THE WOLCOTT-COLTON-CORDIS FAMILY VERY RARE JOINED AND CARVED OAK CHEST, ATTRIBUTED TO THOMAS BARBER SR. (1614-1662), WINDSOR, CONNECTICUT, CIRCA 1635-1655

Henry Wolcott (1578-1655) m. Elizabeth Saunders (1584-1655), Windsor, Connecticut;

Simon Wolcott (1624-1687) m. Marth Pitkin (1639-1719), Windsor, Connecticut;

John Colton (1659-1727) m. Joanna Wolcott (1668-1755), Windsor, Connecticut;

Simon Colton (1709-1796) m. Abigail Burt (1714-1760), Longmeadow, Massachusetts. They built the ‘Old Red House’ on the Longmeadow green in 1735;

Major Luther Colton (1756-1803) m. Thankful Woolworth (1759-1797) and then m. Mehitable Deming (1763-1856), Longmeadow, Massachusetts;

Simon Colton (1793-1877) m. Mary Bradford Flint (1807-1849);

Thomas Francis Cordis (1843-1915) m. Annie Byrd (Bird) Colton (1845-1937). Thomas Cordis is a descendent of Cord Cordis (1709-1772), proprietor of the British Coffee House in Boston;

Thomas Edward Cordis (1884-1936) m. Annie Marguerite Holden (1891-1975);

Edward Colton Cordis (1913-2002) m. Mary Elizabeth Walcott Grabe (b. 1904), Litchfield, Connecticut;

Mary Anne Cordis (1951-2018), Suffield, Connecticut.

The Wolcott-Colton-Cordis family chest is one of the earliest surviving pieces of Connecticut furniture and was likely made by the Windsor, Connecticut joiner Thomas Barber, Sr. (1614-1662). A chest in the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association that first belonged to Nicholas Hoyt (1622-1655) is the closest cognate. The carving on the stiles and lower rail of the Hoyt chest relate directly to the carvings on the Cordis chest. While the Cordis chest is made with a three-paneled back, also adopted by his son Thomas Barber, Jr. (1644-1711), the chest's refined joinery and carving quality and composition advocates for an attribution to Thomas Barber, Sr. For additional information on Thomas Barber, Sr. and the Windsor joinery tradition see Joshua W. Lane and Donald P. White III, "Fashioning Furniture and Framing Community: Woodworkers and the Rise of a Connecticut River Town," American Furniture 2005, ed. Luke Beckerdite, (Milwaukee, WI: Chipstone Foundation, 2005), pp. 155-64 and Joshua W. Lane and Donald P. White III, The Woodworkers of Windsor: A Connecticut Community of Craftsmen and Their Work, 1635-1715, (Deerfield, MA: Historic Deerfield, Inc., 2003).

This chest was likely made for Henry Wolcott (1578-1655) and Elizabeth Saunders (1584-1655) of Windsor, Connecticut. Henry and Elizabeth, originally from the village of Tolland in Somerset, England, initially landed in Nantasket, Massachusetts. He was an original settler of Dorchester, Massachusetts but relocated to Windsor in 1632. Their home in Windsor was at the south end of the town, south of the Farmington river on a tract of land called the ‘Island.’ Their granddaughter, Joanna Wolcott (1668-1755), married John Colton (1659-1727) and from their it descended to their son Simon Colton, who was one of Connecticut's earliest silversmiths. It continued to descend in the Colton and Cordis families until today, making the sale of this important chest a remarkable opportunity to acquire one of America’s earliest pieces of furniture.