WOLCOTT, Roger, colonial governor, born in Windsor, Connecticut, 4 January, 1679; died in East Windsor (then a part of Windsor), Connecticut, 17 May, 1767. The frontier settlement in which he grew up afforded him no opportunities of early education. At the age of twelve he was apprenticed to a weaver, and on reaching his majority he established himself in business, and acquired a competence, tie was a representative in 1709, became a justice of the peace in the following year, and in 1711 acted as commissary of the Connecticut forces in the expedition against Canada. He became a member of the council in 1714, judge of the county court in 1721, a judge of the supreme court in 1732, and deputy governor and chief judge of the supreme court in 1741. In 1745 he commanded the Connecticut contingent of the forces that were sent by the colonies against Louisburg, with the rank of major-general, and in the siege of that place was second in command under Sir William Pepperell. He was elected governor in 1750, and held the office till 1754, when he retired from public life, and devoted his after-years to literary pursuits and religious meditation. He published " Poetical Meditations," a small volume of verse (New London, 1725), containing, with six shorter pieces, a narrative poem called " A Brief Account of the Agency of the Hen. John Winthrop in the Court of King Charles the Second," which has been reprinted in the " Collections " of the Massachusetts historical society. Some of the other poems are given in Charles W. Everest's " Poets of Connecticut " (New York, 1843) ; and a letter to the Reverend Peter Hobart entitled "The New England Congregational Churches are and always have been Consociated Churches" (1761).--His son, Erastus, soldier, born in East Windsor, Connecticut, 21 September, 1722; died was repeatedly elected to the there. 14 September. 1793 general assembly, and was chosen speaker of the lower house, was a justice of the peace and a judge of probate, and became chief judge of the county court. He was sent to Boston in 1775 to observe the movements of the British troops. Early in 1776 he joined General Washington's army before Boston with a regiment of Connecticut militia, and in the sum met of that year he garrisoned the forts at New London with his men. He was appointed a brigadier-general of militia in 1777, and led the 1st brigade of Connecticut troops on the expedition to Peekskill, New York, and then to Danbury, Connecticut He was chosen a delegate to the Continental congress, but did not serve. After the Revolution he was a judge of the supreme court of Connecticut.----Another son, Oliver, signer of the Declaration of Independence, born in Windsor, Connecticut, 26 November, 1726; died in Litchfield, Connecticut, 1 December, 1797, was graduated at Yale in 1747, and in the same year was commissioned as captain by the governor of New York, and, raising a company of volunteers, served on the northern frontier till iris regiment was &is-banded after the signature of the treaty of Aixla-Chapelle He then studied medicine with his brother, Dr. Alexander Wolcolt, but in 1751, before he entered into practice, he was chosen sheriff of the newly organized county of Litchfield. He was a member of the council continuously from 1774 till 1786, and at the same time e judge of the county court of common pleas, and also judge of probate for the Litchfield district many years, he was active in the militia organization, and rose through all the grades from a captaincy to the rank of major-general. Adhering to the American cause from the beginning of the Revolutionary troubles, he was appointed by the Continental congress in July, 1775, one of the commissioners of Indian affairs for the northern department, who were intrusted with the task of inducing the Iroquois Indians to remain neutral. The Wyoming controversy between Connecticut and Pennsylvania, and, still more, the dispute between the settlers of Vermont and the authorities of the state of New York, which endangered the harmonious action of the colonies, were compromised largely through his exertions. A gilded leaden statue of George III., that had been erected on Bowling Green in New York city in 1770, was thrown down by the citizens in 1776, and was taken to General Wolcott's place in Litchfield, where his daughters and their friends converted the material into cartridges for the militia. He was elected to the second Continental congress, and took his seat in January, 1776, remaining during the debates on the Declaration of Independence and until after it was adopted. He then returned to Connecticut, and was appointed by the governor and council of safety to the command of the fourteen regiments of Connecticut militia that were sent for the defence of New York. He organized this force, and when it was divided into brigades returned to his home, and in November resumed his seat in congress, which, a month later, was driven from Philadelphia, and continued its sessions in Baltimore. During the summer of 1777 he was employed in organizing bodies of militia, in active operations, and in corresponding with other patriots on military matters. He brought re-enforcements of several thousand men to the assistance of General Israel Putnam on Hudson river, and then joined the northern army under General Horatio Gates with three or four hundred volunteers, and was assigned to the command of a brigade of militia which took part in the defeat of General John Burgoyne. In February, 1778, he resumed his place in congress, which was then sitting at York, Pennsylvania He was not elected to the next congress. In the summer of 1779, when the British ravaged the coast of Connecticut, he took the field at the head of a division of militia. In 1780 he was again elected a representative in congress, and continued a member till 1784, although he did not regularly attend the sessions. In 1785 he was appointed one of the commissioners of Indian affairs for the northern department who negotiated a treaty of peace with the Six Nations. He was elected lieu-tenant-governor of Connecticut in 1786, and reelected till 11796, when he was chosen governor, which office he held at the time of his death. --Oliver's son, Oliver, secretary of the treasury, born in Litchfield, Connecticut, 11 January, 1760; died in New York city, 1 June, 1833, was graduated at Yale in 1778, having in the previous year taken part as a militiaman in encounters with the British who attempted to capture the Continental stores at Danbury. He studied law at Litchfield, at the same time accompanying his father to the coast in 1779 as a volunteer aid, and discharging later the duties of quartermaster at Litchfield. He was admitted to the bar in January, 1781, removed to Hartford, became a clerk in the financial department of the state government, and in 1782 was appointed a member of the committee of the pay-table. In May, 1784, he was commissioned, with Oliver Ellsworth, to adjust the claims of Connecticut against the United States government. He was appointed comptroller of public accounts when that office was created in 1788. When the National government was organized under the new constitution, in September, 1789, he received the appointment of auditor of the treasury. He became comptroller of the treasury in the spring of 1791, retaining that office in preference to the presidency of the United States bank, which he was offered on its organization in the summer of that year. On 2 February, 1795, he succeeded Alexander Hamilton as secretary of the treasury, he offered his resignation on the accession of John Adams to the presidency, but was continued in office till 8 November, 1800, when he peremptorily resigned. He had been subjected to gross slanders, his political opponents accusing the Federalist officials of burning the treasury buildings in order to conceal peculations, he therefore called for an investigation, and the hostile committee of the house of representatives kept alive the malicious insinuation by reporting that they had obtained no evidence regarding the fire in the treasury department that enabled them to form a "conjecture satisfactory." President Adams forthwith nominated Mr. Wolcott judge of the United States circuit court for the 2d district, embracing the states of Connecticut, Vermont, and New York, and the senate shielded his reputation by unanimously confirming the nomination. In 1802 he lost his judgeship by the repeal of the judiciary act under which he had been appointed. He then WOLFE engaged in mercantile business in New York city, and in 1803 was elected president of the Merchants' bank, which, however, soon afterward was destroyed by the operation of the law known as the "restraining act." When the charter of the first United States bank expired, Wolcott employed his capital in founding the Bank of North America, and was chosen its first president, holding the office from 1812 till 1814, when he retired, in consequence of political differences between himself and the directors. He was the Democratic candidate for governor of Connecticut in 1815, and was defeated, but in 1817 he was elected, and in the same year was a member of the convention that framed the new state constitution, and was chosen to preside over that body. He was annually reelected to the governorship for ten years. Subsequently he resumed his residence in New York city.