Roger Wolcott (Connecticut)

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For other men with this name, see Roger Wolcott.

Roger Wolcott (January 4, 1679– May 17, 1767) was an American weaver and statesman from Windsor, Connecticut. He served as colonial governor of Connecticut between 1751 and 1754.

Roger was born to Simon and Martha (Pitkin) Wolcott in Windsor, Connecticut. His formal education was severely limited by the nature of the frontier village, so at age twelve he was apprenticed to a weaver, and later entered that business on his own.

In 1711 during Queen Anne's War, Wolcott accompanied militia forces to Canada as a commissary. On his return he was elected to the colony's Lower House. In 1714 he was elected to the Upper House (also called the Council) and remained a member until 1750. He was made judge of the Hartford County court in 1721 and of the colony's supreme court in 1732. In 1741 Wolcott was elected Deputy Governor of the colony. As deputy governors traditionally served as the Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Connecticut, he also assumed that position, which he held until 1750.

In 1745 Wolcott was again active in the militia, this time as a Major General. In King George's War, Massachusetts' governor William Shirley issued a general call to the New England colonies for an expedition against the French in Nova Scotia. General Wolcott headed the Connecticut troops in Sir William Pepperrell's expedition that captured Fortress Louisbourg.

With the death of Governor Jonathan Law in 1750, Wolcott succeeded to the position of governor. He was re-elected annually to that position through 1753. As governor, he attended negotiations with other British colonies and members of various Indian nations at the Albany Congress in 1754. During Wolcott's administration, a disabled Spanish ship, the St. Joseph and St. Helena, with a cargo valued at 400,000 Spanish dollars, ran aground near New London. Wolcott ordered the ship seized and the cargo impounded in order to allow time to resolve conflicting claims between the vessel's captain and the salvage crew. While in the colony's custody, a large portion of the ship's cargo mysteriously disappeared. Tainted with the scandal surrounding the Spanish Ship case, Wolcott was defeated for re-election in 1754. Following his defeat, Wolcott generally withdrew from public life to study and follow literary pursuits. In 1759, Wolcott authored a short history of the Connecticut colony titled, Roger Wolcott's Memoir Relating to the History of Connecticut.

Roger had married Sarah Drake in 1702, and they had fourteen children before her death in 1748. Their son, Oliver Wolcott signed the Declaration of Independence and went on to became governor of a free Connecticut. Roger died at home in Windsor and is buried in the Old Burying Ground there.