John Alcox was born in New Haven in 1705. Around the beginning of 1730 he married a
girl from another New Haven family, Deborah Blakeslee. Deborah’s great-grandfather, Samuel Blakeslee,
had immigrated to Boston in 1635 at the age of 11, then later moved with his
brother to New Haven in 1645, making his family one of the earliest families to
settle in that area. John was also not a
recent immigrant as his great-grandfather, Thomas, had immigrated to Boston in
1630.
In December of 1730, the Alcox family welcomed their first
offspring, Lydia. Then in the spring of
1731, the family moved to the interior of Connecticut and settled in the
Spindle Hill area of what would eventually become known as Wolcott (see below
for history of Wolcott). While there
were some native Americans who frequented that area, there may have been
hunters who plied their trade, and there were absentee “owners” from Waterbury
who claimed land in the town, the Alcox family were the first settlers to
actually live there. Deborah became
known as the “Queen Bride” as she was the first bride to inhabit the town. John’s initial holding was approximately 117
acres, but he made further purchases until he owned about 1200 acres – 100 for
each of his 12 children. (Note that this
represents nearly 10% of the total area of the town!)
Later in 1731, a son, also called John, was added to the
Alcox family. This was followed by
regular additions – first four more sons (James, Jesse, Daniel, David), then five
daughters (Deborah, Mary, Thankful, Hannah, Anna), then a final son (Stephen)
who died shortly after his birth. Being
the only girl until her sister Deborah was born 12 years later, it can be
speculated that Lydia was very much her mother’s helper during many of those
years.
In 1756, at the age of 26, Lydia finally married – but not
to someone from one of the other families then living in that area. Some time before that she was probably sent
back to live with her Blakeslee relatives in North Haven/New Haven. The man she married was her mother’s second
cousin, Isaac Blakeslee. Isaac was
descended from the younger brother of Deborah’s grandfather, and he was
actually four years younger than Lydia.
They took up residence in the New Haven/North Haven area close to all
her Blakeslee relatives.
Isaac and Lydia had a daughter, Mary, born to them in
1762. Mary grew up and then met and in
1783 married a young man who also lived in North Haven, Ezra Pierpont. Ezra also came from a long-time New England
family. His great-great-grandfather,
John, had immigrated to the Boston area about 1640. His great-grandfather, James, had been
educated at Harvard, then had moved to the New Haven area in the 1680’s, where
he founded Yale University. This
completed the joining together of three families (Alcox/Alcott, Blakeslee,
Pierpont) who each had long roots (nearly 150 years!) in New England.
Ezra and Mary did not remain in the New Haven area where all
their relatives were living. They also
wanted to move to the interior, perhaps to make some connections with Mary’s
grandparents who were still living in Wolcott*. In 1781 they purchased 40 acres in what is
now Prospect. Over the next few decades
Ezra purchased several more properties in the area between Prospect and Wolcott
in what was known as the “East Farms” area of Waterbury, just to the south of Meriden
Road, which was also the southern border of Wolcott, and in 1801 he became the
first Pierpont to settle in that area.
He eventually owned most of the property in East Farms.
The descendants of Ezra continued to live in the East Farms
area of Waterbury until some of the great-great-grandchildren of Ezra, Clarence
and Barbara Pierpont and Vernon and Sylvia [Pierpont] Russell moved to Wolcott
in the 1940’s. The children of these two
families were then privileged to attend school at Alcott School, which had been
built around 1945 and was named for Amos Bronson Alcott, the great-grandson of
John Alcox, the first settler in Wolcott.
This completed the circle!
Graph of genealogy
Alcox Blakeslee Pierpont
Thomas (1609-1657) Samuel
(1624-1672) John
(1617-1682)
Im. Boston 1630 Im. Boston 1635 Im. Boston 1640
Philip (1648-1715) John
Edward (1655-1712)
Ebenezer (1664-1735) James (1659-1714)
John (1675-1722) John
(1678-1742)
Isaac (1703-1767)
John (1705-1777)------------Deborah
(1713-1790) Joseph
(1704-1748)
John (1731-1805)
Lydia (1730-1796)---------Isaac (1734-1814) Joseph (1730-1824)
Joseph Chatfield (1771-1829) Mary
(1762-1827)---------Ezra (1757-1842)
Amos Bronson [Alcott] (1799-1888) Austin
(1791-1848)
Louisa May (1832-1888) Charles
(1825-1884)
Wilson
(1855-1921)
Harold
(1898-1969)
Clarence (1920-2006) Sylvia (1924-2012)
History of Wolcott
Wolcott was not officially incorporated until 1796. Before that time it was known as Farmingbury
– a name derived from the fact that it was originally split between the
town/city of Waterbury and the town of Farmington. While residents of those two towns may have
claimed land there, there were no actual settlers until John Alcox, his wife,
and young daughter moved there in early 1731.
One of the first roads (actually just a path in the
beginning) was along the boundary line between Waterbury and Farmington. This road ran due north-south through the
wilderness. As the boundary line became
a road, it spawned the name Boundline Road – the name it still bears to this
day. The portion north of Spindle Hill
Road is no longer identifiable, a section in the south has been rerouted due to
the flooding of the area for Scovill Reservoir, and the southern-most portion
is partly paved, partly an abandoned path, and partly no longer identifiable.
It was not until 1770 that the congregational church in
Waterbury established a separate Parish in Farmingbury. Since the church parish and the local
government were essentially synonymous in those days, that was actually the
beginning of the town. Shortly
thereafter the residents of the area petitioned the state to be separately
recognized. That petition was rejected
several times, because of the objections of Waterbury and/or Farmington. So it was not until over two decades later
that the town was officially recognized.
Even then, the vote in the senate was a tie and the tie had to be broken
by the Lt. Governor of the state, Oliver Wolcott. In honor of that vote, the town decided to
call itself Wolcott instead of the prior name of Farmingbury.
References
History of New Haven County, Connecticut, Volume 2 – edited
by John L Rockey; 1892
The History of Wolcott from 1731 to 1874 – by Rev. Samuel
Orcutt; 1874
Pierpont Family Association minutes – by Charles S. Miller,
1941 (based on deeds and land records)
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