fgg3AQAAMAAJ). Albany, N.Y.: J. B. Lyon Company. pp. 93–94. – via [Google Books](/source/Google_Books) 1. [*The Convention Manual of Procedure, Forms and Rules for the Regulation of Business in the Sixth New York State Constitutional Convention, 1894: Delegates Manual and Introduction*](https://books.google.com/books?id=OiufUDG-zboC). Albany, N.Y.: The Argus Company. 1894. pp. lxxix. – via [Google Books](/source/Google_Books) 1. Murlin, Edgar L. (1906). [*The New York Red Book*](https://books.google.com/books?id=yEM0AQAAMAAJ). Albany, N.Y.: J. B. Lyon Company. pp. 98–99. – via [Google Books](/source/Google_Books) 1. Holmes, Frank R. (ed.) (1924). [*Who's Who in New York (City and State), 1924*](https://books.google.com/books?id=xzHTAAAAMAAJ). Eighth ed. New York, N.Y.: Who's Who Publications, Inc. p. 854. – via [Google Books](/source/Google_Books) 1. Phillips, McCandlish (28 November 1960). ["Ex-Justice Nears Second Century"](https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/11/28/99826379.pdf). *[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)*. Vol. CX, no. 37564. p. 33. 1. ["Jacob Marks, 104, An Ex-Justice Here"](https://www.nytimes.com/1965/03/21/archives/jacob-marks-104-an-exjustice-here.html). *[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)*. Vol. CXIV, no. 39138. 21 March 1965. p. 86. Retrieved 2025-07-04. ## External links - *[The Political Graveyard](https://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/marks.html#875.03.36)* --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Jacob Marks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Marks) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Marks?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.