Thomas Jefferson Papers

To Thomas Jefferson from Pierpont Edwards, 25 February 1803

From Pierpont Edwards

Hartford Feby 25h 1803

Sir

Mr George Wolcott of Windsor in Hartford county, in this state, brother of Alexander Wolcott Esqr., is desirous of being appointed surveyor of the port of Saybrook, in the district of Middletown, should Mr Dickinson, the present holder of that office be displaced, an event which I presume must soon take place.   George Wolcott has been as essentially injured by the persecution of the federalists, during the reign of terror as any man in connecticutt—He was a deputy sheriff for Hartford county, an office which yielded him and his family a handsome support; he was, by a law of this state made purposely to reach him, displaced by the county Court for this county—He is a man not in affluent circumstance, and his dismissal distressed him. He is, in my opinion capable, honest, and friendly to the constitution, and in all respects a very reputable citizen—I am with sentiments of very high respect & esteem

Your Obed Servt

Pierpont Edwards

RC (DNA: RG 59, LAR); at foot of text: “His Excellency Thomas Jefferson”; endorsed by TJ as received 4 Apr. and “Woolcott George to be Surveyor Saybrook” and so recorded in SJL. Enclosed in Alexander Wolcott to TJ, 18 Mch. 1803.

george wolcott, a cousin of former secretary of the Treasury Oliver Wolcott, Jr., received a commission as surveyor of Saybrook in December 1803 and continued in the position until his death in 1822. George’s brother, alexander wolcott, was a Republican leader in Connecticut and collector of Middletown. Richard dickinson had been surveyor of Saybrook since 1795 (JEP description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States…to the Termination of the Nineteenth Congress, Washington, D.C., 1828, 3 vols. description ends , 1:180, 460, 461; Hartford American Mercury, 22 Mch. 1804; New Haven Connecticut Herald, 12 Feb. 1822; Kline, Burr description begins Mary-Jo Kline, ed., Political Correspondence and Public Papers of Aaron Burr, Princeton, 1983, 2 vols. description ends , 1:419; Vol. 31:543, Vol. 36:323).

Index Entries