Male

November 2, 1767

May 28, 1837

Litchfield, CT

Betsey Huntington Wolcott (October 12, 1800)
Sally Cooke Wolcott (June 21, 1815)

Frederick Wolcott was the son of Governor Oliver and Lorana (Collins) Wolcott. His father was Governor of Connecticut and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Frederick Wolcott was the younger of two surviving sons.

In 1786, Frederick graduated from Yale. The following year he got his law degree from the Litchfield Law School. Illness, however, prevented him from practicing law right out of school. Instead of pursuing his own law practice, Frederick was Clerk of the Common Pleas. He followed that job by moving up in 1798 to become the Clerk of the Superior Court in Litchfield County. Afterwards he was appointed a Judge of Probate, a position he held until he retired from public life.

In June of 1805, Oliver Wolcott, Benjamin Tallmadge, and Frederick Wolcott signed ...an agreement to finance four successive voyages to China, beginning in the spring of 1806. Shares in the venture were later purchased by local merchant Julius Deming. Oliver Wolcott procured the Trident, a nearly new vessel, to carry out the trade. Goods they imported were also sold in Litchfield, as well as by Belden, Dwight, & Company of New Haven. The Embargo Act of 1807, which remained in effect until 1809, raised concerns about foreign trade which pervaded the endeavor. In April of 1809, Oliver Wolcott announced to his brother, “…we have concluded to send out the Trident with a moderate Investment & to close the existing concern with the depending voyage.”

Frederick did a lot of his business with his brother, Oliver Jr. They owned the Wolcottville Manufacturing Company which manufactured woolen cloth, and they imported sheep and cattle.

Throughout his life he held several other positions: he represented Litchfield in the Connecticut General Assembly, was president of the Litchfield County Foreign Mission and Education Societies, was president of the Board of Trustees of the Litchfield Female Academy, was a fellow of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was a fellow of Yale College.

Wolcott married twice. He and his first wife had four daughters and two sons. Two of those daughters married Litchfield Law School graduates. Wolcott and his second wife had two daughters. He died in Litchfield, CT at the age of sixty-nine.
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"I have been dancing all the forenoon, and my hand trembles so, I can hardly write intelligibly. We dance again this evening; and we all wish for your company. Meantime, you are poring over some antiquated subject, that is neither instructive nor entertaining. You cannot say so of our dancing; it is 'an amusement that profits the mind.'"

Written to Frederick by sister, Mary Ann, while he was at Yale, 1789

1787

Graduated from Yale College in 1786.

Political Office; Business

State Representative (CT) 1802-1803
State Senator (CT) 1810-1823

Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas (Litchfield, CT) 1793-1836
Judge of Probate (Litchfield, CT) 1796-1836
Clerk of the Superior Court of the County (Litchfield County, CT) 1798-1836

Litchfield County Bar Association Records, 1800, Litchfield Historical Society, Helga J. Ingraham Memorial Library.

Dexter, Franklin Bowditch. Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of College History, Vol. 4. New York; Henry Holt and Company, 1907.