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

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" ' Mr.
mtum=miouott
Wolcott was a man of a cheerful and even playful disposition. His con-
versation was interesting and earnest, but gay, unless the occasion was unfit for
gaiety. He enjoyed a good joke from himself or another, and his laugh was hearty
and frequent. He delighted in the discussion of literary subjects and the works of
distinguished authors, and was particularly fond of poetry. Indeed, I understand
that in his younger days he was a poet. . . . His
domestic life was most exem-
plary ; his greatest happiness was in his family, with the friends who congregated
there. His devotion to the business and duties of his office was severe and unremit-
ting. He possessed, in a high degree, a very rare qualification, the capacity for con-
tinued hard work, and was in everything systematic and orderly. His attachments to
his friends were strong and lasting, never taxing them with unreasonable exactions,
nor subjecting them to unpleasant caprices. He was open and direct in all his deal-
ings, without duplicity or intrigue in anything ;
his sincerity was sure, he deceived
nobody. His political opinions were the honest convictions of a man of undoubted
integrity, of distinguished intelligence and high attainments, and, above all, of a true
and sincere lover of his Country.' "
By his marriage, in 1785, to Elizabeth Stoughton, the second OHver
Wolcott had seven children. His third child and eldest daughter was
Lmira,^ who married Col. George Gibbs of Newport, R. I., and whose
son George^ was the author of the "Memoirs of the Administrations of
Washington and Adams," largely made up from the papers of his grand-
father the Secretary of the Treasury. Another son of Col. George and
Laura (Wolcott) Gibbs is the eminent Rumford Professor Wolcott^
Gibbs of Harvard University.
The youngest child of the first Oliver Wolcott, Frederick (56), born
in 1767, was graduated at Yale College in 1786.
"' The younger brother . . . the last of our Family who sat in
the Senate of Connecticut, or bore a part in its public affairs, was a worthy
representative of the succession which terminated with him.' " But his
life was more retired than that of either his distinguished brother, or his
father or grandfather.
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