WOLCOTT, ROGER

born Jan. 4, 1679, Windsor, Conn. died May 17, 1767, East Windsor, Conn. British American colonial justice, military officer, and governor of Connecticut. After service as a clothier's apprentice, Wolcott became a successful tradesman. In 1707 he became a selectman for the town of Windsor. He was admitted to the bar in 1709 and was that year elected to the lower house of Connecticut's legislature. Wolcott became a justice of the peace (1710), a judge of Hartford's county court (1721), a judge of the Hartford superior court (1732), and chief justice of that court in 1741. He also served as clerk of the legislative assembly (171011), was elected to the Upper House of Assistants in 1714, and became deputy governor in 1741. Wolcott was elected governor of Connecticut in 1750 and served for four years until his defeat by Thomas Fitch. He was an important member of colony committees concerned with boundary disputes, Indian affairs, paper-currency issues, and law code revisions. His military service started with his appointment as captain in 1722, and by 1739 he had risen to the rank of colonel, commanding Connecticut's First Regiment. He was commissioned a major general in 1745 and was second in command of the successful Anglo-American expedition that captured the French fortress of Louisbourg. Wolcott was also a prosperous farmer and a poet. His Poetical Meditations, Being the Improvement of Some Vacant Hours, printed in 1725, was the first book of verse published in Connecticut.