Vincent Matthews, who was for several years a leading member of this county bar, was born in Orange Co., N.Y., on the 29th of June, 1766. At an early age he was sent to an academy at Middletown, N.Y., and finished his classical education under the instruction of the great scholar and lexicographer, Noah Webster. In 1786 he commenced the study of law with Col. Robert Troup, of New York, and during his studies became intimate with Pendleton, Judge (afterwards Governor) Yates, Chief Justice Morris, Aaron Burr, and others whose names form a brilliant constellation in the history of New York jurisprudence. He thus had rare opportunities, it being his privilege to see how justice was administered by Morris, Yates, Spencer, Kent and Savage, and how forensic questions were managed by such master minds as Hamilton and Burr.
    Matthews was admitted to practice in the year 1790, and remained some time with Col. Troup. In 1793 he removed to Elmira. In 1796 he represented the Western District in the Senate of the State. Soon after he retired from the Senate he was appointed, with Hon. James Emott, a member of the Onondaga Commission to settle the difficulties growing out of conflicting claims and litigations respecting the Military Lands, a delicate and trying position, the duties of which were discharged with signal ability and success.
    In 1809, Mr. Matthews was elected to the Eleventh Congress from the then Fourteenth Congressional District, which consisted of Cayuga, Seneca, Steuben, and Tioga Counties. He served one year in Congress, and returned to the practice of his profession. In 1812 he was elected district attorney for several of the western counties, and representing a large sphere of official and professional labor. After holding the office a little over two years, his increasing professional business compelled him to resign, and his place was filled by Gen. Daniel Cruger, of Bath. In 1816, at the solicitation of numerous friends in Steuben County, Gen. Matthews removed to Bath. Here his popularity continued to increase, and he soon became one of the most distinguished lawyers in Western New York. In 1821 he removed to Rochester, where his reputation as a lawyer had gone before him, and where he entered upon a large and lucrative practice, which he continued for the remainder of his active life.
    Gen. Matthews served in the Legislature, from Monroe County, in 1826, in the Senate in 1839, and was appointed district attorney for that county in 1831. He was a sagacious, philisophical, and profound man, and an able lawyer, though never an active politician. He died on the 26th of September, 1846, in the eightieth year of his age, having practiced his profession fifty-five years without interruption excepting his official terms.
W. W. Clayton; History of Steuben County, New York, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of some of its Prominent Men and Pioneers.Philadelphia: Lewis, Peck & Co. 1879. pgs. 64-65.