Family-histories and genealogies : containing a series of ...

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Ellsworth of Windsor, a Member of the Continental Congress, of the
Convention which framed the Constitution of the United States, and of
that which ratified it in his native State ;
Senator
and Chief Justice of the
United States ; and Envoy Extraordinary to France in 1 799, appointed in
compliance with overtures of the Directory, under Talleyrand, for the
renewal of diplomatic relations. One of the sons of Oliver and Abigail
42 (Wolcott) Ellsworth was Governor William Wolcott^ Ellsworth, whose
43' 44 daughter Elizabeth'^ married Hon. Waldo Hutchins. Julia Sterling""^
the only daughter of Waldo and Elizabeth (Ellsworth) Hutchins is now
45 the wife of her mother's fourth cousin Henry Goodrich'^ Wolcott (see
below). A daughter of Chief Justice Ellsworth, named Frances Eliza-
46, 47 beth,"^ married Hon. Joseph Wood, and had a daughter, Delia,^ who
married Rev. Prof. Chester Smith Lyman of Yale University.
48 For the outline of our sketch of the life of Gov. Rosier^ Wolcott we
shall depend chiefly upon his autobiography.
" ' The
youngest child of [his] hon*^ father Mr. Simon Wolcott, tender
and beloved in the sight of [his] mother Mrs. Martha Pitkin,' " he was
born in 1679. His father's pecuniary embarrassments, to which we have
alluded, and some natural inertness, or tardiness of development, in him,
seem to have interfered with his early education. He says that his
" ' parents took care and pains to learn their children, and were successful with
the rest, but not with [him] by reason of [his] extreme dullness to learn.' "
When he was in his ninth year his father died. The dangers for his
country anticipated by Simon Wolcott in his last days had passed away, on
the accession of William and Mary to the English throne ;
new stimulus Roger Wolcott's mind began to exert itself.
" ' My
He writes under the year 1690 :
and
under a
mind turned to learning, and I soon learned to read English and to write.' "
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