Author: Woolcot, William
Biography:
WOOLCOT, William (1764-1845: ancestry.co.uk)
He was baptised at South Molton, Devon, on 4 Mar. 1764, one of at least six children of John Woolcot or Woolcott, woolcomber, and Mary Lake, who had married in 1743. His brother Simon (1759-1819) was a well-known schoolmaster and mathematician, and one of the principal surveyors in the 1809 Ordnance Survey of Devon. Nothing is known of his education but he was recorded in annual issues of the British Imperial Calendar during the Napoleonic War as a military surveyor (second class). In 1815 he was superannuated after ten years’ service. A Few Leaves from my Field-Book (1818) was printed for the author, “Late Royal Military Surveyor, &c.,” by Amos Tepper at South Molton. The volume included the usual elegy “The Princess Charlotte,” topographical poems (“The River Mole’,” “The Valley of Stones”), and poems on contemporary events (“War’” “Peace”). Although various William Woolcot(t)s married in Devon in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, it seems likely he did not marry. The 1841 census records him still living in South Molton with his elder unmarried sister, Mary (1753-1845), to whom he left his small estate. No wife or children are mentioned in his will. He died on 15 Apr. 1845; his sister died on 6 Nov. 1845. (ancestry.co.uk 14 June 2024; findmypast.co.uk 14 June 2024; British Imperial Calendar, various issues 1805-15; Exeter Flying Post 28 May 1818; NA, WO 44/517; GRO death certs.) AA