JOHN WITHERSPOON.

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and with a good conscience affirm, that attending plays has added strength to his mind and warmth to his affections, in the duties of devotion; that it has made him more able and willing to exert his intellectual powers in the graver and more important offices of the Christian life; nay, or ever made him more diligent and active in the business of civil life.".

In a notice of Mr. Witherspoon that appeared in the Edinburgh Christian Instructor of October, 1829, this statement appears: "Few men were ever more anxious, by a solid, righteous and pious life, to adorn the doctrine of the Gospel. Beside the daily devotions of the closet and the family, he regularly set apart with his household the last day of every year, for fasting, humiliation, and prayer. He was also in the practice of spending days in secret exercises of this kind, as occasions required."

Mr. Witherspoon was married in Scotland to Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Montgomery, "a person of distinguished piety, amiable temper, and fine social and domestic habits." She was the mother of ten children, all of whom were born in Scotland; only five of these, three sons and two daughters, survived to accompany their parents to America. James, the eldest son, graduated at Princeton College in the class of 1770, was Aid to General Nash in the Revolution, and lost his life in the battle of Germantown. John, the second son, graduated in the class of 1773, and practiced medicine in South Carolina. David, the youngest, graduated in 1774, and practiced law in Newberne, N. C. Anna was married to Rev. Dr. Smith, the successor of Mr. Witherspoon in the Presidency of the College. Frances was married to Dr. David Ramsay, the historian of South Carolina. died in 1811, and the memoirs of her life were published in a volume by her husband. Mrs. Witherspoon, wife of President Witherspoon, died in the autumn of 1789; and in eighteen months. after, he married the widow of Dr. Dill, of Philadelphia, a lady forty-five years younger than himself. By this marriage he had two daughters. "It is a somewhat singular fact, that, previous to his marriage in Scotland, he addressed an intelligent and excellent young lady of Edinburgh, who rejected his proposals; and yet not only a warm friendship, but a most interesting correspondence, was kept up between them till the close of his life."

She

The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon Mr. Witherspoon in 1764, by the University of Aberdeen; and the degree of Doctor of Laws, in 1785, by Yale College. During his later years, he suffered pecuniary embarrassment, in consequence of imprudent purchases in Vermont lands.

ROGER WOLCOTT.

GOVERNOR OF CONNECTICUT, 1751-1754.*

HENRY WOLCOTT, grandfather of Roger, was born in 1578; resided in Tolland, Somersetshire, England; held an estate worth five hundred pounds sterling per annum; adopted the principles of the sect of the Independents; visited America in 1628; returned to England, and in 1630 brought over his family and settled at Dorchester, Mass. Having sold the largest portion of his English estate, he undertook the settlement of Windsor, Conn. A company of about one hundred men, women, and children, gathered from Dorchester and other towns, made the journey through the wilderness to Windsor in the summer of 1636, and "they prayed and sang as they marched along." Mr. Wolcott was delegate from Windsor to the first General Assembly held at Hartford in 1639, and was annually elected to the assembly or the magistracy, till his death in 1655. He enjoyed the ministry of Rev. Mr. Warham, who came from England in 1630, and was the first pastor of Windsor. His wife was Elizabeth Saunders. Their eldest son, named Henry, succeeded to the principal part of the estate.

Simon, youngest son of Henry Wolcott, senior, was a farmer in Windsor; married Martha Pitkin, "a lady of bright natural parts, and well improved by a good education in the city of London." They had a numerous issue.

Roger Wolcott, youngest child of Simon and Martha, was born at Windsor, January 4, 1679; died at East Windsor, May 17, 1767.

"New England Historical and Genealogical Register," vols. 4 and 26; Sprague's “Annals "; " Discourse," by Rev. Joseph Perry.

Concerning his educational advantages, Rev. Joseph Perry says: "Though he was of such an honorable extract, yet his parents being in an infant country, and place destitute both of a minister and schoolmaster, and having had their estate ruined by the Indians, it can't be thought they were under advantage to give their children much of an education. . . . I have heard him say he never was a member of a school a day in his life."

At twelve years of age he was put out as an apprentice, serving until twenty-one. He then set up for himself, without patrimony worth mentioning, on the east side of the river, called now East Windsor. Here, "by the blessing of God on his frugality and industry, he acquired and left to his heirs a plentiful fortune for this country."

"His neighbors and townsmen improved him in the business of the town, and at length elected him as their Representative at the General Assembly. He became member of the Council; Judge of the Superior Court; and was Governor of the State from 1751 to 1754."

professor of the things that are He was one of

Says Mr. Wolcott's pastor, in charge of Second Church in Windsor: "I am verily persuaded in a judgment of charity, that added to all his worldly greatness, he was truly a good man. He was not only free from all scandal through his whole life, but he exhibited the graces of the Christian temper. He was a member of this church for a great many years, a steady Christian name. He rendered to Cæsar the Cæsar's, and to God the things that are God's. your praying rulers; had the grace as well as the gift of prayer.” Mr. Wolcott married Sarah Drake, of Windsor, by whom he had fifteen children, sons and daughters. Oliver, the youngest, was a Brigadier-General during the war of the Revolution; member of the Continental Congress; Signer of the Declaration of Independence; and Governor of Connecticut. He married Laura Collins, of Guilford, and had four children, two sons and two daughters. His son Oliver, in 1817 was elected Governor of Connecticut, the third of his family in lineal descent who attained that honor; was re-elected ten years successively. He married Elizabeth, only daughter of John Stoughton, of Windsor, by whom he had several children.

GEORGE WYLLIS.

GOVERNOR OF CONNECTICUT, 1642.*

GEORGE WYLLIS was born in Fenny Compton, Warwick County, England, about 1570; died in Hartford, Conn., March 9, 1645.

He was liberally educated, and held property at Knapton, worth £500 a year. He espoused the cause of the Puritans, and in 1636 sent over William Gibbons, the steward of his house, with twenty men to prepare him a seat at Hartford. They purchased and took possession of a fine tract of land, and erected buildings. In 1638, he came over with his household.

He was a Framer of the Constitution of 1639; was that year chosen into the Magistracy; in 1641 was chosen Deputy Governor; and in 1642 was made Governor of the Colony.

Samuel, son of Governor Wyllis, graduated at Harvard College in 1653, and the following year was chosen a Magistrate for Connecticut. He married a daughter of Governor Haynes. "In his manuscripts, he describes the excellent examples which their parents had exhibited, and the pious pains they employed in their education, teaching them, from childhood, to pray in secret, to venerate the Sabbath, and the Divine Word, and to attend all Christian institutions and duties. After bearing testimony to the advantages of such an education, and to the comfort they had experienced in the duties in which they had been educated, he warmly recommends them to his children, and their posterity."

The family is ancient, and may be traced back to the reign of Edward the Fourth. For more than a century and a half, it was represented in the government of Connecticut.

* Trumbull's "History of Connecticut; " Appleton.