Author: Wolcott, William
Biography:
WOLCOTT, William (1753-1825: ancestry.com)
Known as “Dr. Wolcott” to distinguish him from his father, he was born at Windsor, Hartford CT, on 10 Feb. 1753, the fourth of seven children of William Wolcott (1711-99) and his first wife Abigail Abbott (1718-63), who had married in 1747. In 1775, like his father he graduated from Yale, but his study was medicine. According to Dexter, the anonymous poem about the surrender of British forces in 1777, Grateful Reflections (1779), was attributed to him by a clergyman, the Rev. Thomas Robbins, who also lived in Windsor. Wolcott established a practice in Castleton, Rutland County VT, where he married Esther Stevens. No marriage record has been found; Dexter gives an approximate date of 1785. The couple had three daughters, two of whom grew to maturity. They later moved to Washington, Berkshire County MA. After the death of his wife in 1818, Wolcott went to live first with his daughter and son-in-law in Middlefield MA and then with relatives in Windsor CT, where he died suddenly on 22 Sept. 1825 and was buried at the Palisado cemetery. (ancestry.com 10 July 2024; findmypast.com 10 July 2024; Dexter 3: 595-6; Connecticut Courant 27 Sept. 1825) HJ