GEORGE WYLLYS (1710-1796). Town Clerk of Hartford and Secretary of the Colony and State of Connecticut for 61 Years from 1734 to 1796, the Longest-Serving Secretary in early Connecticut History. His military service was in the Connecticut colonial militia, served as lieutenant colonel of the First Regiment of the Connecticut militia, alongside his civil duties as secretary and town clerk; Lieutenant Colonel George Wyllys to the First Regiment," dated August 13, 1757, survives in Connecticut militia records, placing his active militia command during the French and Indian War period. he also had an administrative military role during the American Revolution; created official Connecticut broadsides, Recruitment Acts for filling the state's Continental Army quota, and resolutions for raising troops for the defense.
May 9, 1723 Manuscript Document Boldly Signed at close, "Exam (ined) per George Wyllys, Secret (ary)," by GEORGE WYLLYS, being a True Copy, Fine. Document on laid period paper with transmittal folds and age tone with minor conservation. Wyllys held office of Secretary of Colony of Connecticut longer than any other man in its history, in that position for sixty-one unbroken years, dating from 1734 to 1796. His large deep brown ink signature here, penned with elaborate flourish typical of his hand, stands as his personal certification of "A True Copy of Record" being an Assembly Petition originally heard at Hartford on May 9, 1723, being a full decade before he took office, underscoring long institutional memory of Wyllys as keeper of Connecticut Colony's official records.

This record he certified concerns expressed in a petition of Ebenezer Fitch, son of late Major James Fitch, one of most prominent land owning figures in early Colonial Connecticut and a “Founder” of Norwich. This document explains that back on October 3, 1690, the Assembly had granted Major Fitch five hundred acres of land to be taken up beyond New Roxbury, and that Fitch had accordingly taken up land north of Killingly. But because Major Fitch had not been exact in recording the Grant, or getting it properly confirmed, land was swallowed up when the Colony boundary with Massachusetts was later settled, and the same five hundred acres ended up confirmed instead to a Mr. Wolcott and a Mr. Thompson, leaving Major Fitch and his heirs with nothing.

Here, Ebenezer Fitch, in possession of and holding his father's original deed, has petitioned the Assembly to now have five hundred acres of land laid out to him somewhere else in colony. The Assembly agreed, granting "liberty that said five hundred acres may be by some county surveyor laid out to him in any of unappropriated lands in this Colony."

The Verso carries a later Docket notation, in a different hand, listing several Fitch family members by name including; James, Elijah, Eleazer Fitch, and others, along with their connections to Hartford and Windham, here apparently added by a later owner or genealogist tracing family's descendants.
GEORGE WYLLYS came from one of Connecticut's most deeply rooted colonial families. His great-grandfather George Wyllys Sr. served as Governor of Colony in 1642, and Wyllys name is tied to Charter Oak, legendary tree said to have hidden Connecticut's royal charter from royal agents in 1687, which stood on family's Hartford estate.

As Secretary, Wyllys was officer responsible for authenticating and preserving Colony's official records, which makes his signature here not just an autograph but a direct link in chain of custody for Connecticut's colonial land history.

George Wyllys was born October 6, 1710, in Hartford, Connecticut, the son of Hezekiah Wyllys (1672-1741) and Elizabeth Hobart, and grandson of the earlier Connecticut governor also named George Wyllys. He graduated from Yale College in 1729, was appointed secretary for the Colony pro tem in 1730, and in 1734 was regularly appointed secretary, holding the office for sixty-six years. He also succeeded his father as town clerk of Hartford. He and three generations of his family effectively monopolized the Secretary's office from 1712 to 1809, his father Hezekiah, then George himself, then his son Samuel Wyllys.

He was distinct from his sons, who had more prominent Revolutionary War military careers: Samuel Wyllys (1739-1823) commanded the 2nd Connecticut Regiment and later the 22nd Continental Regiment during the Siege of Boston, and rose to Major General of the Connecticut militia; John Palsgrave Wyllys (1754-1790) served in the Continental Army through the war and was later killed fighting in the Northwest Indian War.
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