Roger WOLCOTT

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Ereignisse

Eltern

Ehepartner und Kinder

Notizen zu dieser Person

A life long public servant serving in various posts in the government of the Connecticut colony. Was heavily involved in the changes to colonial government which eventually removed much of the power from the puritan ministers and lead to the separation of church and state in the U.S. Constitution, and the evolution of the Puritan church into the Presbyterian church. His house was in East Windsor. Wolcott was also one of the first published American Poets with his book Poetical Meditations. In a partial exerpt from one of his poems, he describes the Connecticut river: "This gallent stream keeps running from the head four hundred miles ere it with Neptune bed, Passing along hundreds of Rivolets, From either bank its Christial waves besets, Freely to pay their Tributes to this Stream, As being Chief and Sovereign unto them, It bears no torrent nor Impetuous course As if 'twere drawn to Thetis house by love. The water fresh and sweet, and he that swims in it, recruits and cures his surfeit limbs, The fisherman the fry with pleasure gets, With seins, pots, angles and his tramel-nets. In it swim salmon, sturgeon, carp and eels, Above fly cranes, geese, duck, herons, and teals; And swans which take such pleasure as they fly, They sing their hymns oft long before they dy." The following history of his life is taken from his personal Journal which is now among the papers kept by the Connecticut Historical Society. "To call and keep in remembrance Mercy, and some remarkable providences that have hitherto fallen to my share, in this weary pilgrimage of life. Windsor, Jun 10, 1755 - Come, my soul, enter into thy chamber and shut the door. Consider seriously thy sun is setting and just in the horizon; yes, the shadows of the evening are already drawn over my heart, and my strength faileth. I am now far advanced in the 77th year of my age; the things of time and sense have lost their relish; I can no more hear the voice of singing men and singing women, and the things of God, if any there be that remain in thee, are ready to dye. Dost thou not want to have them strengthened? Canst thou not call the sun some degrees back upon thy dial, by calling to mind the days of old and the right hand of the Most High, to excite thy thankfulness and dependence upon Him? Is there nothing in these many stages of time and tasks of life that thou hast already passed, that may subserve hereunto? Come then, and with the sweet Psalmist of Israel (Psalm 103,2) Forgett not all His benefits. I was the youngest child of my honorable father, Mr. Simon Wolcott, tender and beloved in the sight of my mother, Mrs. Martha Wolcott, and was born Jan 4, 1679 at a time when my father's outward estate was at the lowest ebb. Some years before he sold his estate on the west side of the River in Windsor, to settle on a farm at Simsbury, to which he removed and laid out his money to promote his settlement there. But in the calamitous year for New England (1675) he was driven back to Windsor with his Family by the war; his buildings were burnt, and his farm at Simsbury ruinded by the Indians. He had left about 200 acres of meadow and uplands adjoining on the east side of the River in Windsor, but durst not then settle upon it for fear of the enemy. His family was chargeable, the public taxes high, he was much in debt and no house to put his head in but upon hire and that upon high rents and difficult to be obtained. Soon after I was born, I was taken with a sore mouth which prevailed to that degree that my life was almost despaired of but thro' Divine Goodness recovered and thro' mercy this is the only threatening sickness I have had in my life. In the year 1680, my father settled on his own land on the east side of the River in Windsor. Everything was to begin; few families were settled there. We had neither Minister nor school by which it hath come to pass that I never was a Scolar in any school a day in my life; my parents took care and pains to learn their children and were successful with the rest, but not with me, by reason of my extreme dullness to learn. On Sep 11, 1687 dyed my honorable father in the 62nd year of his age; it was just before the coming of Sir Edmund Andross. It wasgenerally expected persecution for religion would soon ensue; it filled him with agonizing fears and excited his fervent prayers for deliverance, but God took him away from the evil he feared to come . . . . . We were now a widow and six fatherless children; the buildings unfinished, the land uncleared, the estate much in debt, but we never wanted. In the year 1689 my mother marryed with Daniel Clark, Esq. I went to live with her on the west side of the river. The times were now changed. King William and Queen Mary ascended the British throne. With them all fears of persecution vanished. Those that come after will never conceive the joy of New England at King William and Mary's coronation. The French Leviathan, that had long been King of the children of pride, was by our glorious monarch stopt in his career. In the year 1690 my mind turned to learning and I soon learned to read English and write. In the year 1691 thro' the constant monitions of my father-in-law and my mother, I had many convictions of my sin and danger, but after a while they wore off. In 1694 I went an apprentice to a Cloathier. The year 1697 was a year of great scarcity and mortality. The summer was cool and cloudy, not a month without a frost in it; the winter very long and severe. In Feb and Mar the snow was very high and hard. There was a great cry for bread. The cattle famished in the yards for want. The sickness was very distressing and mortal; those in health could scarcely get food, tend the sick and bury the dead. Many suffered for want of firewood and tendance, but I was preserved in perfect health and never wanted. On Jan 2, 1699, I went into my own business. My hands were enabled to perform their enterprise and my labor was crowned with success." (In an obituary notice which appeared in the Connecticut Courant of Jul 27, succeeding his death, we find this statement: "As soon as he left his master he was determined to have a liberal education if possible; but on taking an inventory of his estate he found it not to amount to fifty pounds, so he was obliged to drop that desgn; but stil lunalteraby determined not to remain in a state of ignorance, he borrowed such books as he could get and read with attention and having a retentive memory and solid natural judgment what he read he retained, digested, and made his own. He got an acquaintance with men of the best abilities of his time and by an indefatigable industry and application got acquaintance with most branches of literature; for he was an exact chronologer, we acquainted with history, ecclesiastical and civil, and geography, both ancient and modern, and with the Newtonian philosophy, and most of the curious discoveries of the moderns.") "Dec 3, 1702, I marryed Mrs. Sarah Drake, and went to live on my own land, on the east side of the river, in Windsor. My settlement here was all to begin, yet we lived joyfully together; our mutual affection made everything easy and delightful; in a few years my buildings were up and my farm made profitable. In 1707 I took my first step to preferment being this year chosen selectman for the town of Windsor. In the year 1709 I was chosen a Representative for that town in the General Assembly. In the year 1710 I was put on the Bench of Justices. This year, the 10th of August, dyed my kind father-in-law, Daniel Clark, Esq. in the 86th year of his age, with which I was much affected and soon after, these words came powerfully into my mind: What hope hath the hypocrite tho' he hath gained when God taketh away his soul? and were followed with such convictions as I hope will never wear off. In 1711 I went in the expedition against Canada, Comissary of the Connecticut Stores . . . . . In 1714 I was chosen into the Council. (In 1719 he notes the death of his mother, widow of Daniel Clark, Esq.) In the year 1721 I was appointed Judge of the Dourt. In the year 1732 I was appointed one of the Judges of the Superior Court. In Mar and April 1733, my family was visited with sore sickness, my house, like a hospital, was full of sick persons; all in it were sick but myself, my wife and one child. In this hurry and distress I was impressed as if it had been a voice: 'Be still and know that I am God'; this something laid my troubled mind and disposed me humbly to wait the issue. I lost in this sickness, a son and a servant; the rest after a long time recovered. In the year 1741 I was chosen Deputy Governor of this Colony and appointed Chief Judge of the Superior Court. In the year 1745 I led forth the Connecticut toops in the expedition against Cape Breton, and received a Commission from Governor Shirley and Governor Law for Major-General in the army. I was now in the 67th year of my age, and the oldest man in the army except the Rev. Mr. Moody (of York, Maine, borne 1676, a minister of some note in his day). It was a tough business; Divine Providence appeared wonderfully in our favor and should forever be remembered with thankfullness, nor ought the firmness of our troops ever be forgotten. After we had ontinued the siege 49 days, the city of Louisburg was surrendered on Capitulation and we with great joyfulness entered it. (In this campaign Lieutenant Governor Wolcott not only commanded the Connecticut troops but was second in command of the united colonial forces under General William Pepperrell. Among the family papers is his daily journal detailing the events of the siege, with copies of the official communications which passed between the respective commanders, letters from friends and high officials, etc.In this affair he enjoyed not only the sincere respect of all those officers both regular and volunteer with whom he came in contact, but became the hero of his own colony and town. Yet amid all this personal admiration and the delirium of joy which filled the public mind, his modesty proved equal to his valor; he wrote to Governor Hamilton: "God gave us the victorie; but humanly speaking, it was because our soldiers were freeholders and freeholders sons and the men within the walls were mercenary troops.") "On the 21st of Jan, 1747, God took away the desire of my eyes with a stroke. My wife for a long time had been out of health, but constantly attended her business and rose this morning not well, but took care of and went about the business of the family. About two hours after she was up she was taken wth an apoplexy and in a short time expired in the 61st year of her age. Upon consideration of her life and sudden death my thoughts burst out in the following reflections: This bird of Paradise upon the wings Of flaming Seraphs mounts: she sits and sings And sees as she is seen her God above, And in the arms of Jesus drowns in love. Me, ah! bereaved! me now left alone - My lovely turtle ever to bemoan: So long my morning star whose beaming eyes Did never open but my day would rise; So long my constant help to give relief. Double my comfort and divide my grief: So long my living wife, of these brereaven I have no friend so good unless in Heaven: I'll not forget thy kindness nor thy charms. But love thee dead that long lay in my arms. "In the year 1750 I was chosen Governor of the Colony of Connecticut" (succeeding Governor Jonathan Law, who died in office. He filled this position as he had others before, to good acceptance, till the affair of the Spanish ship (Nov 1752) which came in distress into New London harbor, and a considerable part of whose rich cargo being embezzled and wasted through the indolence, inadequateness, and inattention of the Spanish supercargo, the freemen were, by designing persons made to believe that the loss was occasioned through Governor Wolcott's fault and that the people must be taxed for repayment. He writes)"the Council approved of what I had done, but the House of Representatives were terrified with it, and refused to approve it. Soon after the rising of the Assembly the land was filled with Reports that I had oppressed the Merchant and extorted vast sums out of his cargo, and occasioned his delay and loss of time; that I had laid my proceeding in the affair before the Assembly to be approved, but they refused to approve it; that then I pleaded with the Assembly to tax the Colony for damages, but could not prevail . . . . The people see the cargo wasted, and these reports so imprest upon them, that at the election in May, 1754, I was dismist by a great majority of voices. I had now the common fate of discarded favorites. Neither the Government or Assembly took any more notice of me than of a common porter. To redeem my name from infamy and the people from their fears, I moved to their Court to be examined on oath upon that affair, and submit to their judgment but they shut their doors against me. Note: If solid virtue don't support the frame They are but fools who hold on babbling fame: Ransack thy conscience, there if thou'd find friends Leave it to time to make thy name amends And having now done all I could, here I left it supported with the sense of my own innocence, and it was not in vain; for the redemption of my name that I could not obtain from the Assembly was in a short time rolled upon me. The Assembly's complaint was laid before the King in Council, when no fault was found in any one step of my conduct in it; yea, the merchant declared that I had been friendly and favorable to him, and in this manner went off with his cargo. A universal opinion prevailed that I was innocent and abused by these reports, and the reporters sunk into contempt. ("He retired with composed, unruffled grandeur chreefully referring it to Divine Providence to find means to evidence that innocence that he had an inward conciousness of; nor were his expectations dissappointed, for we suppose every one is now fully convinced that that affair was well conducted and that to a wonder, considering its suddenness and the little acquaintance this colony had in affairs of this nature.") My conduct being thus searched to the bottom and thereby appearing to be without fraud or error; the freemen now looked upon the whole affair in a true light and at the next election in 1755, I had more than 2,500 of their voices and did not want 200 more to put me in my former seat. Undoubtedly there were a few malicious persons that were from that principle active and furious in raising and fomenting these Reports; but the effects were from mere terror and how can we blame the Assembly or the people acting under this passion? I am now stript of all public trust and business and yet have lost nothing that was my own or that I had right to claim a continuance of or anything that considering my age it is not better for me to be without than to have. May I not then take this as a benefit and since my mother's sons have discharged me from keeping their vineyard apply myself more closely to the keeping of my own. There is work enough to be done in thankful acknowledgments of former favors and living up to my duty for time to come." From other contemporaries we learn that "His body was strong and well proportioned; his countenance and deportment peculiarly adapted to command reverence and esteem; his wit was ready and uncommonly bright; his method of reasoning was clear, nervous and manly as became a generous inquirer after truth. He was a sincere, unfailing friend to every industrious virtuous honest man who acted his part well whatever was his station in life. But above all persons of true piety were his delight. He was a wise legislator and an able statesman. While he was a judge, he held the balance of justice with a steady unwavering hand and being far superior to venality or the influence of personal family or party connections he pronounced the law impartially on all the causes brought before him. As a governor he appeared to advantage: this was his proper element for he seemed originally formed to govern." At the height of his popularity, he often rode out on horseback and never appeared abroad but in full dress. He wore a suit of scarlet broadcloth. The coat was made with wide skirts and trimmed down the whole length in front with gilt buttons and broad gilt vellum button holes, two or three inches in length. The cuffs were large and deep reaching nearly to the elbows and were ornamented like the sides of the coat as were also the pocket lids with gilt vellum button holes and buttons. The waistcoat had skirts and was richly embroidered. Ruffles at the bosom and over the hands; they were of lace. He had a flowing wig and a three cornered hat with a cockade and rode sternly and stately on a large black horse whose tail swept the ground." The Governor's house was in South Windsor about a third of a mile north of the present meeting house. He built it in 1704 the year of the attack on Deerfield and the walls of the front room were covered with a painting descriptive of that scene. The house was taken down about 1770 and some of the panels which belonged to that apartment are preserved in the neighborhood as relics. He spent the last years of his life with his daughter Mrs. Newberry in Old Windsor where he died and was buried there with his fathers.

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Titel	Family Grimes Stammbaum
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Hochgeladen	2019-08-30 07:34:24.0
Einsender	Michael Grimes
E-Mail	oneofmanyangels@gmail.com
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