Joseph Talcott

Joseph Talcott (born November 16, 1669 in Hartford , Colony of Connecticut , † October 11, 1741 ibid) was the governor of the Colony of Connecticut between 1724 and 1741.

Career

Joseph Talcott, son of Lieutenant Colonel John Talcott, whose father was once treasurer of the Colony of Connecticut, and his wife Helena Wakeman, was born on November 16, 1669 in Hartford, Connecticut. Joseph was the eighth of nine children born in this marriage and the first Connecticut governor to be born in the colony itself. His mother died in 1674 when he was four years old. His father remarried in November 1676 to Mary (Cook) Talcott, who then raised him. Five more children were born in the second marriage.

Joseph's grandfather, also called John, immigrated to Newton , Massachusetts from England around 1632 and was only the twelfth man to buy land there in 1635. The land that Mr. Talcott Sr. acquired was on the corner of what is now Main Street and Talcott Street, the location of the G. Fox & Co. Department Store. A simple barn house was built on this land in December 1635, the first of its kind to be built in Hartford (see E. Negus and others). John Talcott Sr. was Treasurer of the Colony of Connecticut and his son, Lieutenant Colonel John Talcott, was treasurer from 1660 to 1676. He resigned at that time to command the troops in Indian war.

This domestic setting, in which Joseph Talcott grew up and which government officials often visited, was of great importance for his later career. He probably received his tuition at home from private tutors, as Hartford did not have a traditional middle school until the mid-1670s. There is no record of him ever attending college, but in those days it was also possible to earn a degree for yourself. In recent years, it has been suggested that Joseph was a lawyer, which would mean he went to law school when he was a teenager, which was a common picture for those days.

Joseph's father died in 1688 without having made a will beforehand, so that under English law Joseph claimed all of his father's property as the eldest living son in 1691. Although he was only 22 years old, it may be helped his inheritance to 1692 (as citizens Engl. Townsman ) being chosen. At that time a man could only become a citizen if he had a good reputation and an estate.

Joseph Talcott married Abigail Clark, daughter of Ensign George Clark of Milford , Connecticut , in 1693 . The couple had three sons before she died in 1704. He remarried a year or two later, Eunice, daughter of Col. Mathew Howell of South Hampton , Long Island and widow of Samuel Wakeman. In his second marriage, Joseph had five more children.

Once Joseph was a citizen, he held various offices in the city government and began to rise in his competencies. He was a local vigilante officer. His legal background meant that he was judge of the peace in 1705 and Justice of the Quorum in 1706 . He was also elected in 1708 as a deputy for Hartford in the Connecticut General Assembly. In 1710 he was appointed Speaker of the Lower House for the May session . He was also a major in the Colony of Connecticut's first regiment . He became an assistant to the General Court in 1711 and was believed to be a committee member that founded the City of Coventry that year .

In May 1714 he was appointed as a judge in the Hartford County Court and the Hartford District Probate Court ( Probate Court ). In May 1721 he was appointed judge in the Superior Court of Hartford .

He retained the legislative positions only during the election year, but his post as major until 1723, when he was instructed "to ride immediately to the western border" and to take action against the Indians. He was elected lieutenant governor of Connecticut in 1723, replacing Nathan Gold , who had died. When Governor Gurdon Saltonstall died suddenly on September 20, 1724, Joseph Talcott filled this post. He was re-elected for the next seventeen years in succession, serving a total of seventeen years and five months in office. This was only surpassed by Governor John Winthrop , who was in office for eighteen years.

Governor Talcott's reputation was so good that he was asked to be one of the commissioners resolving a border dispute between Massachusetts and New Hampshire in 1730 and another between Maine and New Hampshire in 1731. The border disputes had been going on for years and England had threatened to revoke the charters of the colonies involved if an agreement was not reached.

Talcott also directed the colony in two legal disputes, the Mohegan and the Intestate cases, both of which threatened Connecticut's freedom to make and interpret its own laws. In the Mohegan case, some colonists attempted to have England overturn Connecticut's local sovereignty over ownership of land in the eastern part of the colony, land that once belonged to the Winthrops. The Intestate case involved an eldest son who wanted the English courts to invalidate Connecticut's laws so that brothers and sisters would be allowed to share their father's property. Talcott succeeded in both cases because the English courts were not allowed to change these laws as they were part of Connecticut's charter. This helped strengthen Connecticut's power as an independent colony.

On May 25, 1748, Governor Talcott's wife Eunice died suddenly and unexpectedly at noon. The General Assembly was in session, so the morning business ended. However, the statutes required the presence of the lieutenant governor or the governor. Lieutenant Governor Jonathan Law was in Norwich handling the Mohegan case. Governor Joseph Talcott returned to the Legislature that afternoon, regardless of his sadness and sadness, allowing the colony to cease business that day.

In addition to all of his political activities, Joseph Talcott owned land in several locations in Connecticut. When he died in Harford on October 11, 1741, he owned properties in Middletown , Stafford , Bolton , Coventry and in the Five Miles (now Manchester ). Like many wealthy people of that era, he owned slaves . Five of them - Jupiter, Prince, York, Rose, and Lily - are mentioned in his inventory.

Joseph Talcott was buried on the "Ancient Burying Ground" in Hartford. A street in Hartford is also named after him.

literature

• Crofut, Florence S. Marcy. Guide to the History and the Historic Sites of Connecticut. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1937 [CSL call number HistRef F 94 .C88 1937].
• Highways & Byways of Connecticut. Hartford: G. Fox & Co., [1947] [CSL call number F 94 .H54 1947].
• Love, William DeLoss. The Colonial History of Hartford. Reprint. Hartford: Centinel Hill Press in association with The Pequot Press, Inc., 1974 [CSL call number F 104 .H357 L9 1974].
• Manwaring, Charles William. A Digest of the Early Connecticut Probate Records. Reprint. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1995 [CSL call number HistRef F 93 .M29 1995].
• National Cyclopedia of American Biography. New York: JT White, 1898- sv "Joseph Talcott" [CSL call number E 176 .N27].
• Negus, Elizabeth. Ancestors and Descendants of George Chapin Talcott (1816-1884) and Hannah Gee (1824-1911). Ames, NY: [np], 1982 [CSL call number CS 71 .T142 1982].
• Norton, Frederick Calvin. The Governors of Connecticut. Hartford: Connecticut Magazine Co., 1905 [CSL call number HistRef F 93 .N 88 1905].
• Raimo, John W. Biographical Directory of American Colonial and Revolutionary Governors 1607-1789. Westport, CT: Meckler Books, 1980 [CSL call number E 187.5 .R34].
• Talcott, SV Talcott Pedigree in England and America from 1558 to 1876. Albany: Weed, Parsons and Company, 1876 [CSL call number CS 71 .T142 1876].

Web links

• Joseph Talcott in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• Connecticut State Library (English)
• The Political Graveyard (English)