Oliver Wolcott was the youngest of 14 children of Royal Governor Roger Wolcott. He attended Yale, graduating in 1747, and was commissioned by Governor Clinton of New York to raise a volunteer militia to assist in the French and Indian War even before graduating. After the war, he studied medicine and became sheriff of Litchfield County, Connecticut for over 20 years. He rejoined the Militia in 1771, was made a Major, and later a Colonel in the Connecticut Militia, eventually becoming Brigadier General of the entire Connecticut force during the Revolutionary War. In 1774, he was appointed a Commissioner of Indian Affairs by the Continental Congress, and he was later elected to the Congress in 1775. Although he wasn't very active in Congress, he signed the Declaration of Independence and spent most of the time between 1776 and 1778 engaged in military affairs. After retiring from Congress, he served as an Indian Commissioner twice more. Wolcott was much revered in his native state, honored with a second degree from Yale, elected president of the Connecticut Society of Arts and Sciences, and elected Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut in 1786, and later became Governor in 1796 until his death in 1797 at the age of 71.
