Description: Acquired from the George H. Way Collection, Staten Island, NY. This type of delftware decoration done in London and Bristol with roosters, peacocks, and other birds are often known as "Farmyard" plates. Circular tin-glazed earthenware plate with narrow rim, flat well, plate is decorated in cobalt blue. The rim is decorated with a three lines; the central design depicts a peacock in profile facing right with full plumage in front of several trees with sponged leaves. A paper label on underside inscribed: "Henry Wolcott / Plate / 1636." According to a Wolcott/Walcott family genealogy, Henry Wolcott removed to Windsor, CT from Boston in 1636. [ Henry Wolcott was born in 1578 at Tolland, Somerset and died in 1655 at Windsor CT. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Saunders of Lydeard St. Lawrence, Somerset, in 1606. Henry, Elizabeth, and three of their sons sailed from Plymouth on the Mary and John . They arrived in Dorchester MA 31 May 1630. Their two daughters and youngest son arrived a few years later. Henry Senior settled at Windsor CT in 1636. He was a member of the CT House of Delegates from1637 to 1643, and was a member of the House of Magistrates from 1643 until his death in 1655. Henry and Elizabeth Wolcott, both died in 1655, and are buried in the churchyard of the First Congregational Church at Windsor CT.] It seems likely that the individual whose name is on the plate was a descendant of the Henry Wolcott who moved to Windsor in 1636. The earliest possible descendant and owner of the plate, who also shared Henry's name, would have been his grandson, Henry Wolcott (1670-1746).
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