Elizabeth W. Wolcott

Female

March 6, 1806

1875

Litchfield, CT

Essex County, NJ

John Peter Jackson (1826)

Elizabeth Wolcott Jackson, of the “first family” of Litchfield Wolcotts, was born March 6, 1806.

She was the daughter of Frederick and Betsey Huntington Wolcott. Her grandfather, Oliver Wolcott, and uncle both served as Governor of Connecticut and her great grandfather was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

From 1819-1821 Elizabeth studied in her hometown at Sarah Pierce's Female Academy. While in school she was good friends with Mary Landon, Elizabeth Cooke, and Jane Lewis. John Pierce Brace referred to Elizabeth and her friends as "The Club." In 1826 Elizabeth married John Peter Jackson, a lawyer and former Litchfield Law School student. During their marriage Elizabeth and John had six children, and resided in Essex County, New Jersey. Elizabeth passed away in 1875.

In 1820, Elizabeth's sister Mary Ann was romantically attached to Litchfield Law School student Henry Walter Livingston, whose family belonged to the old NY grant, Manor families (considered the closest thing to “aristocracy in the US”). Despite Mary Ann's own distinguished background, it didn't meet the Livingston family's marital criteria and Henry ultimately ended the relationship. This caused a stir in the community and many students weighed in on the breakup via journal entries and letters.

Elizabeth suggested it was Livingston, “the Baron,” who was in pursuit of her sister and that Mary Ann had not courted his attention. In 1825, she wrote her fiancé and Litchfiled Law School student John P. Jackson:

“And so the poor Baron has been pouring forth his grief to you...I ...suppose we have sunk sadly in his estimation for slighting so much worth! I do indeed feel quite sorry his feelings are so much wounded, but his attentions were so troublesome in our family it became necessary to give him some hint for our own comfort. We could seldom walk in the streets unless he joined us; but he appeared particularly to single Mary Ann out as the subject of his attentions, & when any ride or walk was proposed, he always intruded his company upon her, sometimes even when his name was not mentioned in the invitation, & this gave rise to remarks by no means agreeable to her.”

Elizabeth remarked that Livingston felt slighted when he wasn’t invited to a tea the sisters gave at their house.

In 1823, Livingston married Caroline de Grasse de Pau in France. She was the granddaughter of the fabulously wealthy Comte de Grasse, who had been the commander of the French Fleet during the decisive battle at Yorktown in the American Revolution.

Four years later, in 1827, Mary Ann married Asa Whitehead, a lawyer of Newark, NJ and close friend of her Elizabeth’s husband.
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On October 2, 1825, Elizabeth wrote to John Peter Jackson of having had a tea to which she and her sister, Mary Ann, invited several young men from the Litchfield Law School.

(Litchfield Historical Society, Alice Wolcott Collection)

On August 7, 1826, Ann Elizabeth Landon and Charlotte [Landon] Livingston wrote to Mary F. Beecher about Elizabeth's (upcoming?) marriage to John:

“Jackson has been on with his mother to see Betsey and of course there was much palaver among the Wolcotts.”

(Helen D. Perkins Collection Stowe-Day)

1819-1821

1819 Litchfield Female Academy Summer Session Catalogue (Vanderpoel, Emily Noyes. More Chronicles of A Pioneer School From 1792 to 1833. Cambridge, MA: The University Press, 1927).

1820 Litchfield Female Academy Summer Session Catalogue (Vanderpoel, Emily Noyes. More Chronicles of A Pioneer School From 1792 to 1833. Cambridge, MA: The University Press, 1927).

1820 Litchfield Female Academy Catalog Winter Session (Vanderpoel, Emily Noyes. Chronicles of A Pioneer School From 1792 to 1833. Cambridge, MA: The University Press, 1903).

1821 Litchfield Female Academy Catalog Summer Session (Vanderpoel, Emily Noyes. Chronicles of A Pioneer School From 1792 to 1833. Cambridge, MA: The University Press, 1903).

1821 Litchfield Female ...Academy Catalog Winter Session (Vanderpoel, Emily Noyes. More Chronicles of A Pioneer School From 1792 to 1833. Cambridge, MA: The University Press, 1927).

Elizabeth penned a poem and signed her name in Jane R. Lewis's 1820 "Common Place Book" (Litchfield Historical Society - Litchfield Female Academy collection).
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