WOLCOTT, ROGER ( 1679-1767), American administrator, was born in Windsor (Conn.), Jan. 4, 1679, the son of Simon Wolcott (died 1687). He was a grandson of Henry Wolcott (1578-1655), who emigrated to New England in 1628; assisted John Mason and others to found Windsor (Conn.), in 1635; and was a member of the first general assembly of Connecti cut in 1637 and of the house of magistrates from 1643 to his death. (Henry Wolcott the younger [died 168o] was one of the patentees of Connecticut under the charter of 1662.) Roger Wolcott was a member of the Connecticut general assembly in 1709, one of the bench of justices in 1710, commissary of the Connecticut forces in the expedition of 1711 against Canada, a member of the council in 1714, judge of the county court in 1721, and of the superior court in 1732, and deputy governor and chief justice of the superior court in 1741. He was second in com mand to Sir William Pepperrell, with rank of major general in the expedition (1745) against Louisbourg, and was governor of Connecticut in 1751-54. He died in what is now East Windsor, on May 17, 1767.
He wrote Poetical Meditations (1725), an epic on The Agency of the Honourable John Winthrop in the Court of King Charles the Second (printed in vol. iv., series i, Collections of Massachu setts Historical Society). His Journal at the Siege of Louisbourg is printed in pp. 131-161 of vol. i (186o) of the Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society.
His son OLIVER WOLCOTT (1726-1797) was graduated from Yale in 1747 and studied medicine with his brother Alexander (1712-95). In '751 he was made sheriff of the newly established Litchfield county and practised law in Litchfield. He was a mem ber of the council in 1774-86 and of the Continental Congress in 1775-76, 1778 and 1780-84, and a commissioner of Indian affairs for the northern department in 1775. During the War of Inde pendence he was active in raising militia in Connecticut. He was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence; com manded Connecticut militia that helped to defend New York city in Aug. 1776; in 1777 organized more Connecticut volunteers and
took part in the campaign against Gen. John Burgoyne; and in 1779 commanded the militia during the British invasion of Con necticut. In 1784, as one of the commissioners of Indian affairs for the northern department, he negotiated the treaty of Fort Stanwix (Oct. 22) settling the boundaries of the Six Nations. In 1786-96 he was lieutenant governor of Connecticut, and in Nov. 1787 was a member of the Connecticut convention which ratified the Federal Constitution. He became governor in 1796 upon the death (Jan. t5) of Samuel Huntington, and served until his death on Dec. I, 1797.
His son Oliver wrote a sketch of him in Sanderson's Biography of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence (Philadelphia, 182o-27).
Oliver's son, OLIVER WOLCOTT, Jr. (176o-1833), was graduated from Yale in 1778, studied law in Litchfield, and was admitted to the bar in 1781. With Oliver Ellsworth he was appointed (May 1784) a commissioner to adjust the claims of Connecticut against the United States. He was controller of public accounts of Con necticut and auditor of the Federal Treasury. In June 1791 he became controller of the Treasury, and in Feb. 1795 succeeded Alexander Hamilton as secretary of the Treasury. At the end of 1800 he resigned after a bitter attack by the press. He re-entered politics as a leader of the "Toleration Republicans," and in 1817 presided over the State convention which adopted a new consti tution, and in the same year was elected governor, serving until 1827. He died in New York city June 1, 1833.
His grandson George Gibbs (1815-1873) in 1846 edited Mem oirs of the Administration of Washington and John Adams . . . from the Papers of Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of the Treas ury. Wolcott wrote British Influence on the Affairs of the United States Proved and Explained (1804).