Simon Wolcott

Other Events and Attributes:

• General Information: According to Keatley (1941), he "was one of the few men in the Colony honored with the title 'Mister."
• Immigration: say 1635; Simon's parents emigrated to New England when he was about five. He, and his siblings were sent for within ten years after, but the exact time of their arrival we have not been able to ascertain.
• Residence: Oct 1636, Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut; In October 1636 he was recorded as living in Windsor, Connecticut.
• Occupation: say 1640, Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut; He was a farmer.
• Freeman: 1654, Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut; He was admitted as a freeman in 1654.
• Land/House: Apr 1661, Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut; In April 1661 he sold his place in Windsor, Connecticut to the Saunders Brothers and moved to Simsbury, Connecticut.
• Land/House: From 1667 to 1668, Simsbury, Hartford County, Connecticut; In 1667 and 1668 he received with others grants of land in Simsbury, Connecticut, then Massacoe.
• Offices Held: 1668, Simsbury, Hartford County, Connecticut; In 1668 he was appointed by the General Court one of a committee who were empowered, with reference to grants in that place, "to further the planting of the same, and to make such just orders as they shall judge requisite for the well ordering of said plantation, so they be not repugnant to the public orders of this Colony."
• Offices Held: 1671, Simsbury, Hartford County, Connecticut; He was the Representative to the General Court of Connecticut from Simsbury in 1671.
• Occupation: 12 Oct 1671, Simsbury, Hartford County, Connecticut; On 12 October 1671 the General Court granting him liberty, under proper restrictions, to "dispose" of alcoholic liquors, was evidence of public confidence in him and of his good social standing.
• Military: 11 Aug 1673, Simsbury, Hartford County, Connecticut; On 11 August 1673 he was appointed a Captain in the militia. The Committee for the Miltiæ do hereby appoynt Mr. Simon Woolcott and John Griffin to be those that shall command [Captain] the Traine Band of Simsbury for the present, and untill the Generall Court order otherwise, or the people there make their choyse."
• Offices Held: 1674, Simsbury, Hartford County, Connecticut; He was elected a Selectman of Simsbury in 1674.
• Moved To: 1675, Simsbury, Hartford County, Connecticut; In 1675 he and the rest of the settlers were driven from the place by the Indians, and his property was destroyed. It is said that on his flight from the place he filled a brass kettle with his plate, &c., and sunk it in the deep mud of the swamp, but was unable to find it afterwards.
• Residence: 1680, South Windsor, Hartford Count, Connecticut; After the loss of his place in Simsbury, he remained a few years in Windsor, and in 1680 settled on his land, on the east side of the Connecticut River, in the present town of South Windsor, Connecticut.
• Land/House: 13 May 1680, South Windsor, Hartford Count, Connecticut; "May 13, 1680. This Court grants Mr. Simon Woolcot two hundred acres of land for a farme, provided he take it up where it may not prejudice any grant to any perticular person or to any plantation."
• Land/House: 1686, South Windsor, Hartford Count, Connecticut; In the Windsor Town List of 1686 his "Estate Rateable" is among the largest entered; but it was involved, and there remained little at his decease.
• Last Full Review: 6 Aug 2020

Notes:

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Died:
According to Wolcott (1881) His death was hastened, according to his son's account, by gloomy anticipations of the oppression and suffering which awaited the colonists under the coming administration of Sir Edmund Andros. These fears, as the result proved, were not wholly groundless, and they were probably heightened in his mind by the tragic scenes which had recently been enacted in his native county in England. Somersetshire had been the principal seat of the unfortunate operations of Monmouth's fatal expedition, and the former neighbors of the family in England, and their families, had furnished some of the victims for the "judicial massacre" of the brutal Jeffreys during his Bloody Assizes. The reign of King James II., during the few years it lasted, was naturally an object of strong dislike and dread to the colonists.

Simon married Joanna Cook on 19 Mar 1657 in Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut. Joanna was born on 5 Aug 1638 in Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut; was christened on 21 Feb 1640 in Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut; died on 27 Apr 1657 in Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Simon married Martha Pitkin on 17 Oct 1661 in Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut. Martha was christened on 12 Oct 1639 in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England; died on 13 Oct 1719 in East Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut; was buried in Palisado Cemetery, Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut, U.S.A.. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]