Oliver Wolcott

Military-, medicine-, and law man, too,

    Top of the class at Yale. Wolcott defended his country,

    the Red, white, and blue.

        "As a patriot and statesman, a Christian and a man, Governor Wolcott presented a bright example; for inflexibility, virtue, piety and integrity, were his prominent characteristics."   B. J. Lossing, Signers of the Declaration of Independence, George F. Cooledge & Brother: New York (1848) [reprinted in Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, WallBuilder Press: Aledo, Texas (1995)], page 62.

        Oliver Wolcott, born in 1726 and graduated from Yale College in 1747, was the youngest son of Roger Wolcott.  He received a captain's commission from Governor George Clinton of New York to raise a militia company in defense of the northern frontiers in the French and Indian war.  At the end of the war, he returned to Connecticut and studied medicine with his brother Dr. Alexander Wolcott.  It wasn't long before he received the appointment of Litchfield's first county sheriff, serving from 1751 to 1771.

        In 1755, he was married to Laura Collins, of Guilford, with whom he was to enjoy forty years of domesticity.  They were socially active and xenodochial; their house was an open invitation to guests as a place for rest and hospitality, even during the war for anyone serving the patriotic cause.  The Wolcotts gave freely of money for the army, blankets, and other supplies from their farm.  As he was often gone, she supervised the education of their four children and frugally administered to the necessities of her family.  Their son Oliver, Jr., was destined to serve as Secretary of the Treasury under Presidents George Washington and John Adams, and he would also serve as Governor of Connecticut.

 

        In 1774 Oliver was appointed an assistant in the council of the state and was annually re-elected until 1786.  In 1776, he represented his state in the Congress whereby he gave the vote for independence. 

 

        From Philadelphia in December, 1776, General Wolcott wrote to his wife: 

        "Whether the army will succeed in their cruel designs against this city must be left to time to discover.  Congress have 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......May the Almighty ever have you and them in His protection! "   

       Mr. Wolcott was known for his love of order and religion. "In his last sickness he expressed, according to Dr. Backus, who preached his funeral sermon, a deep sense of his personal unworthiness and guilt.  For several days before his departure, every breath seemed, to bring with it a prayer.  At length, he fell asleep. He was an old man, and full of years, and went to his grave distinguished for a long series of services rendered both to his state and nation. The memory of his personal worth, of his patriotism, his integrity, his Christian walk and conversation, will go down to generations yet unborn."   Rev. Charles A. Goodrich Lives of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence. New York: William Reed & Co., 1856. Pages 179-182.

Image above is in the public domain because its copyright has expired.

See also: Robert G. Ferris (editor), Signers of the Declaration: Historic Places Commemorating the Signing of the Declaration of Independence, published by the United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service: Washington, D.C. (revised edition 1975), pages 152-153.

 And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.

  John 16:22