Wolcott History – Farmingbury Part 2 – Early Settlers

Since Wolcott did not exist as a distinct geographic entity prior to its incorporation in 1796, it’s also difficult to determine who lived there.  As Orcutt notes,

The land in Wolcott, belonging as it did originally to the towns of Farmington and Waterbury, was "taken up" largely by the inhabitants of those towns some years before any persons made their residence on these lands, and hence the Waterbury part of Wolcott was, much of it, owned by Waterbury people, and was settled largely by the people of that town, while the Farmington part was "taken up" by the people of that place, and many of the early residents were from that town, including Southington, a few coming from Wallingford.

Thus, part of the difficulty in determining when individuals settled in Wolcott is that they did not move at the time they may have purchased property there, but instead many of the property records are associated with these individuals “taking up” the land but continuing to live in Waterbury, Farmington, Wallingford, etc. until a later date.

Orcutt, in his book (which is several hundred pages), even titled the book “History of the Town of Wolcott (Connecticut) from 1731 to 1874…” and thus assigned the first settler (John Alcox) to the year 1731, when that may not have actually been the case. He stated:

The earliest record of the purchase of land in this part of Wolcott [the Farmington side] that I have seen, except that of Mr. Thomas Upson, in 1732, is that by Lieutenant Heman Hall, on March 12th, 1750, on the long lot, number fifty-six; but on this farm was then a dwelling house, in which Mr. Joseph Preston was probably residing. …

In Waterbury part, Mr. John Alcox, of New Haven, was the first resident, removing hither in March, 1731. In the autumn of the same year Mr. Isaac Hopkins purchased the farm in the valley east of Chestnut Hill, and probably made it his residence the next year, 1732, the year that he was married, and on this farm he resided until his death. Mr. Benjamin Harrison was living on Benson Hill, now Wolcott Center, in 1739, when he purchased land adjoining "his own land," according to the reading of the deeds. He purchased one hundred and eleven acres of land of Stephen Hopkins, jr., of Waterbury, deeded July 2, 1737, which land joined on Isaac Hopkins' land. By the reading of some of Mr. Harrison's deeds it appears that other families had resided or were residing in that portion of the town before he removed there.

Another look at the earlier settlers (done for the 175^th anniversary of the town) worded it this way:

Thomas Judd was the earliest known settler to come to what is now known as Wolcott, traveling up Southington Mt. to build his log cabin Circa 1690, a few rods east of the Kings Highway in the vicinity of today’s location of Farview Avenue. The rise in ground from what is now known as Meriden Road was commonly known in those days as Judd’s Hill. Thomas removed to Waterbury and his daughter Ruth, who married Thomas Upson, continued to reside in the homestead. Another early land holder on the west side of town was Deacon Josiah Rogers, who came to the Wolcott area from North Branford and was settled by 1724. Jacob Benson was known to live on “the Hill” in 1729 at what has now become the Wolcott Center. In the spring of 1731 John Alcocke (Alcock, Alcocks, Alcox, Alcott) purchased a tract of land 117-1//2 acres in size from Deacon Rogers.

This was later rewritten as:

In 1690 Thomas Judd came up Southington Mountain and built a log home on what became known as Judd’s Hill where Farview Avenue and Meriden Road are today.  It wasn’t until 1724 that Deacon Josiah Rogers traveled from North Branford and settled on the western side of town.  In 1727 Ebenezer Wakelee acquired a large parcel of land in the “great plains” region of town on the Waterbury/Wolcott line.  By 1729 Jacob Benson inhabited “the Hill” where Wolcott center was later established.  In the spring of 1731, John Alcocke (Alcott) of New Haven purchased 117.5 acres of land from Deacon Rogers in the western section of town.  He built a house where his wife, Deborah gave birth in the same year to a son, John who was the first individual of European decent to be born in our town.  In 1732 Isaac Hopkins and his family settled a large tract of land in the valley just east of Chestnut Hill.

The book, “The History of Waterbury, Connecticut” published in 1858, (https://archive.org/stream/historyofwaterbu00bron/historyofwaterbu00bron_djvu.txt) records the following:

So far as ascertained, the first settler within the limits of present Wolcott was John Alcock of New Haven. He bought, March 31, 1731, of Josiah Rogers of Branford, for £82, 117 acres of land on Spindle Hill, described as in the northeast quarter near Ash Swamp or Potuckco's Ring, (in the northwest part of the present town of Wolcott,) on which he settled with a young family in the same year. He was admitted as an inhabitant, Dec. 13, 1731. In subsequent years, he added largely to his landed estate. After Alcock, Isaac Hopkins, (tanner,) Thomas Welton, Eliakim Welton, Roger Prichard, Joseph Beach, Eldad Mix, Shadrick Benham, Abiel Roberts and others became settlers.

I’ve done some detailed research into the men/families mentioned above.  If you want to see that research, check out Part 3 of this blog entry.  A synopsis is as follows:

Thomas Upson (1732) – confirmed

Joseph Preston (pre-1750) – not likely

Thomas Judd (1690) – not a settler in the typical sense, although did own land and a “house” in the area

Deacon Josiah Rogers (1724) – not until after 1733

Ebenezer Wakelee (1727) – more likely late 1730s

Jacob Benson (1729) – confirmed

John Alcox/Alcocke/Alcott (1731) – confirmed

Isaac Hopkins (1732) – confirmed

Thus, John Alcox may not have been the first settler in what is now Wolcott as Jacob Benson may have preceded him by two years.  However, it is still interesting that all the books on the history of the area do not mention Jacob Benson.