Governors of Connecticut

I’ve touched different areas of Connecticut history in a number of my blogs over the past few years and a few times mentioned relatives who served as the governor of Connecticut. So I thought that I’d try to pull these references together in one place, do some additional research, and see how many individuals who have held that office were my relatives. While it’s quite possible that there were other leaders in the various New England colonies who are related to me, the amount of work to uncover these relationship has been pretty daunting, so I have chosen to only list the ones that I have discovered so far.

In prior blogs I have noted how many connections there were between the early religious leaders in Connecticut (see http://ramblinrussells.blogspot.com/2017/02/genealogy-story-james-pierpont.html and http://ramblinrussells.blogspot.com/2017/03/genealogy-story-harvard-and-yale.html). But it appears that this connectedness also includes many of the political leaders as well – the early Puritans of Connecticut seem to have been a pretty tight-knit group with a number of inter-family marriages. In particular, all three governors of the New Haven Colony (Eaton, Newman, Leete) appear in the below list of my relatives. In addition, many of the early governors of the Colony of Connecticut are also in the below list.

The full list of governors is contained here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colonial_governors_of_Connecticut) and here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Governors_of_Connecticut).

John Haynes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Haynes_(governor))

John (1594-1653) was one of the original settlers of the Colony of Connecticut at Hartford (named for his family home of Herefordshire, England). His granddaughter was the 2^nd wife of my great*7 grandfather, James Pierpont. He served as the first governor of the colony beginning in 1639. Because the constitution at that time did not allow for consecutive terms, he was in and out of the office eight times until his death. Before moving to Connecticut he also served one term as the Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1635-1636), being the only person to serve as governor in what became two different states.

Edward Hopkins (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Hopkins)

Edward (1600-1657) was the individual who alternated with John Haynes as governor of the colony, first elected in 1640 and serving seven terms until 1656. His last term he was elected while back in England as an attempt to get him to return – which he did not, so the lieutenant governor, Thomas Welles, served in his stead. Edward was married to Anne Yale, the step-daughter of Theophilus Eaton (see below). His granddaughter, Mary Church, married a distant cousin of mine, Philip Russell, who is related to me on both of my parent’s sides of the family.

George Wyllys (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Wyllys)

George (1590-1645) was the only person serving as governor of the Colony of Connecticut in between the continued alternation between John Haynes and Edward Hopkins. He served for just one year, 1642-1643. His grandson, also George, married Ruth Haynes, the daughter of John Haynes (see above).

Theophilus Eaton (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theophilus_Eaton)

Theophilus (1590-1658) was the co-founder of the New Haven Colony. He served as its governor from 1639 until his death in 1658. When his first wife died he married a widow, Anne Yale. One of her children from her first marriage was Anne Yale who married Edward Hopkins (above). Anne (the mother) was also the grandmother of Elihu Yale (1649-1721), and it was this connection to Elihu that would have been responsible for Elihu becoming a benefactor to the Collegiate School of Connecticut and thus for it being named Yale College in 1718. My relationship to Theophilus is pretty complicated as his step-great-granddaughter married my distant cousin, Philip Russell.

Thomas Welles (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Welles)

Thomas (1594-1659) is my great*10 grandfather. Born in England, he was one of the party of individuals who came to Hartford with Thomas Hooker and John Haynes. He served as governor of the Colony of Connecticut from 1655-56 and 1658-59. He is also the only person in Connecticut history to have held the positions of governor, deputy governor, treasurer, and secretary.

Francis Newman (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Newman)

Francis (1605-1660) was the governor of the New Haven Colony from 1658-1660 when he died in office. His widow later married William Leete (see below) about 1675, so she had the distinction of being the wife of two different governors.

William Leete (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Leete)

William is the great*8 grandfather of my aunt, Barbara Leete [Bishop] Pierpont. He was the Deputy Governor and Chief Magistrate of the colony when he helped prevent the capture of two former English judges who were being sought by King Charles II for signing the death warrant of his father, Charles I, several years earlier. When agents of the king came looking for them Leete cooperated enough to avoid being accused of obstruction of justice, but did not provide enough information for them to be captured. Leete later served as the Governor of the New Haven Colony from 1661-1665 and also served as the Governor of the Colony of Connecticut from 1676 to 1683, the only man to serve in both those positions.

Roger Wolcott (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Wolcott_(Connecticut))

Roger (1679-1767) was governor of the colony of Connecticut from 1750-1754. His great*7 nephew, Oliver Elias Wolcott, married my 2^nd cousin, three times removed, Lillie Waldron. He is the father of Oliver Wolcott and grandfather of Oliver Wolcott, Jr. below.

Oliver Wolcott (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Wolcott)

Oliver (1726-1797) was the youngest of fourteen children of Roger Wolcott. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence as well as of the Articles of Confederation before it. During the Revolutionary War he served as a general. He served as the Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut from 1786 until 1796 and then as Governor of Connecticut from 1796 until his death in December of 1797. It was while serving as Lt. Governor where he presided over the Senate that he cast the tie-breaking vote to approve the separation of the town of Farmingbury from the towns of Southington [previously South Farmington] and Waterbury. In honor of this, the townspeople of Farmingbury renamed the town Wolcott.

Oliver Wolcott, Jr. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Wolcott_Jr.)

Oliver Jr (1760-1883) was a career politician. He was a graduate of Yale as well of the Litchfield Law School. He served as the 2^nd U.S. Secretary of the Treasury from 1795-1800 (appointed by George Washington to succeed Alexander Hamilton) and later was the Governor of Connecticut from 1817-1827.

Henry Waggaman Edwards (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_W._Edwards)

Henry (1779-1847) is my 2^nd cousin, 6 times removed. His father was Pierpont Edwards and his great-grandfather was James Pierpont from New Haven. He graduated from Princeton and was educated at the Litchfield Law School. He served as a US Representative, a US Senator, in the Connecticut Senate, the Connecticut House of Representatives, then two terms as Governor of Connecticut (1833-1834 and 1835-1838).