Roger Wolcott (January 4, 1679 – May 17, 1767) was an American weaver, statesman, and politician from Windsor, Connecticut. He served as

colonial governor Governors and administrators of colonies In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of th ...

of Connecticut from 1751 to 1754.

Biography

Wolcott was born the son of Simon Wolcott and Martha Pitkin Wolcott in Windsor, Connecticut. 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. Another son,

Erastus Wolcott Erastus Wolcott (1722–1793) was an American politician and a Connecticut state militia commander during the American Revolutionary War. He served in the Connecticut General Assembly for over twenty years and was a justice of the Connecticut Sup ...

, became a state legislator and supreme court judge.

Career

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 Hartford County is a county located in the north central part of the U.S. state of Connecticut. According to the 2020 census, the population was 899,498, making it the second-most populous county in Connecticut. Hartford County contains the ...

court in 1723, serving through 1732, and of the colony's Superior Court in 1732, serving through 1741. Wolcott was made Colonel of the First 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 King George's War (1744–1748) is the name given to the military operations in North America that formed part of the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748). It was the third of the four French and Indian Wars. It took place primarily in t ...

, Massachusetts governor William Shirley issued a general call to the New England colonies for an expedition against the French in

Île-Royale The Salvation Islands (french: Îles du Salut, so called because the missionaries went there to escape plague on the mainland; sometimes mistakenly called Safety Islands) are a group of small islands of volcanic origin about off the coast of Fre ...

(present-day

Cape Breton Island Cape Breton Island (french: link=no, île du Cap-Breton, formerly '; gd, Ceap Breatainn or '; mic, Unamaꞌki) is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. The island accounts for 18. ...

). 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 titled, ''Roger Wolcott's Memoir Relating to the History of Connecticut''.

Death

Wolcott died at home in Windsor at the age of 88, and is interred at the ''Old Burying Ground'' (Palisado Cemetery) there.

References

External links

*
The Poems of Roger Wolcott, Esq., 1725

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolcott, Roger 1679 births 1767 deaths British military personnel of Queen Anne's War British Army personnel of the War of the Austrian Succession Colonial governors of Connecticut People from Windsor, Connecticut Members of the Connecticut House of Representatives Members of the Connecticut General Assembly Council of Assistants (1662–1818) Chief Justices of the Connecticut Supreme Court