Born in Fishkill, New York on November 20, 1821 (some sources indicate 1822), Westbrook attended the local schools and graduated from Rutgers College in 1838.

[1] He studied law with Abraham B. Hasbrouck and Marius Schoonmaker, was admitted to the bar in 1843, and commenced practice in Kingston, New York.

[5] Gould was found to have used insider information and rulings from corrupt state officials to drive down the price of the company's stock, forcing it into bankruptcy and cheating shareholders out of their stock's value when he acquired the company in a subsequent court proceeding administered by Westbrook.

At the urging of Assemblyman Theodore Roosevelt, in 1882 their relationship was investigated by a special committee of the New York State Assembly, but members of the committee quashed the results of the inquiry (accused of accepting bribes to do so), and Westbrook continued to serve on the bench.

[9] This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress