Background
Roger Wolcott was born on January 4, 1679, in Windsor, Connecticut, United States. He was a son of Simon Wolcott and Martha (Pitkin) Wolcott, as well as a grandson of Henry Wolcott, who settled in Windsor in 1636.
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Roger Wolcott was born on January 4, 1679, in Windsor, Connecticut, United States. He was a son of Simon Wolcott and Martha (Pitkin) Wolcott, as well as a grandson of Henry Wolcott, who settled in Windsor in 1636.
Roger never attended school, however, his mother, who was educated in London, taught him to read and write. In his teens, Wolcott was apprenticed to a clothier, whom he left in 1699 to set up a successful business of his own and ran it until he married Sarah Drake in 1702.
As a selectman for Windsor in 1707, Wolcott modestly began his long public career. Two years later, in 1709, he was admitted to the bar and elected a Representative of South Windsor in the Connecticut General Assembly. Roger was a Clerk of the Lower House in 1710 and 1711, named Justice of the Peace in 1710 and, in 1711, served as Commissary of the Connecticut Forces in the expedition against Canada in Queen Anne's War, that lasted from 1702 to 1713. In 1709-1714, 1718, 1719, he was elected Deputy to the Connecticut House of Representatives.
In 1714, Wolcott was elected to the Upper House and served as an Assistant at Connecticut General Assembly in 1714-1718, 1720-1741 and 1754-1760. Also, in 1717, 1718, 1723-1726, 1728, 1730, 1737, 1740, 1742 and 1750, he held the post of the Commissioner of Connecticut for the Adjustment of Colonial boundaries. During these years, Roger also served on numerous important committees, including those, which, besides boundary questions, considered the revision of laws, Indian affairs, bills of credit and the Mohegan Indian and Lechmere cases.
In 1722, Wolcott was made Captain of the Trainband of Windsor. In 1723-1732, he served as the Judge of the Hartford County Court. In 1732-1741, Wolcott acted as the Judge of the Hartford County Superior Court and while still in that position, in 1739, became a Colonel, commanding Connecticut's First Regiment. Later, between 1741 and 1750, he served as Deputy Governor. Besides, until 1750, he held the post of Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Connecticut.
In 1745, Wolcott was commissioned Major General by Governor William Shirley of Massachusetts and was second in command to Sir William Pepperell in the expedition against Louisbourg during King George's War (the War of the Austrian Succession, 1744-1748). Wolcott kept a journal during that expedition, which was printed in the Connecticut Historical Society's Collections - Volumes XVI and XVII.
In 1750, Roger was appointed Governor of Connecticut and began serving in the position in 1751. He was re-elected annually to that post through 1754. However, in the May election of that year, Thomas Fitch overwhelmingly defeated him.
Following his defeat, Wolcott generally withdrew from public life to study and follow literary pursuits. In 1759, he authored a short history of the Connecticut colony, titled "Roger Wolcott's Memoir Relating to the History of Connecticut". Also, to Wolcott belongs the honor of writing the first volume of verse, published in Connecticut, "Poetical Meditations, Being the Improvement of Some Vacant Hours" (1725), among other writings. Moreover, he also published a "Letter to the Freemen of Connecticut" in the Connecticut Gazette (New London) of 1761.
Roger spent his last years on his farm, cultivating his land.
On December 3, 1702, Roger married Sarah (Drake) Wolcott, who was to bear him fifteen children before her death in January 1748. Their children included Roger Wolcott, Elizabeth Wolcott Newberry, Alexander Wolcott, Josiah Wolcott, Erastus Wolcott, Ursula Wolcott Griswold, Oliver Wolcott Sr. and Marian Wolcott Williams, among others. Roger and Sarah's son, Oliver Wolcott Sr., signed the Declaration of Independence and served as Governor of Connecticut.