His mother was of a powerful and distinguished family which later produced Harry Flood Byrd and his father was a farmer, lawyer, clerk of the Appomattox County Court House and friend of Thomas Jefferson.

Although Thomas' legal mentor, Willis resigned his official position and moved to Marengo County, Alabama in 1857 shortly after marrying Mourning Smith, a wealthy widow originally from South Carolina, although returning for family visits.

1817), also became a lawyer, clerk of the Appomattox County courthouse (at the time of Lee's surrender to Grant), director of Farmer's Bank in Lynchburg, as well as Presbyterian lay leader and later trustee of Hampden-Sydney College.

[5] A committed slaveholder and Southern nationalist, Bocock praised Senator Preston Brook's attack on Charles Sumner, but later reinvented himself as a moderate on the Kansas slavery issue.

Bocock spoke at the inauguration of the Washington Equine Statue on the grounds of the State Capital in Richmond in 1860, but his rise in Confederate circles came after his speech against Force Bill on February 20 and 21, 1861 which he had published and distributed at Virginia's Secession Convention.

"[6] Bocock moved to Lynchburg while maintaining Wildway as his summer home, where he practiced law and helped form the Virginia Conservative Party.

Bocock opposed the Virginia Readjuster Party and ultimately handed over the political reins to a younger generation, including Alexander H. H. Stuart, and concentrated on his legal practice and family.