Excerpts from our May 17, 2025 marker dedication ceremony:

The story of Melted Majesty was until now, somewhat hidden away in the history books. If you grew up in the Litchfield area or even another part of CT, you might have heard in grade school about King George’s statue coming to Litchfield (oh neat! A Connecticut link to the Revolutionary War!). But until our historic marker went in, there was no tangible evidence, no monument, no signage pointing to the spot where it all took place in 1776.

The Mary Floyd Tallmadge Chapter decided that this golden piece of Litchfield History needed to be brought out into the light of modern day and shared – permanently – with visitors from near and far. Litchfield is a destination as the tourist guidebooks will say; a beautiful historic community, oozing  charm, tucked away in the Litchfield hills. Now we’ve added a bit more to that authentic historic charm! As time marches forward, it is absolutely crucial for organizations such as ours to uphold our unique and honored responsibility of preserving historic sites and telling the stories of our forefathers (and mothers and daughters too). We’re thrilled to be of help, holding up this town’s “historic” reputation. 

Two Hundred and Fifty Five years ago in March 1770, a 15 foot, 2-ton, gilded lead statue of King George III was erected on a white marble pedestal in Bowling Green park at the southern tip of Manhattan. The statue was modeled after a famous equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome. 

As we all know, King George lost favor among many American colonists and tensions rose. The Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4th, 1776 and five days later on July 9, 1776, George Washington had it read to his troops and to a crowd in New York City.

Upon hearing it a group of patriot rebels, members of Isaac Sears Sons of Liberty and Captain Oliver Brown’s soldiers & sailors, decided something had to be done to demonstrate an unwavering commitment to American independence. They marched down Broadway to Bowling Green, pulled down the statue, smashed it into pieces, cut off the head and allegedly disfigured it as a way to symbolize severing all connection with tyrannical rule.

Meanwhile, 110 miles north in the peaceful village of Litchfield Connecticut, Oliver Wolcott had already made a name for himself.  Even though he served as High Sheriff of Colonial Litchfield, Wolcott became a dedicated patriot and served as a Brigadier General in the CT militia under George Washington.  He was a principal delegate to the 2nd Continental Congress and eventually signed the Declaration of Independence after recovering from an illness that kept him up here.  Litchfield was an important crossroads and center of trade during the Revolution and Wolcott was given responsibility for managing the military stores.  He went on to become CT’s 19th Governor, a role in which he served until his death in 1797.  If you don’t know he is buried in Litchfield's East Cemetery with his wife Laura Collins who he had married in 1755. They had 4 children, including Oliver Wolcott, Jr., the second Secretary of the Treasury and also a governor of Connecticut. 

Meanwhile back in New York, the patriots (or traitors, depending on your perspective) realized that they had to do something with all those broken statue pieces and since lead was valuable they decided to take it to General Wolcott’s house for safekeeping.  The bits and pieces left Bowling Green via barge up the East River, arrived in Norwalk harbor and were then transported to Litchfield via oxcart.  They stopped in Wilton where it is believed that loyalists stole back the head.  Interestingly, a partial arm was found in a garden in Wilton in 1991.  When it went up for auction in 2019, it was expected to go for $25,000 but it went for $207,000!

The records state that a shed was erected in the Wolcott apple orchard to house and deal with the destroyed statue. General Wolcott owned a foundry at Litchfield, which proved to be helpful in re-purposing the lead.  Frederick, Oliver’s youngest child, later recounted memories of his father further chopping up the pieces with a wood axe. So, the Wolcott family and a few other women and children of the village got to work.

The lead was melted down and cast into musket balls which were then assembled into a total of 42,088 cartridges. Wolcott’s letters confirm that it was primarily Litchfield’s women and children who did the bulk of the work to provide cartridges to the Continental Army for use against the invading British.

The Wolcott family documents note that some of the cartridges were supplied to troops responding to General Tryon’s Burning of Danbury in April of 1777. As such, the Continental soldiers were no doubt happy to give the king back to the British troops.  In fact it was Ebenezer Hazard who wrote to General Gates informing that the statue had been “pulled down to make musket ball of, so that his troops will probably have melted Majesty fired at them.” which is where the name of this marker comes from.  

This historic event has come to be one of our community’s most celebrated contributions to the fight for American independence. If you visit the still relatively new Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, you will see this famous story displayed prominently!