Henry Wolcott

Other Events and Attributes:

• Immigration: 1630; Henry and his family came to New England on board the Mary and John in 1630, and first settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts.
• Freeman: 1 Apr 1634, Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts; On 1 April 1634 he was admitted as a freeman. He lived in Dorchester, Massachusetts at the time.
• Miscellaneous: 1636, Dorchester, Suffolk County, Massachusetts; Henry was an importing merchant. In 1636 he returned to England on business.
• Moved To: 1636, Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut; In 1636 he moved his family to Windsor, Connecticut.
• Offices Held: 1650, Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut; He was a member of the House of Deputies in 1650.
• Travel: 1654; He went to England on Business again in 1654.
• Offices Held: 1655, Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut; He was a Representative to the Connecticut General Court in 1655, 1656, and 1661.
• Offices Held: 1662, Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut; He was elected to the House of Magistrates of Connecticut in 1662 and served until the end of his life.
• Petition: 1662; Henry was one of the nineteen prominent men whose names appear on the Charter of Connecticut in 1662.
• Land/House: 14 Oct 1669, Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut; "At a General Assembly held at Hartford, Oct. 14, 1669, the Court grants Mr. Henry Wolcott three hundred acres of land, provided he take it up where it doe not prejudice any former grant."
• Will: 21 Sep 1670, Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut; On 21 September 1670, he made his will: England being in Good health doe make & ordaine this my last will & Testament in maner & forme Following. Imp^s I give unto my wife (besides The Tenn pownds p. annum which wos granted unto her before our Marriage out of my land at Tollon Mill) all my houseing & land in Windsor dureing the time of her Natural life she keeping the houseing & fences in good repayre & takeing care of & provideing for my children, & bringing them up in the feare of God untill they marry or com to the age of Twenty one yeares It. I give unto her the Improvement of halfe my land at Wethersfeild untill my son Samuell shall be of the age of Twenty one yeares : Allso I give unto her all the houshold Goods shea brought with her, & the use of fifty pownds worth more of my houshold Goods dureing the time of her naturall life, Allso I give unto my sonn Henry all that is due unto me from him on accompt on my booke, & my ring that I seale with, & my best sword pistolls & brass Gunn, Allso I give unto my son John all my houseing & land in Windsor after the decease of my wife. Allso I give unto him halfe my houseing & land in Weathersfeild from the time of my death dureing the time of the naturall life of my wife. Allso I give unto him all my houseing & lands in Tollon — which are or lately were in the possession & Improvement of John Dart dureing the time of the naturall life of the sayd John Woolcott, Samuel Woolcott & Josiah Woolcott my sonns, he paying five pownds p annum out of it unto my executrix for the use of the rest of my children untill "their portions hereafter mentioned shall be all payd." Allso I give unto my sonn Samuel halfe my land at Wethersfeild when he shall be of the age of Twenty one yeares. Allso I give unto him my land at Wellington called longforth containing eleven acres when he shall be of the age of twenty one yeares, dureing the time of the naturall lives of my Three sonns John Woolcott, Samuel Woolcott & Josiah Woolcott he paying Ten pownds p annum out of it unto my executrix for the use of the rest of my children untill their portions hereafter mentioned shall be all payd Allso I give unto Josiah Woolcott my youngest son halfe my land at Weathersfeild after the decease of my wife, he being of the age of Twenty one yeares. Allso I give unto him my land in Tollon which is now in the possession of John Woolcott after the determination of the estate that was granted by my unckell Christopher Woolcott unto John Woolcott Sen' long since deceased & after my son Josiah shall be of the age of Twenty one yeares dureing the naturall lives of my Three sonns John Woolcott, Sam' Woolcott & Josiah Woolcott, he paying Ten pownds p annum out of it unto my executrix for the use of the rest of my children, untill the portions of all the rest of my children herein mentioned shall be all payd Allso I give unto my daughter Sarah Woolcott Two Hundred & fifty pownds sterling. Allso I give unto my daughter Mary Woolcott Two Hundred & fifty pownds sterling Allso I give unto my daughter Hanna Woolcott Two Hundred & fifty pownds sterling. Allso my will is that my wife shall have the Improvement of the portions of each of my children untill they shall marry or shall be of the age of Twenty one yeares. Allso I give unto Ambrose Fowler forty shillings & To Nath: Cooke forty shillings, and to Rebeccah Kellsy forty shillings. Allso my will is that all the rest of my estate shall be equally divided amongst all my children, Henry, John Samuel, & Josiah, Sarah Mary & Hanna Woolcott. Allso my will is that if any one or more of my children shall dye, before they shall be of age to receive their portions, that then the portion or portions appoynted to him or them shall be equally divided amongst all my children that shall then survive Allso I doe make my wife executrix of this my will and testament. Also I doe make my brother in law Capt. Benjamin Newbery & my son Henry Wolcott overseers of this my will and testament and if any difference shall arise amongst my younger children in the distribution of my estate, my will is that it shall be determined by ray overseers Henry Wolcott Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of & a seal. Joseph Haines Nathana^l Collins A schedule to be added to my last will. Whereas by my last will and testament dated September the 21-' Anno dominie 1670, I did give unto my three younger sons John Wolcott Samuel Wolcott and Josiah Wolcott my three tenements in England during the time of their naturall lives. Viz. my land in Tolland which is in the occupation of John Dart & John Wolcott & my land in Wellington called longforth which is in the occupation of Hugh Wolcott : my will now is that if my eldest son Henry Wolcott shall desire to have the aforesaid lands, & shall pay unto my Executrix for the use of the rest of my children the sum of Three hundred pounds in current New England Money to be payd in six years after my decease by fifty pounds per annum the aforesaid six years, that then he shall have & enjoy the aforesaid three tenements during the time of his natural life & to the heir males of his body lawfully begotten & to their heirs forever, but if he shall dy not having any such heir male Then my will is that it shall decend & remayne to the heir males of my other three sons & to their heirs forever & Whereas in my aforesaid will I did give all my land in Wethersfield unto my two youngest sons after the decease of my wife, my will now is that all my land in Wethersfield (besides my houseing & home Lot) shall be equally divided by my overseers after the decease of my wife betwixt my two youngest sons Samuell & Josiah but my houseing and home Lot shall be to my son John from my decease untill the decease of my wife & after her decease unto my Sonne Samuell & to his heirs forever, he paying Twenty pounds unto my son Josiah. Also my will is that if my son Henry shall pay the Three Hundred pounds before mentioned that it shall be equally divided betwixt my three younger sons above named they paying yearly out of it & out of their parts of my land in New England as is determined by my Will aforesaid untill the portions of the rest of my children shall be all payd. Also I leave my Houseing & land at Tollen Mill unto my son Henry Wolcott without Incumberances & all other things contained in my aforesaid will I doe hereby rattify & confirme Witness my hand & scale this 2^nd day of October Ano Domini : One thousand six hundred & seventy one. Henry Wolcott & a seale Signed Sealed & delivered in the presence of Jos Haines Nathaniell Collins
• Travel: 1671; He returned to England on business in 1671.
• Offices Held: 1675 to 1676, Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut; During King Philip's War he was a member of the council of war.
• Inventory: Aug 1680, Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut; His estate was inventoried in August 1680 in Hartford, Connecticut.
• Probate/Proved: 27 Aug 1680; His will was probated 27 August 1680.
• Last Full Review: 19 May 2020

Notes:

He was master of a short-hand which had puzzled us in several documents, and to which we did not imagine that any key could ever be found. Amono- the papers deposited in the library of the Connecticut Historical Society, many years since, was a stout little vellum-covered volume of nearly four hundred pages, closely written in this hand, with no clew to the subject nor to the writer's name. It lay unnoticed until about the year 1857, when it attracted the attention of J. Hammond Trumbull, LL.D., who is as ingenious in such matters as he is persevering in his researches. He succeeded in deciphering it, and found it to consist of notes of sermons and lectures, delivered in Windsor and Hartford, between April, 1638, and May, 1641, in regular course. The writer's name is not given, but his birthday is noted on the first leaf of the volume, and this and other facts identify him as Henry Wolcott, Jr.; and it is a curious fact that the only record of his birth is found among these hieroglyphics, and the date has been unknown till now. Having called Dr. Trumbull's attention to this fact, we give his answer, which explains his discovery of the authorship : —

I was aware that the entry of Henry Wolcott's birth in the short-hand notebook supplied a date not hitherto ascertained, and corrects the year to which his birth has been usually assigned. This entry was my first clew to the ownership of the note-book. It is made at the top of the first leaf in the volume, in a single line, which, deciphered, reads : " Tlie day I was born was the 21 of January 1610" — that is, of course, 1611, N. S. So I had given, a regular hearer of Mr. Warham and Mr. Huit from 1638 to 1641, who was an occasional hearer of Mr. Hooker and Mr. Stone, at times when the Court was in session at Hartford, and who was born in 161 1. Henry Wolcott, Jr., was the only man in the Colony that could satisfy the conditions of the problem ; and on looking, for corroboration, into the " Wolcott Ledger," I found numerous entries in the same characters employed in the notebook. The latter contains no other entry of personal or family matters. The Ledger notes the birth of one or two children in short-hand, but supplies no new dates.

Name:


Inventory:
The inventory of his estate reads:

Real and personal estate in Windsor £1.550 12/
Property, mostly real estate in Wethersfield £1.234 4/
Lands in Eng. Houseing & Mill at £52 per annum £1.033
Reversion of a living oi £10 per annum £160

Among other articles enumerated are, —

Several divine and history books, £13 7/8
Silver, gold, and plate, as per acc. £74 15/

It included also his servant Cyrus, valued at £30

Henry married Sarah Newberry on 8 Nov 1640 in Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut. Sarah was born in 1614; died on 16 Jun 1684 in Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Residence: Abt 1607, Tolland, Somersetshire, England
• Immigration: 1630, Dorchester, Suffolk County, Massachusetts; Henry and his family first settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts.
• Residence: Oct 1636, Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut
• Offices Held: 1643; He was elected to the House of Magistrates of Connecticut, and served for the rest of his life.

Notes:

Name:


Buried:
Here under lyeth the body of
Henry Wolcot
sometimes a
Maiestrate of this jvrisdiction
who died ye 30th day of
May Anno salutis 1655
Ætatis 73

Henry married Elizabeth Saunders on 19 Jan 1606 in Lydeard St Lawrence, Somersetshire, England. Elizabeth (daughter of Thomas Saunders) was christened on 20 Dec 1584 in Lydiard St Lawrence, Somersetshire, England; died on 7 Jul 1655 in Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut; was buried in Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Residence: Abt 1607, Tolland, Somersetshire, England
• Immigration: 1630; Henry and his family first settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts.
• Residence: Oct 1636, Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut

Notes:

Died:
Parsons (1851) and Griggs (2003) give her death date as 17 July 1655.

Buried:
Here under lyeth the body of
Elizabeth Wolcot
who died
ye 17 day of July
Anno salutis 1655
Ætatis 73

Other Events and Attributes:

• Will: 9 Feb 1571, Tolland, Somersetshire, England; He is mentioned in his father's will.
• Will: 10 Nov 1623, Tolland, Somersetshire, England; She mentions his wife, Joan, and his children: Christopher and Henry.

John married Joan Cross on 9 Feb 1578/79 in Bishops Lydeard, Somersetshire, England. Joan was born in England; died in England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Will: 9 Feb 1571, Tolland, Somersetshire, England; The will of John Woolcott, of Tolland, dated Feb. g, 1571, and proved April II, 1572, bequeaths "my soule to Almightie god my creaf and to o' Lord Jesus Christ my redeemer and my bodie to Xtian buriall," with bequests " to y^e cathedrall churche of Welles," " to John my sonne," " to Alice my daughter," " to Mary my daughter," " to John Howe," " to Agnes Meyn," and " unto Agnes my wief," — appointing as overseers " Henry Woolcot and Roger Woolcot my brothers."
• Probate/Proved: 11 Apr 1572, Tolland, Somersetshire, England; His will was proved on 11 April 1572.
• Last Full Review: 9 Jan 2022

John married Agnes Butler on Yes, date unknown. Agnes was born in 1523 in Taunton, Somersetshire, England; died on 6 Nov 1606 in Taunton, Somersetshire, England; was buried in St John The Baptist Churchyard, Tolland, Sumersetshire, England, United Kingdom. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Other Will: 9 Feb 1571, Tolland, Somersetshire, England; She is mentioned in the will of her husband, John Wolcott.
• Last Full Review: 9 Jan 2022