He studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practiced in Rutledge and Nashville.
[3] During the Thirtieth Congress, he was chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Revolutionary Pensions.
Cocke served in the 31st General Assembly in the second session of 1855-1896, replacing Christopher Hitch, who had resigned; representing Anderson, Campbell, Claiborne, and Grainger counties as a Democrat.
His uncle, John Cocke, also served as a member of the Tennessee general Assembly.
in about 1872, he moved to Lexington, Kentucky, and from there to Nashville, in Davidson County, Tennessee.