Oliver Wolcott
Oliver Wolcott was born in Windsor, Connecticut in 1726. He was the youngest member of his family. His father, Roger Wolcott served as the colonial governor for Connecticut in 1751-54. In 1747 he graduated from Yale and was commissioned by the governor of New York to be a captain in the army. He gathered volunteers together and served on the northwestern frontier in the French and Indian War. He was promoted to major general. At the end of the war he returned to Litchfield, Connecticut where he practiced law. He was then appointed the sheriff of the county Litchfield in 1751.
Oliver married a Miss Collins, of Guilford, in 1755. They were married for forty years. She educated their children and took care of their needs while he was gone. She also kept up the house.
A famous episode was staged at his house in 1776. One week after the signing of the Declaration of Independence an equestrian statue of King George III was stolen in the middle of the night and taken to Oliver's house.
The Articles of Confederation, ratified in 1781. T...
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John_Deere_4630_Tractor.jpgThere was a big celebration and the statue was melted down and cast into bullets for the continental soldiers. 42,088 cartridges were made. Some fragments of the statue escaped the melting down and are in the possession of museums and other private hands.
He was appointed as an assistant in the council of the state in 1774, a position he held through 1786. He was also, at one point, the chief judge of the court of common pleas for the county, and judge of the court of probate for the district of Litchfield. In 1775 he was chosen as a delegate to the Continental Congress. He was a delegate in 1775-78 and then in 1780-84. He missed a lot of the meetings...