Nielsen Hayden genealogy

Roger Wolcott, Governor of Connecticut

Male 1679 - 1767  (88 years)


Personal Information    |    Notes    |    Sources    |    All

  • Name Roger Wolcott 
    Suffix Governor of Connecticut 
    Birth 4 Jan 1679  Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Gender Male 
    Death 17 May 1767  Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Burial Palisado Cemetery, Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Person ID I18162  Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of DDB
    Last Modified 25 Nov 2018 

    Father Simon Wolcott,   b. 11 Sep 1624, Somerset, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 11 Sep 1687, South Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 63 years) 
    Mother Martha Pitkin,   b. Bef 12 Dec 1639, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 13 Oct 1719, South Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location (Age > 79 years) 
    Marriage 17 Oct 1661  Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 3, 4
    Family ID F11076  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Sarah Drake,   b. 10 May 1686, Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 20 Jan 1748, Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 61 years) 
    Marriage 3 Dec 1702  Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Children 
    +1. Maj. Gen. Erastus Wolcott,   b. 21 Sep 1722, Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 14 Sep 1793, South Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 70 years)
    +2. Oliver Wolcott, Governor of Connecticut,   b. 20 Nov 1726, Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 1 Dec 1797, Farmington, Hartford, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 71 years)
    Family ID F11083  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 25 Nov 2018 

  • Notes 
    • Governor of Connecticut from 1751 to 1754.

      From Wikipedia:

      His formal education was severely limited by the nature of the frontier village, so at age twelve he was apprenticed to a weaver, and at the age of twenty-one entered that business on his own. He married Sarah Drake on December 3, 1702, and they had fifteen children before her death in 1748. Their son Oliver Wolcott Sr. signed the Declaration of Independence and went on to become governor of Connecticut.

      In May 1709, Wolcott was admitted to the bar and began to practice law. In 1711, during Queen Anne's War, He accompanied militia forces on an expedition to Quebec as a commissary. On his return he served as Clerk of the House, 1710-1711 and was elected Deputy to the colony's Lower House in 1709-1714, 1718, 1719, serving as Speaker in October, 1719. In 1714 he was elected to the Upper House (also called the Council) and served as Assistant, 1714-1718, 1720-1741, 1754-1760. He was Commissioner of Connecticut for the Adjustment of Colonial boundaries, 1717, 1718, 1723-1726, 1728, 1730, 1737, 1740, 1742, 1750. Captain of the Trainband of Windsor, 1722. Captain of Troops raised for active service, 1724. He was made judge of the Hartford County court in 1723, serving through 1732, and of the colony's Superior Court in 1732, serving through 1741. Wolcott was made Colonel of the 1st regiment, 1739.

      In 1741 Wolcott was elected Deputy Governor of the colony. As deputy governors traditionally served as the Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Connecticut, he also assumed that position, which he held until 1750.

      In 1745 Wolcott was again active in the militia, this time as a Major General. In King George's War, Massachusetts governor William Shirley issued a general call to the New England colonies for an expedition against the French in Île-Royale (present-day Cape Breton Island). Wolcott served as Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in the Expedition to Cape Breton. General Wolcott headed the Connecticut troops in Sir William Pepperrell's expedition that captured Fortress Louisbourg.

      With the death of Governor Jonathan Law in 1750, Wolcott succeeded to the position of governor. He was re-elected annually to that position through 1753. Shortly after he retired as governor, his son, Roger Wolcott, Sr., attended negotiations with six other British colonies and around 200 members of various Indian nations at the Albany Congress in June and July 1754. During his administration, a disabled Spanish ship, the St. Joseph and St. Helena, with a cargo valued at 400,000 Spanish dollars, ran aground near New London.

      Wolcott ordered the ship seized and the cargo impounded in order to allow time to resolve conflicting claims between the vessel's captain and the salvage crew. While in the colony's custody, a large portion of the ship's cargo mysteriously disappeared. Tainted with the scandal surrounding the Spanish Ship case, he was defeated for re-election in 1754. All previous governors had died in office. Following his defeat, Wolcott generally withdrew from public life to study and follow literary pursuits. In 1759, Wolcott authored a short history of the Connecticut colony entitled Roger Wolcott's Memoir Relating to the History of Connecticut.

  • Sources 
    1. [S2420] Wolcott Immigrants and Their Early Descendants (The First Six Generations) by John Benjamin Wolcott and Charles V. Waid. Society of Descendants of Henry Wolcott, 2002.

    2. [S160] Wikipedia.

    3. [S101] The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, Volumes 1-3 and The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volumes 1-7, by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1996-2011.

    4. [S2419] Wolcott Genealogy: The Family of Henry Wolcott, One of the First Settlers of Windsor, Connecticut by Chandler Wolcott. Rochester, New York: The Genesee Press, 1912., date only.