George Wyllys

George Wyllys or George Wyllis (* 1590 in Fenny Compton , Warwickshire , England , † March 9, 1645 in Hartford , Connecticut ) held the office of governor of the Colony of Connecticut for one term in 1642 .

Career

George Wyllys, son of Richard and Hester (Chambers) Willis, was born in 1590 on the Fenny Compton estate in Warwickshire. He attended several universities, but nowhere is it mentioned that he graduated from one. He probably became a Puritan in his college years.

Wyllys was first married to Bridget Young, whom he married on November 2, 1609 in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon . They had three children together before she died in 1629. He then married again in 1631, namely Mary Brisbey, with whom he then had a son. The family immigrated to New England in the early 1630s . From 1634 Wyllys served as an assistant to the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony .

In 1636 Wyllys sent his overseer William Gibbons along with 20 domestic servants and debt servants to Hartford to buy land and oversee the construction of the house there. The house was the largest home in Hartford among early settlers and one of the largest in Connecticut until 1680. The well-known Charter Oak (exceptionally rare white oak ) stood on the property. Wyllys also later kept slaves there .

On the same street, next to the house of Wyllys, were the houses of the future governors Webster , Welles and Hopkins , so the street was called Governor Street until its name was later changed to Popieluszko Court .

It was not until 1638 that the Wyllys family arrived in Hartford. He was soon elected to one of the six assistants of the General Court, where he worked between 1639 and 1641. He then became lieutenant governor in 1641 and governor of the colony for one term (one year) in 1642. He then worked again as Assistant to the General Court in 1643 and 1644 .

Rumors that the Narraganset would form an alliance with several other tribes to annihilate the English settlers spurred Wyllys and the General Court to send two delegates to a meeting in Boston , revealing the Articles of Confederation between the Massachusetts Bay colonies, New Haven and Connecticut resulted in a treaty that provided for defense cooperation between the colonies.

In December 1642, the General Court passed the first colonial Penal Code ( Engl. Penal code ), which the twelve felony was called.

After his term as governor was up, Wyllys was selected in 1643 to represent the Colony of Connecticut as commissioner to the Union Colonies of New England .

Wyllys died on March 9, 1645 on his estate in Hartford. He was then buried at the Ancient Burying Ground in Hartford and his name appears on the Founders Monument.

The Wyllys house in Hartford was demolished in 1827. Wyllys Street in Hartford was also named after him. One of his direct descendants was the architect Frank Lloyd Wright .

Web links

• Connecticut State Library ( Memento August 13, 2014 on the Internet Archive )
• George Wyllys in the database of Find a Grave (English)