[GENEALOGIES.]
[THE WOLCOTT FAMILY.]
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
Henry Wolcott was the first of the Wolcott Family who settled in New England. He owned a considerable landed property in his native country, which he held in capite, part of which he sold about the time he left England; the rest of the estate was sold at sundry times by himself and his descendants; the last remains were sold since the Declaration of Independence, by Henry Allen, Esq., of Windsor, who claimed it by female descent. From circumstances it seems probable that the family are of Saxon origin. Mr. Wolcott, to avoid the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the English Church, was induced to come into this country. He first settled at Dorchester, where he continued till 1636, when he came with the first settlers to the town of Windsor, and with four other gentlemen, namely, Mr. Ludlow, Mr. Newberry, Mr. Stoughton, and Major Mason, undertook the settlement of that town, to which they gave the name Dorchester. The towns of Hartford and Wethersfield were settled the same year, though the town which is now called Windsor was, upon the first emigration, by far the most considerable. Previous to this settlement on Connecticut River, one had been made at Springfield, under the patronage of Mr. Pynchon; and an earlier settlement, with commercial views, had been made at Saybrook, by Mr. Fenwick, agent to Lords Say and Seal and Brook. Those who settled on Connecticut River, in the year 1636, were united with the people of Massachusetts in religious and civil polity, and seem to have been much under their influence till 1638, when they adopted a civil constitution for themselves, and Mr. Ludlow was chosen their first Governor, and Mr. Wolcott a magistrate, then called an Assistant, to which office he was annually chosen till his death, in 1655. His eldest son Henry was one of the Patentees, whose name is inserted in the Charter granted by Charles II. Mr. Ludlow went to the West Indies, and left no posterity in this country. Major Mason, it is said, had no male posterity. The descendants of the others are well known in Windsor.
GENEALOGY.
Henry Wolcott, Esq., was born A. D. 1578; and on or about the year 1607, married Elisabeth Sanders, who was born in 1589. He lived in Tolland, near Taunton in Somersetshire, England, till the year 1630, and then to avoid persecution, came with his family into New England, and settled at Dorchester. In the year 1636, he went with his family to Windsor in Connecticut. Mr. Wolcott, Mr. Ludlow, Mr. Newberry, Mr. Stoughton, and Major Mason, were the five gentlemen that undertook the settling of the town. Mr. Wolcott was one of the first magistrates in the Colony of Connecticut; he lived in that post in Windsor, till he died, May 30, 1655. His wife died July 7, 1655, and she and her husband lie buried in one tomb in Windsor. Their children were
1. Anna, who m. Matthew Griswold and d. at Lyme. 2. Henry Wolcott, Esq., b. 1610, d. at Windsor, July 12, 1680. 3. George, who d. at Wethersfield, Feb. 12, 1663. 4. Christopher, who d. in Windsor, Sept. 7, 1662. 5. Mary, m. Job Drake, and d. in Windsor, Sept. 6, 1689. 6. Simon, b. 1625, d. in Windsor, Sept. 11, 1687; his wife d. Oct. 13, 1719.
The children of Henry, son of Henry, by his wife, Sarah Newberry, were