Oliver Wolcott (20 November 1726 – 1 December 1797) was Governor of Connecticut from 5 January 1796 to 1 December 1797, succeeding Samuel Huntington and preceding Jonathan Trumbull, Jr..
Biography[]
Oliver Wolcott was born on 20 November 1726 in Windsor, Connecticut, the son of royal governor Roger Wolcott. He graduated Yale College in 1747 and served as the Captain of a militia company during the French and Indian War, and he was involved in colonial politics. In 1775, he was charged with Indian affairs in the north of the country. In 1776, he joined the Continental Congress and was one of the signers of the US Declaration of Independence. Wolcott became Governor of Connecticut in 1796 after the end of the American Revolutionary War, and he served as governor until his death nearly two years later. Wolcott's son Oliver Wolcott Jr. would serve as Governor in the 1810s, continuing a family tradition.