Oliver Wolcott
- katellashisadventure
- May 28
- 6 min read
Oliver Wolcott was born on November 20, 1726, in Windsor, Connecticut, to Roger and Sarah (Drake) Wolcott. He was the 14th of fifteen children, with eight surviving to adulthood. His father had been Governor of Connecticut, a militia member, selectman, justice of the peace, and a representative in the lower house of the Connecticut Assembly. Roger Wolcott was also a writer who wrote the history of the Connecticut colony, poetry, and contributed to the church pamphlet. Wolcott’s paternal ancestry can be traced back to a William Wolcott, who was born during the Wars of the Roses. His great-grandfather, Henry Wolcott, was from the Parish of Lydiard, St. Lawrence, Somersetshire, and immigrated to America with his wife, Elizabeth Saunders, and three children in 1630. They had left three children behind in England, and one of them was Wolcott’s grandfather, Simon. The family relocated to Windsor, Connecticut, in 1636, and the three children, left behind, joined them in 1640. Wolcott’s maternal history can be traced back to John Drake, who came to Massachusetts in 1630 on the same ship as Henry Wolcott.
Wolcott was the son of a royal governor, so he would have grown up in a privileged household. He was sent to Yale and graduated at the top of his class in 1747. Upon his graduation, Governor George Clinton appointed him to raise a company and serve as a captain during the French and Indian War. His regiment was disbanded upon the conclusion of hostilities, and he returned to Connecticut to study medicine under his Uncle, Dr. Alexander Wolcott. He was going to set up a practice in Goshen, but in 1751, he moved to Litchfield, where his father owned property, and gave up medicine to become a lawyer. In 1751, he was elected Sheriff of Litchfield County and served until 1771. During this same year, he was also elected to represent Litchfield in the General Assembly, where he would serve in both houses.
On January 21, 1755, Wolcott married Laura Collins. She was the daughter of Sea Captain Daniel Collins and Lois (Cornwall) Collins. Her ancestors include Governor William Leete, who signed the Plantation Covenant of June 1, 1639. He would become Governor of the New Haven Colony and then later of Connecticut Colony. Another of her ancestors was William Chittenden, founder of a church in Guilford, Connecticut. He was also a major in the Netherlands Army. Together, Wolcott and Laura would have five children. Their first, Oliver, dies before 1760. Their second child, who was also named Oliver, was born in 1760. He would die on June 1, 1833, as the last surviving member of President George Washington’s cabinet. Their first daughter, Laura, was born in 1761, followed by Mary Ann in 1765, and Frederick in 1767. Wolcott and Laura were married for nearly 40 years before she passed away on April 19, 1794. The couple were Congregationalists and were known for their hospitality and generosity. Laura was described as “a woman of almost masculine strength of mind, energetic and thrifty; and while Governor Wolcott was away from home, she attended to the management of their farm, educated their younger children, and made it possible for her husband to devote his energies to his country.”[1]
The years 1771-1775 were busy for Wolcott. He became a Major in the Connecticut Militia, a Judge for the Probate Court, and a Member of the Connecticut Council. While a member of the Council, he was put in charge of the commissary for Connecticut troops in April 1775, following an interview with General Gage. He was also appointed by the Continental Congress as a Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the Northern Department in July 1775. He met with representatives from six Indian Nations (Iroquois) at Albany, New York, and reached a temporary neutrality in the war. He also assisted in boundary and land dispute settlements involving the Wyoming Valley, the borders of Pennsylvania and Connecticut, and issues arising between New York and Vermont. Finally, in October of 1775, he was appointed to the Continental Congress. While there, he participates in all the activities of 1776, from debating to signing the Declaration. He wrote in April of that year, “A final separation between the countries I consider as unavoidable.”[2] Due to his illness in July, he did not vote for Independence, but was allowed to sign the document upon his return to Congress in October of 1776. When Congress left Philadelphia for York in December of 1776, he wrote to his wife;
“Whether the army will succeed in their cruel designs against this city must be left to time to discover. Congress has ordered the General to defend it to the last extremity, and God grant that he may be successful in his exertions! Whatever event may take place, the American cause will be supported to the last and I trust in God that it will succeed. The Grecian. Roman and Dutch States were in their infancy reduced to the greatest distress, infinitely beyond what we have yet experienced. The God who governs the universe and who holds empires in His hand, can, with the least effort of His will, grant us all that security, opulence, and power which they have enjoyed…”
After every battle he participates in, he returns to Congress to continue his work and eventually sign the Articles of Confederation. He would serve in the Continental Congress until 1783, by which time it had morphed into the Confederation Congress. His service was sporadic, with his time being divided between military and civilian affairs. He helped negotiate two Indian treaties, one being the Second Treaty of Stanwix, in which the Iroquois ceded lands to the United States. The other one with the Wyandottes, who gave up land in the Western Reserve, which is present-day Ohio.
In June of 1776, he had to leave Congress due to ill health, and William Williams was sent to be his substitute. On his way home to Litchfield, he stops in New York City to watch the crowds pull down the statue of King George III after the Declaration had been ordered to be read publicly by General Washington. The statue itself weighed at least 4000 pounds and was made of lead covered in gold leaf. Many people would take home bits of the statue as souvenirs. Legend has it that the head was placed on a spike, displayed outside a local tavern, and then shipped back to London. Wolcott collects some of the pieces of the statue, ships them to the port of Norwalk in Connecticut, and then takes them to his home in Litchfield. Upon arrival in Litchfield, he puts his wife, children, and the locals to work melting the pieces down and making them into bullets. A total of 42,088 bullets were made from the pieces he collected, with his 15-year-old daughter, Laura, making 8,378. His 11-year-old daughter, Mary, made 10,790 bullets, and his nine-year-old son, Frederick, made 936 bullets. Frederick would later say that his father took an ax to some of the pieces as well. The bullets would be used at the Battle of Saratoga and would be taken there by General Wolcott himself. Interestingly, 25 years after General Wolcott died, locals were still finding pieces of the statue. Those pieces included parts of the King’s saddle, horse’s tail, arm, and thigh, but a total of about 1400 pounds of the statue is still missing. [3]
In August of 1776, he was made Brigadier General by Governor Trumbull and commanded 14 regiments, which were sent to reinforce General Putnam, on the Hudson River in New York. He organizes and divides the troops into brigades, then participates in the battles around New York, the defense of Long Island, and the Battle of Saratoga. While in Saratoga, he engages in a battle with a unit comprised of 300 volunteers that had been organized to reinforce General Gates. In 1779, now Major General Wolcott takes over command of a state militia division and defends the Connecticut coast against Royal Governor William Tryon.
By 1786, he had returned to Connecticut and was elected Lieutenant Governor, an office he held until 1796. During this time, he also served on the Connecticut ratifying convention and voted for the Constitution. He was a presidential elector in 1796, voting for John Adams, and by 1797, he assumed the Governorship of Connecticut upon the death of Governor Huntington. Governor Wolcott’s father had held the same office forty-five years earlier. On October 25, 1797, he issued a proclamation:
“I have, therefore, with the Advice of Council, and by the Desire of the House of Representatives, though proper to appoint, and do hereby appoint, THURSDAY the sixteenth day of November next to be observed as a Day of Public THANKSGIVING and PRAYER to Almighty god…”
He held the office for only a year, as he passed away on December 1, 1797, and is buried next to his wife in the East Cemetery in Litchfield, Connecticut. His home, where they lived for their entire married life, is a private residence visible from the street and across the street from the Litchfield Law School landmark, the oldest law school in America. That law school closed in the early nineteenth century.
Tidbits President of the Connecticut Society of Arts and Sciences 1792 Received an honorary LLD degree from Yale College |
[3] Kiernan, Denise, and Joseph D’Agnese. Signing Their Lives Away: The Fame and Misfortune of The Men Who Signed The Declaration of Independence (Philadelphia: Quirk Books, c2009)
Comments