Background
He was born in 1635 in England, United Kingdom. was the son of Roger Pitkin, probably of Marylebone, England.
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William Pitkin III
Edit ProfileEducation
Pitkin had an excellent training in the law and perhaps some dabbling in theology, for which he had considerable fondness.
Career
He migrated to Hartford at the age of twenty-four. Here he was in 1660 granted liberty to teach the town school. Public life and the law soon claimed him, for in 1662 the General Court appointed him to prosecute certain offenders and two years later he became the colony's attorney for the prosecution of all delinquents.
He served occasionally upon the bench, as when he was a member of the special court which met at Fairfield in 1692 to try four women for witchcraft. Apparently only one of the four was convicted and she was probably reprieved through the efforts of Pitkin himself and two other assistants. As assistant in the years 1690-94 he sat generally upon the Court of Assistants, when it met at Hartford, and was often its presiding judge.
He served in 1683 with other commissioners who visited New York to congratulate the new governor, Dongan, and to press Connecticut's claims to a boundary that should not be more than twenty miles east of the Hudson. Three years later he served in a similar capacity, paying his colony's respects to Governor Andros and vainly requesting New York and Mohawk aid against the Indian enemies of Connecticut.
In the critical years of the early nineties he championed the colony's right to control its own militia and to maintain its governmental independence of royal control. In 1690 Connecticut had voted to send troops to Albany at the request of Jacob Leisler for the war against the French, but in 1693 the extremely conservative instructions that Pitkin and his fellow commissioner had received helped to make the intercolonial defense conference in New York an abortive one.
He had already in 1692 written the General Court's letter to Sir William Phips politely refusing to relinquish control of the local militia, and in 1694 he was joint author of the pamphlet, "Their Majesties Colony of Connecticut in New-England Vindicated".
He died on December 15, 1694.
Achievements
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William Pitkin was a leading lawyer in Connecticut colony, a stout champion of Connecticut's colonial liberties. He was a commissioner to run the division-line between Connecticut and the Massachusetts colonies. He also was the author of the famous pamphlet "Their Majesties Colony of Connecticut in New-England Vindicated", a defense against those who would have the Crown destroy the colony's self-government. His property interests lay largely on the east side of the Connecticut River where he was probably the largest land-owner.
Religion
Pitkin was a member of the Church of England, but as there was no congregation in the town, he contended successfully for the right to have his children baptized in the First Church of Hartford.
Connections
His wife was Hannah, the daughter of Ozias Goodwin, one of the early settlers of Hartford.
References
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Born
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Died
February 15, 1694 (aged 59) -
Resting place
First Church of Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut, United States -
Nationality
American