Sunday, August 7, 2011

The Name and Family of Wolcott or Walcott

Wolcott, Henry (root of family tree)  1578-1655

The name of Wolcott or Walcott is derived from weald, the Saxon term for a woody district, combined with cot, which is a shortened form for cottage. It's meaning is therefore, literally, "cottage in the woodland".  It was first taken as a surname because of the residence of its original bearers at a place so called.

Numerous spellings of the name are to be found on ancient English and early American records,

Sir John Wolcott, of Wales, in the eleventh century, is probably the most remote of the ancestors of the family of whom there is record still in existence.  It's known that Sir John Wolcott, was mayor of London in 1403.

One early branch of the family in England was that represented in Devonshire before the year 1440 by Walter Wolcot or Walcot (Wolcott or Walcott) who by his first wife, had a son named John, who was the father of a daughter Joahanna.  By his second wife Alicia, daughter of Hugh Skerret, he had another son named John, who was the father of John, Richard and Thomas.  Of the three last mentioned brothers, John had sons John and Peter, of whom the first was the father of Thomas, the father of Peter, the father of John; Richard was the father of a son named John, who married Maude, the widow of William Westcote, and was the father of Richard, who had a son named Peter, who was the father of John, the father of another John; and Thomas married Joan, daughter of William Colbrooke, and had a son named Walter, who married Elizabeth, daughter of William Lampry, and was the father by her of Thomas.   Thomas had by his wife, Margery, daughter of John Davy, sons John and  Thomas.
Although it is not entirely clear, in every case, from which of the numerous lines of the family in Great Britian the first emigrants of the name in America traced their descent, it is recorded that the Wolcotts and Walcotts were among the very early British settlers in colonial America.

According to some family historians, Sir John Wolcott or Walcott, of Shropshire, who was living in the latter part of the thirteenth century, was the father of a son named Jeran or Jevan, who married Anna, daughter of John Mynde, and was the father by her of Roger, who married Edith, daughter of Sir William Donnes, and Roger and Edith  had Sir Philip, who was the father by his wife Julian, daughter of John Herle, of John, who married Alice, daughter of David Lloyd, and was the father of Sir John, who was the father of Thomas, the father of John, the father of another John, who married Matilda, daughter of Sir Richard Cornwall, and was the father of Roger.  Roger and his wife Margaret, daughter of David Lloyd, had a son William, who made his home in Somersetshire, England, and was the father there of another William, who with his wife Elizabeth had Thomas, who was the father of another Thomas, who died about 1572.  Thomas and his Alice had John Wolcott, who was the father of Henry, Roger and John, of whom Henry came to America.  Henry was born 1578; baptised Dec 6, 1578, in parish church at Lydiard St. Lawrence in England;  He died May 30, 1655, in Windsor, CT. 

Henry Wolcott married Elizabeth Saunders on Jan 19, 1606, at Lydiard St. Lawrence in the parish church at Lydiard St. Lawrence.  They are mentioned in the Family Chronologie, 1691:  "this happie pair were married about ye year 1606.  He came to New England about the year 1628 and in the year 1630 brought over his family, to avoid the persecution of those times against dissenters."  The Wolcott's left for America and sailed on March 20, 1630 from Plymouth, England, aboard the Mary and John skippered by Captain Squeb.  Before leaving England, the expedition of one hundred forty individuals from western England organized as an independent church.  This came to be known as the First Church of Windsor, the oldest church in Connecticut.  The Mary and John was the first of a fleet of seventeen ships to sail for the New England Coast.  The other sixteen vessels did not leave port until two weeks after the first ship.  Henry Wolcott and his party were to make their way alone, leaving behind the comforts of English settlements to face the challenges of the American wilderness. 

The above mentioned immigrant, Henry, son of John Wolcott, of Tolland, Somersetshire, England, was one of the first of the family to come to America during the reign of Charles I. He was the ancestor of the family in America.  He was one of the nineteen men mentioned in the Connecticut charter.   He brought his wife and 3 sons leaving behind 2 daughters with an older son.  He settled at Nantasket, Mass., in 1630 with his wife, Elizabeth Saunders, whom he had married in 1606, and there enrolled on the first list of 24 "freemen" of Boston.  About 1635, he moved his family to Windsor, Conn., and helped to establish the Connecticut Colony.  Henry Wolcott and the Reverend Mr. Warham were the founders of the First Church of Windsor.  Henry was also an original member of the General Court of both Massachusetts and the Connecticut Colonies.  He was a member of the 1st General Assembly of CT, 1637-1643.  He was one of the nineteen men mentioned in the Connecticut Charter.  The names of his children were John, Henry, George, Christopher, Anne, Mary, and Simon.  There may have been others, but there is no definite trace of them.

Henry Wolcott (the emigrant), baptized on December 6, 1578, who conveyed the manor house to his son Henry.  The final "T" was not added until Henry removed to America.


Note:  This information was obtained from the Wolcott Family in America (1578-1985).  If you wish to purchase this book from the Wolcott Family Society, please contact:  Karen Moore at   kssmoore@att.net 


If you would like to join the Wolcott Family Society, please contact John B. Wolcott at  johnwolcott@mail.com

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