Summary
Oliver Wolcott represented Connecticut at the Continental Congress, signing the Declaration belatedly due to illness.
Oliver Wolcott | Signer of the Declaration of Independence
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Biography
Oliver Wolcott, the youngest son of Connecticut Governor Roger and Sarah Drake Wolcott, was born in Windsor Connecticut on November 20, 1726. He graduated from Yale College in 1747 and then accepted a commission from the Governor of New York to organize a militia to defend the colonies against the French during King George’s War. When the war ended, he moved to Goshen in northwestern Connecticut in order to study and practice medicine with one of his brothers. But he soon decided to abandon medicine; he moved instead to the newly created county of Litchfield and began a career as a merchant.
Given his family’s social background, he was soon involved in local politics. He served as sheriff of the county from 1751 to 1771. He was vocal in his opposition to British policies in the years after the French and Indian War, and Connecticut elected him to serve in the Continental Congress in 1775. By February of 1776, he warned that “Our difference with Great Britain has become very great. What matters will issue in, I cannot say, but perhaps in a total disseverance from Great Britain.” It was clear that he would come down on the side of independence.
But he became seriously ill in 1776 and did not sign the Declaration until some time later.
Wolcott served in the Continental Congress every year until 1783 with the exception of 1779 when he was not elected a delegate. But his attendance was irregular since political participation in the revolution was not his only role; he was also an officer in Connecticut’s militia army. As a Brigadier General, he commanded the fourteen militia regiments sent to New York to assist the Continental Army, and in September 1777, he led a force of volunteers from his brigade to join Horatio Gates’s army against British General Burgoyne. By 1779 he was a Major General responsible for the defense of Connecticut’s seacoast and in May 1780 he became a member of the state’s Council of Safety, the executive committee for the prosecution of the war.
When the war ended, Wolcott focused more intently on his political career. He was appointed to the bench of the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors in 1784, and two years later he was elected Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut. In 1796, upon the death of Governor Samuel Huntington, Wolcott became his state’s governor. He held this office until his death the following year at the age of 71.
