Oliver Wolcott

Oliver Wolcott (December 1, 1726– December 1, 1797) was an American politician who signed the Declaration of Independence and also the Articles of Confederation as a representative of Connecticut.

Oliver Wolcott was born in Windsor, Connecticut, as the youngest of fourteen children of Royal Governor Roger Wolcott. He attended Yale College and graduated in 1747. He was commissioned to raise a militia company to fight in the French and Indian War, and he served the King as captain in the unit on the northern frontier.At the end of the war, Wolcott studied medicine. He was then was appointed sheriff of the newly-created Litchfield County, Connecticut, and served from about 1751 to 1771.

Wolcott participated in the American Revolutionary War as brigadier general and then major general in the Connecticut militia. The Continental Congress appointed him Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and he was elected to the Congress in 1775. He became seriously ill in 1776 and did not sign the Declaration of Independence until sometime later. He was engaged in military affairs between 1776 and 1778 and served again in Congress from 1778 to 1784.

He served again as an Indian Commissioner and was elected lieutenant governor of Connecticut in 1786 and became goveronr on the death of Samuel Huntington in 1796. Wolcott was re-elected to the position and died in office at the age of 71 in Farmington, Connecticut. He is buried in East Cemetery in Litchfield, Connecticut.

The town of Wolcott, Connecticut, was named in honor of Oliver and his son, Oliver Jr. The Oliver Wolcott House, in Litchfield, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1971.

His son, Oliver Wolcott Jr. served as Secretary of the Treasury under Presidents George Washington and John Adams and as Governor of Connecticut.