USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > A biographical history of the county of Litchfield, Connecticut: comprising biographical sketches of distinguished natives and residents of the county; together with complete lists of the judges of the county court, justices of the quorum, county commissioners, judges of probate, sheriffs, senators, &c. from the organization of the county to the present time > Part 2
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I was sent with the prisoners taken to an armed vessel in the river, which lay off against Quebec, under the command of Capt. M'Cloud, of the British, who treated me in a very generous and obliging manner, and according to my rank; in about twenty-four hours I bade him farewell with regret ; but my good fortune still continued. The name of the Captain of the vessel I was put on board, was Littlejohn ; who with his officers, behaved in a polite, generous, and friendly manner.
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I lived with them in the cabin and fared on the best ; my irons having been taken off contrary to the orders he had received from the com- manding officer ; but Capt. Littlejohn swore that a brave man should not be used as a rascal on board his ship.
When a detachment of Gen. Arnold's little army appeared on Point Levy, opposite Quebec, who had performed an extraordinary march through a wilderness country, with a design to have surprised the capi- tal of Canada, I was taken on board a vessel called the Adamant, together with the prisoners taken with me, and put under the power of an English merchant from London, whose name was Brook Watson* -a man of malicious and cruel disposition. A small place in the ves- sel, enclosed with white oak plank, was now assigned for the prisoners, and for me among the rest. I should imagine that it was not more than twenty feet one way, and twenty two the other. Into this place we were all, to the number of thirty-four, thrust and handcuffed, two prisoners more being added to our number, and were provided with two excrement tubs. In this room we were obliged to remain during the voyage to England ; and were insulted by every blackgu ud sailor and tory on board, in the cruellest manner ; but what is the most sur- prising is, that none of us died on the passage.
When I was first ordered to go into the filthy enclosure, through a small sort of door, I positively refused, and endeavored to reason the before-named Brook Watson out of a conduct so derogatory to every sentiment of honor and humanity, but all to no purpose ; my men be- ing forced into the den already ; and the rascal who had charge of the prisoners, commanded me to go immediately in among the rest.
When the prisoners were landed, multitudes of the citizens of Fal- mouth, excited by curiosity, crowded together to see us. I saw num- bers of people on the top of houses, and the rising adjacent ground was covered with them of both sexes. The throng was so great that the King's officers were obliged to draw their swords and force a passage to Pendennis Castle, which was near a mile from the town, where we were closely confined, in consequence of orders from Gen. Carlton, who then commanded in Canada.
My personal treatment by Lient. Hamilton, who commanded the castle was very generous ; he sent me every day a fine breakfast and dinner from his own table, and a bottle of good wine. Another aged gentleman, whose name I cannot recollect, sent me a good supper. But there was no distinc- tion in public support between me and the privates-we all lodged on a sort of Dutch bunk, in one common apartment, and were allowed straw. The privates were well supplied with fresh provisions, and with me took effectual measures to rid ourselves of lice.
Among the great number of people who came to see the prisoners, some gentlemen told me that they had come fifty miles on purpose to see me, and desired to ask me a number of questions, and to make free with me in cons
* Afterwards Lord Mayor of London.
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versation. I gave for answer that I chose freedom in every sense of the word. Then one of them asked me what my occupation in life had been ; I answered him, that in my younger days I had studied divinity, but was a conjurer by profession. He replied that I conjured wrong at the time I was taken ; and I was obliged to own it that time, but I had conjured them out of Ticonderoga. This was a place of great notoriety in England, 60 that the joke seemed to go in my favor,
The prisoners were landed at Falmouth a few days before Christmas, and ordered on board the Solebay frigate, Capt. Symonds, the eighth day of January 1776, when our hand irons were taken off The Solebay, with sundry other men of war, and about forty transport, rendezvoused at the cove of Cork, in Ireland, to take provisions and water.
The narrative is too long to be followed farther. By a cir- cuitous route Allen was carried to Halifax, where he remained confined in jail from June to October, and was then removed to New York. In the latter city he was admitted to parole with other officers, while his men were thrust into the loath- some churches and prison-ships, with the prisoners taken at Fort Washington. He was kept in New York about a year and a half, much of the time imprisoned, though some times permitted to be out on parole.
Col. Allen was exchanged for Col. Campbell, May 6, 1778, and after having repaired to head quarters, and offered his ser- vices to Gen. Washington in case his health should be restored, he returned to Vermont. His arrival, on the evening of the last of May, gave his friends great joy, and it was announced by the discharge of cannon, As an expression of confidence in his patriotism and military talents, Congress sent him a com- mission as Colonel in the continental army, and the legislature appointed him Major-General and commander of the Vermont Militia. It does not appear, however, that his intrepidity was ever again brought to the test, though his patriotism was tried by an unsuccessful effort to bribe him to attempt a union of Vermont with Canada. He was elected by his fellow-citizens a member of the State Legislature, and a special delegate to the Continental Congress. He died suddenly at his estate in Colchester, (Vt.,) February 13, 1789.
The writings of General Allen were like himself-bold, pointed, often ingenious, but without polish, and sometimes
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with little refinement or taste. In addition to several pamph- lets growing out of the controversy between the Green Moun- tain Boys and the government of New York, he published a Nar- rative of his captivity, in a volume of nearly 200 pages, and a work entitled, " Allen's Theology, or the Oracles of Reason," the design of which was to ridicule the idea of revealed religion. As may well be supposed, this last work added nothing to his popularity even in his own neighborhood. Descended from the puritans, the people of New England had too much reverence for the religion of their ancestors to see it assailed with impuni- ty even by one who had been a favorite. Preachers declaim- ed against him, critics derided, and poets lampooned him .*
* The following piece of satire from the pen of the celebrated Dr. LEMUEL HOPKINS, we find in Dr. E. H. Smith's Collection of American Poetry, printed · at Litchfield, by Collier & Buel, in 1794.
"ON GENERAL ETHAN ALLEN.
" LO ALLEN, 'scaped from British jails, His tushes broke by biting nails, Appears in hyperborean skies, To tell the world the Bible lies.
See him on green hills north afar,
Glow like a self-enkindled star,
Prepared (with mob -collecting club
Black from the forge of Beelzebub,
And grim with metaphysic scowl, With quill just plucked from wing of owl,)
As rage or reason rise or sink,
To shed his blood, or shed his ink. Behold, inspired from Vermont dens, The Seer of Antichrist descends, To feed new mobs with hell-born manna In Gentile lands of Susquehanna ; And teach the Pennsylvania quaker High blasphemies against his Maker ! Behold him move, ye staunch divines ! His tall head bustling through the pines ! All front he seems like wall of brass, And brays tremendous as an ass ; One hand is clenched to batter noses, While t'other scrawls 'gainst Paul and Moses !"
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An interesting fact is related of General Allen by the late President Dwight, which would indicate that the veteran hero had in reality very little genuine faith in his own system of di- vinity. He had a favorite and much beloved daughter, who had early been instructed in the principles of Christianity by her pious mother, and into whose mind he had also labored to instil his own peculiar sentiments. She died young-and in her last sickness she called her father to her bed-side, and thus addressed him-"Father, I am about to die ; shall I believe in the doctrines which you have taught me, or in those which my mother has taught me ?" Allen was overcome with emo- tion-his lip quivered-his voice for a moment faltered. " My child, believe what your mother has taught you !" was his re- ply.
" There is much," says Dr. Sparks, "to admire in the . character of Ethan Allen. He was brave, generous, and frank, true to his friends, true to his country, consistent and unyielding in his purposes, seeking at all times to promote the best interests of mankind-a lover of social harmony, and a de- termined foe to the artifices of injustice and the encroach- ments of power. Few have suffered more in the cause of freedom, few have borne their sufferings with a firmer con- stancy or a loftier spirit. His courage, even when apparently approaching to rashness, was calm and deliberate. No man probably ever possessed this attribute in a more remarkable degree. He was eccentric and ambitious, but these weak- nesses, if such they were, never betrayed him into acts dishon- orable, unworthy, or selfish. So rigid was he in his patriotism, that, when it was discovered that one of his brothers had avowed tory principles, and been guilty of a correspondence with the enemy, he entered a public complaint against him in his own name, and petitioned the Court to confiscate his pro- perty in obedience to the law. His enemies never had cause to question his magnanimity, nor his friends to regret confidence
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misplaced or expectations disappointed. He was kind, benev= olent, humane and placable. In short, whatever may have been his peculiarities, or however these may have diminished the weight of his influence and the value of his public services, it must be allowed that he was a man of very considerable importance in the sphere of his activity, and that to no individ- ual among her patriot founders is the State of Vermont more indebted for the basis of her free institutions, and the achieve- ment of her independence, than to ETHAN ALLEN."
General Allen was twice married. His second wife, and children by both marriages, survived him.
NOTE .-- The following persons were taken prisoners with General ALLEN, and were carried with him to England, viz .-- Roger Moore, of Salisbury ; Peter Noble, (made his escape to Cape Fear in Carolina ;) Levi Barnum, of Norfolk; Barnabas Cane, Preston Denton, John Gray, Samuel Lewis, William Gray, David Goss, and Adonijah Max- um, of Sharon ; Zachariah Brinsmade, of Woodbury ; Wm. Drink- water, of New Milford ; Jonathan Mahee, of Goshen ; Ebenezer Mack, of Norfolk, &c .-- See Hinman's History of the Revolution, p. 571.
Mr. Maxum (whose name is given above,) is still living in Sharon.
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OLIVER WOLCOTT.
The family of WOLCOTT were among the earliest of the colonists of New England, HENRY WOLCOTT the ancestor, having emigrated from the mother country in 1630, to escape the religious persecutions of the day.
His eldest son, of the same name, was one of the patentees under the Charter of Charles II., and for many years a magis- trate of the Colony. SIMON, another son, was a farmer in Windsor and left a numerous issue, of whom the youngest son was ROGER WOLCOTT, a man distinguished in the province both for his civil and military services. From a weaver, with no property and little education, he rose to the rank of Chief Justice and Governor ; and was Major General and the second officer in command at the capture of Louisbourg. He died in 1767, aged 89.
OLIVER, youngest son of Roger Wolcott, established him- self as a physician at Litchfield; and on the organization of the county of that name, in 1751, he was chosen its first Sher- iff. He was afterwards a Signer of the Declaration of Inde- pendence, Lieutenant-Governor, and Governor.
OLIVER WOLCOTT, LL. D., son of the preceding, was born at Litchfield, on the 11th of January, 1760. The rudi- ments of his education he received at the common town school, of which one Master Beckwith was then teacher. He was a mild man, more devoted to the fishing rod than the birch, and under his tuition the pupil made at least as much proficiency in angling and squirrel shooting as in Lilly's grammar. Maternal anxiety for his health, which was delicate, gave him perhaps a
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farger liberty in this respect, and he improved it to the acquir- ing of an iron constitutiou. At odd hours he was employed in tending the cattle and the other occupations of a farmer's son.
At a period much later than this, Litchfield was on the out- skirts of New England civilization, and presented a very dif- ferent aspect from its now venerable quiet. The pickets which guarded its first dwellings were not yet destroyed. The Indi- an yet wandered through its broad streets, and hunters as wild as our present borderers, chased the deer and the pan- ther on the shores of the lake. The manners of its inhabitants were as simple and primitive as those of their fathers, a centu- ry back, in the older settlements on the Connecticut. Trav- eling was entirely on horseback, except in the winter, and but a casual intercourse was carried on with the distant towns. Occasionally, and more frequently as they became more inter- esting, tidings reached them from Boston, and even from the old world. Here among the mountains the future Secretary passed a tolerably happy boyhood, except when on Sundays he was encased in a suit of tight scarlet breeches and forced to wear shoes, a penance reserved for that day, and endured with much dissatisfaction.
At the age of thirteen he had mastered the lore then requis- ite for entering college. Hisfather, although considering him too young, was yet willing to let him exercise his own discre- tion, or perhaps catch a glimpse of the world. The outfit of a student was not cumbrous, and, mounted on a steady horse, with a passport to the clergy on the road, Master Oliver for the first time left his native village.
His first halt was at the venerable parson Trumbull's, the father of the poet, John Trumbull. In an account of this ad- venture some years ofter, he says, " I found parson Trumbull in the field superintending laborers. He received me well, ordered my horse to be taken care of, and invited me to a farm- er's dinner: He looked kindly at me, and placing his hand on
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my head, said, I was one of the old stock of Independents. I did not understand his meaning, but as it was said to be a fam- ily characteristic, I recollected it ever after. I was dismissed in season to get to parson Leavenworth's, at Waterbury, before sunset. Here I found another agricultural clergyman, who lived well in a good house, but in a poor parish, where the lands did not enable his parishioners to afford a support equal to that received by parson Trumbull. On asking my name, placing his hands on my head, he enquired whether I intend- ed, if I was able, to be like old Noll, a republican and a King- Killer ? These words were new phrases to my ears, but I treas- ured them in my memory."
After spending a week in viewing New Haven, some mys- terious apprehensions of the coming trial, and the awe inspired by the solemn wigs and robes worn by the professors, convin- ced him, what his father's opinion had failed to do, that he was too young to enter college. He therefore retraced his steps, pondering on the wonders he had seen, and on his newly dis- coved family characteristic, The year after, however, 1774, he returned to New Haven and entered college. Thick com- ing events soun explained the meaning of his clerical friends,
Of Wolcott's class,' there were several who afterwards be- came eminent in different pursuits. Among them may be mentioned Noah Webster, Joel Barlow, Uriah 'Tracy, and Zephaniah Swift. One of them, Dr. Webster, speaks as fol- lows of Wolcott's collegiate reputation-"I was an intimate friend, classmate, and for some months room-mate of Governor Wolcott. My acquaintance with him was of nearly sixty years' duration. I found him always frank and faithful in his friendship, and generous to the extent of his means. He was in college a good scholar, though not brilliant. He possessed the firmness and strong reasoning powers of the Wolcott fami- ly, but with some eccentricities in reasoning."
During the long absence of General Wolcott, (Oliver's fath-
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er,) in the State and national councils and in the field, Mrs, Wolcott managed his farm and educated his youngest children -thus enabling him to devote himself to the public service un- fetter by private anxieties. Indeed, her devotion to the cause was not exceeded by that of her husband, and the family un- derwent privations and fatigues during some of the years of the revolution, which, not uncommon then, would startle the mat- rons of our more peaceful days.
In April, 1777, the studies of young Oliver were broken in upon, by a call to more stirring scenes than the groves of Yale. He was in Litchfield on a visit to his mother, when the news arrived that a large body of the British under Tryon had landed and marched to Danbury to destroy the continental stores. Awakened at midnight by the summons to repair at the ren- dezvous of the militia, he armed himself ; and his mother fur- nished his knapsack with provisions and a blanket, hastened his departure, and dismissed him with the charge " to conduct like a good soldier." The party to which he was attached reached the enemy at Wilton, where a skirmish took place, in which, as well as in the subsequent attacks during the retreat of the British, Wolcott participated,
The next year he took his degree at Yale College, and im- mediately commenced the study of law at Litchfield under Tapping Reeve. In 1779, after the destruction of Fairfield and Norwalk, he attended his father as a volunteer aid, to the coast. At the close of this service, he was offered a commis- sion in the continental service, which he declined in conse- quence of having already entered upon his professional studies. He however shortly after accepted a commission in the Quar- ter Master's department, which being stationary at Litchfield would the less interfere with them.
During the severe winter of 1979-80, famine added its ter- rors to excessive cold. The deep snows in the mountain region of the State, and the explosion of the paper system rendered.
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* almost impossible to procure the necessaries of life. Con- necticut had been in the foremost rank of the supporters of the war; she had contributed freely from her narrow resources, and the blood of her sons had fattened every battle-field. Nev .- er the seat of much opulence, the few individuals who had possessed comparative wealth were reduced to indigence, the towns were burdened with the support of the families of the. soldiers in addition to the usual poor. And now when cold and hunger threatened their utmost rigors, when a dark cloud hung over the fate of the country, when misfortune attended: its arms, and bankruptcy its treasury, the courage of her citi- zens failed not. The records of her towns, the votes of recruits to the army and of bread to the suffering, showed that she had counted the cost of the struggle, and was willing to meet it. It may well be supposed that the resources of so zealous an advocate for the war as General Wolcott, were not withheld. Every dollar that could be spared from the maintenance of the family, was expended in raising and equipping men ; every blanket. not in actual use was sent to the army, and the sheets were torn into bandages or cut into lint, by the hands of his wife and daughters. During almost the whole of this winter had he been in Congress, and his absence threw upon young Oliver an almost insupportable burden, in obtaining fuel and provision for the family, and in keeping open the roads for the transportation of stores. At that time the line of traveling and carriage, from New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, to Pennsylvania, had, in consequence of the incursions of the enemy, been turned northward of the highlands of New. York. Much of the army stores and ordnance had been de- posited at Litchfield, and in his capacity as Quarter Master, the charge of providing for their safe keeping and conveyance, fell upon him.
One family anecdote is interesting and may be mentioned here, although the circumstance occurred earlier in the war.
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Before the revolution, a leaden equestrian Statue of George III., stood in the Bowling Green in the city of New York .- Soon after the war commenced, this statue was overthrown, and lead being valuable, it was sent to General Wolcott's at Litchfield for safe keeping ; where, in process of time, it was cut up and run into bullets by his daughters and their friends. An account of the number of cartridges made by each, is still preserved among the family papers. This conversion of a mon- arch in into practical arguments of the people, as may be sup- posed, furnished abundant material for the wits of the day.
The hospitalities of his house and his father's public charac- ter, introduced young Wolcott to many persons of distinction in the army and in Congress. In the year 1780, he thus re- ceived General Washington, who, with his suite, among whom were Hamilton and Meade, passed through the district. The arduous duties thrown upon him at so early a period of his life, and his constant intercourse with men, were high advantages in their influence in forming and ripening his character.
In January, 1781, he became of age, and was immediately admitted to the bar. He shortly after removed to Hartford. Such was his poverty, that he left home with no more than three dollars in his pocket, and to defray his expenses, on reaching Hartford he accepted a clerkship in the office of the Committee of the Pay-Table, with a salary amounting to about fifty cents per diem, in specie value. His diligence in this em- ployment attracted the notice of the General Assembly, who,. in January, 1782, unsolicited, appointed him one of the mem- bers of the Committee, at that time the central board of ac- counts. Being the junior member, it became a part of his duty to call upon the Council of Safety at their almost daily sittings, and receive and execute their directions. There, un- der the keen inspection of Governor Trumbull and the Council, he became initiated into the system of public affairs, and per- sonally known to many of the prominent characters in different
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departments. His labors from this time, to the end of the war were incessant. Cut off from the society natural to his age, and at twenty-one thrown upon his own resources, in a situa- tion arduous and responsible, he acquired the self-confidence, the intense application to business, the practical habits and iron perseverence, which formed the basis of his success in life. . In May, 1784, he was appointed a Commissiener for the State of Connecticut, in concert with Oliver Ellsworth, with full power to adjust and settle the accounts and claims of the State against the United States, with the Commissioner on the part of Congress. In May, 1788, the Committee of the Pay-Table was abolished, and the office of Comptroller of Public Accounts instituted. Wolcott was appointed Comptroller, and continu- ed to discharge the duties of the office with general acceptance until the establishment of the National Treasury, in the fall of the succeeding year.
In 1785, he had married Elizabeth, the only daughter of Col. John Stoughton, a descendant of one of the families who seitled Windsor, and a distinguished officer of the French War.
During his residence in Hartford, Wolcott formed or cemen- ted a friendship with a number of men, then young, but after- wards well known for their wit and literary attainments. Such were John Trumbull, Dr. Lemuel Hopkins, Richard Alsop, Barlow and Webster. Few cities in the Union could boast of a more cultivated or intelligent society than Hartford, whether in its men or women ; and, during the intervals of business, he was enabled, in the study of the English classical writers and intercourse with educated minds, to make amends for the irreg- ularities of his education. He never, even during the pressing occupations of after life, forgot his literary tastes ; his powerful memory enabling him to recall long passages of the English poets, with whom he was especially familiar.
At this time, in concert with his literary friends, he occasion- ally indulged in writing poetry. Among his poems is one en-
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tled " The Judgment of Paris," of which it is only necessary to say, it would be much worse than Barlow's epic, if it were not much shorter.
Upon the organization of the General Government under the new Constitution, in September, 1789, Mr. Wolcott receiv- ed from President Washington the appointment of Auditor of the Treasury. The appointment was announced to him in the following letter from Colonel Hamilton-
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