Henry Wolcott

  General Notes:

Sources:
~History of Ancient Windsor, 2 Vols., Henry R. Stiles, Picton Press, Camden, Maine, Vol. II pp. 799-800
~The Family of Henry Wolcott, Chandler Wolcott, Genesee Press, 1912, p. 34
~Wolcott Genealogy, Robert Griffen and Mitchell Alegre, The Society of Descendants of Henry Wolcott, New York, 1986, p. 32
~The Griswold Family: England-America, p. 121
~Memorial of Henry Wolcott, one of the first settlers of Winsor, Connecticut and of some of his descendants by Samuel Wolcott is the best resource I've found on the Wolcotts of England and Connecticut.
A similar genealogy can be found in a later version written in 1912 by Chandler Wolcott.
Full text of Wolcott Genealogy : The Family of Henry Wolcott, one of the first settlers of Windsor, Conn.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information. ⁴¹⁷
The English ancestry of the Wolcotts goes back to John Woolcott of Tolland, Somersetshire, England, whose will was dated there Feb. 9, 1571, and proved Apr. 11, 1572. In his will are mentioned the children John, Alice and Mary, his wife Agnes, and brothers Henry and Roger Woolcot. The will of John Wolcot II of Tolland, dated Nov. 10, 1623, mentions several children, among them his two eldest sons, Christopher Wolcott and Henry Woollcott. His wife's name was Joan.

Henry Wolcott, the surviving son of John and Joan Wolcott, was baptised at the parish Lidiard St. Lawrence, adjoining Tolland, Dec. 6, 1578. Several statements about when he came to America exist: one, that he came to Dorchester, Mass., in 1628; another, that he came on the ship "Mary and John" in the first company, Mar. 20, 1630, landing at Nantasket, Mass. At any rate, he was one of the original settlers of Dorchester, and held many positions of trust. In 1636/7 he moved to Windsor, Connecticut., being one of five gentlemen who undertook the settlement of that town. He was elected to the house of magistrates of Connecticut in 1643, and served for the rest of his life. He died May 30, 1655, and left an enviable record as the progenitor of one of the most deservedly prominent families of this country.

Henry Wolcott married in England, Jan. 19, 1606, Elizabeth Saunders, daughter Thomas. She is buried with her husband in the rear of the First Congregational Church in Windsor. The gravestone erected to their memory by their son-in-law, Matthew Griswold of Windsor, who married their daughter Anna Wolcott, is still standing.

The seven children of Henry and Elizabeth (Saunders) were all born in England. John apparently remained there, and died in England; Anna married Matthew Griswold of Windsor; Mary married Job Drake of Windsor; the other children were Henry, George, Christopher and Simon.

~The Cooley Genealogy: The Descendants of Ensign Benjamin Cooley, p. 447

• Background Information. ⁵⁰⁵
Henry Wolcott, Esq. was born in 1598, and he married on or about the year 1607, Elisabeth Saunders, who was born in 1589. He lived in Tolland, near Taunton in Somersetshire, England, until the year 1630, and then to avoid persecution, came with his family into New England, and settled at Dorchester. In the year 1616, 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 undertood 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, until he died 30 May 1655. His wife died 7 July 1655, and she and her husband lie buried in one tomb in Windsor.

~New England Historical & Genealogical Register, Vol. 1, July 1847, p. 251

• Dates & Events: The Great Migration. ⁴⁴⁶
Admission to Dorchester church prior to 1 April 1634 implied by freemanship

Requested 19 October 1630 and admitted 1 April 1634

In his will, dated 30 May 1655 and proved 4 October 1655, "Henry Wolcot" bequeathed to "my wife ... all my houselot, orchard, garden, hopyard and my lot in Plimmouth Meadow during the term of her life, also ... two of my cows and half the household goods in my dwelling house"; "I leave my land in England to Henry my eldest son without encumbrances, also I give unto him my two Books of Martyrs"; to "Christopher my second son my lot in the great meadow after my death and my houselot and housing upon it after the death of my wife he paying out of it thirty pounds after my wife's decease as I shall further appoint"; to "George my third son the five pounds he owes me and five pounds more"; to "Simon my youngest son all my land on the easterly side of the Great River and my lot at Arramummett"; to "the children of Henry my eldest son five pounds to Henry the eldest of them and to the rest of them forty shillings apiece"; residue to be equally divided "amongst all my children"; "Henry Wolcot my son" to be overseer; to "Christopher my son ... my lot in Plimmouth Meadow after the decease of my wife"

The inventory of the estate of "Mr. Henry Wolcot deceased," taken 13 June 1655, totalled £764 8s. 10d., of which £351 5s. was real estate: "the houselot, housing, orchard, gardens, press, garner [granary] and things thereto belonging," £135; "twenty-two acres in the Great Meadow," £88; "8 acres in Plimmouth Meadow," £32; "24 acres at Podunk ... with a barn," £54; "Marshfield's lot and house," £24; "the lot at Arramomets," £10; and "four other lots not fenced," £8 5s.

~The Great Migration, Vol. I-III, NEGHS webpage

• Web Reference: Henry Wolcott of Windsor, Connecticut. ⁵⁴¹
Henry Wolcott, his wife Elizabeth Saunders and three of their sons sailed from Plymouth on the Mary and John. They arrived in Dorchester, Massachusetts 31 May 1630. Their two daughters and youngest son followed them to the colonies later. They later settled in Windsor, Connecticutt in 1636.

Henry was a member of the Connecticut House of Delegates from 1637-1643. He was a member of the House of Magistrates from 1643 until his death.

• Background Information. ⁶⁹³
Henry Wolctott was the progenitor of the American family of Wolcott. He was born in Galdon Manor, Tolland, Somersetshire, England in 1578. He was baptized in the neighboring, larger parish church of Lydiard, St. Lawrence on 6 Dec 1578, which is recorded in the church of Lydiard. He was the son of John Wolcott of Tolland. He married Elizabeth Saunders, daughter of Thomas Saunders of Lydiard, St. Lawrence, whom he married 19 Jan 1606. She was born in 1583 and baptized on 20 Dec 1584. Henry died on 30 May 1655, at age seventy-seven, while Elizabeth Saunders died 7 Jul 1655, at age 73. They were both buried in Windsor, Connecticut.

Henry and his wife reached Nantasket, Massachusetts on 30 May 1630. They had arrived in Massachusetts aboard the Mary & John. Henry Wolcott enrolled on the first list of freemen of Boston, 10 Oct 1630, and lived in Boston for several years before moving to Windsor Connecticut in about 1635.

~European and American family of Wolcott, pp. 10-14

• Background Information. ⁶⁹⁴
John Wolcott deeded his mansion in Tolland called the Galdon Manor,, -"with meadows, pastures, mills, tenements, and herediaments thereunto belonging" to his eldest son Christopher. This manor came into the possesion of Henry at the death, without will, of his elder bother Christopher.

The holders of landed estates in England were in that day persons of social rank. The personal consideration with which Henry Wolcott was regarded in the Colony from the outset is evidence that he was an English gentleman of acknowledged ability, intelligence, and excellence.

Henry Woolcot then deeded this manor to his eldest son, Henry on 10 Mar 1642.

~Memorial of Henry Wolcott, pp. 3, 33-34

• Ancestory. ⁵⁴¹
From page 11 of the Wolcott genealogy, by Chandler Wolcott, 1912:

"The following table tracing the family back to the eleventh century in Wales is found in a footnote to Hollister's History of Connecticut, Vol I, page 189.

"Through the researches of Mr. Somerby, of Boston, in the herald's office, among the subsidy rolls, wills, and parish records of England, the genealogy of Henry Wolcott, Esquire, (the emigrant) has been traced, through fifteen generations, back to Sir John Wolcott, knight, as follows:
1. Jeran Wolcott (son of Sir John of Wolcott, who married Anna, daughter of John Mynde, of Shropshire
2. Roger Wolcott, of Wolcott, married Edith, daughter of Sir. William Donnes, knight.
3. Sir Phillip Wolcott, of Wolcott, who married Julian, daughter of John Herle.
4. John Wolcott, of Wolcott, who married Alice, daughter of David Lloyd, Esquire
5. Sir John Wolcott, of Wolcott, knight, 1382
6. Thomas Wolcott
7. John Wolcott, of Wolcott
8. John Wolcott, of Wolcott, who married Matilda, daughter of Sir Richard Cornwall, of Bereford, knight
9. Roger Wolcott, Esquire, who married Margaret, daughter of David Lloyd, Esquire
10. William Wolcott, settled in Tolland, Somersetwhire
11. William Wolcott, who married elizabeth. His will is dated A.D. 1500
12. Thomas Wolcott, who was living in Tolland in 1552
13. Thomas Wolcott, who married Alice, will dated 4 Nov 1572
14. John Wolcott, of Golden Manor, in tolland, Will proved 10 Nov 1623
15. Henry Wolcott (the emigrant), who conveyed the manor house to his son Henry."

Henry married Elizabeth Saunders, daughter of Thomas Saunders and Ann Blake, on 19 Jan 1606 in Lidyard, St. Lawrence, Somersetshire, England ^417,693,694.^,1430 (Elizabeth Saunders was born in 1584 in Lidyard, St. Lawrence, Somersetshire, England ⁶⁹³, baptized on 20 Dec 1584 in Lidyard, St. Lawrence, Somersetshire, England,^693,694,1430 died on 7 Jul 1655 in Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut ^550,1430 and was buried in 1655 in First Congregational Church in Windsor, Connecticut ⁴¹⁷.)