Back on Track: Cousins Gather for 2022 Westcott Society Reunion
By Reunion Hosts David and Rosemary Smith
Forty-three Westcott descendants and spouses gathered in South County, Rhode Island, on the third weekend in June for the 43rd Biennial Reunion of the Society of Stukely Westcott Descendants of America. And with that, we are back on track after the Coronavirus pandemic snuffed out the 2020 reunion. But with vaccination and careful planning, our albeit smaller reunion was an enjoyable success, and we are looking forward to another gathering in 2024.
The reunion was held at the Holiday Inn in South Kingstown with planned trips and events focused on the multiple ways that Westcott descendants have contributed to the agricultural and maritime history of South County.
 Click the motto to read the program. |
 Click the door to read the program. |
 Click the sidewalk to read the program. |
Friday
First up on Friday was a trip to the South County Museum in Narragansett with its exhibit on the Westcotts and the other families that made nearby Galilee the third busiest commercial fishing port in New England. There were demonstrations in the Print Shop (featuring cut blocks that were used to illustrate Roscoe Whitman’s first volume) and at the blacksmith’s forge built by William Wescott Smith, plus a family picnic on the museum lawn – all of this accomplished before the arrival of downpour.
Chuck Westcott and daughter Laura Westcott, Nancy Westcott, Judy and Jessy Fregoe, and Teresa West picnic at the South County Museum on Friday of the 2022 Reunion.
On Friday evening we enjoyed a South County Seafood Buffet with special guest Roger Williams. Yes, that Roger Williams who baptized Stukely and Juliana Westcott in the new settlement of Providence in 1638. Williams (channeled by National Park Service Ranger John McNiff as he had done at the Westcott Reunion in 2002) regaled us with tales of crossing to the New World, developing friendships with the Narragansett sachems, debating Quakers, and dealing with those pesky authorities in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Roger Williams answers a question about how he made the 26-mile trip from Providence to the reunion: “By canoe, of course, on Narragansett Bay and then I walked up the hill from the Pettaquamscutt.” (Click the picture for more on this Roger Williams.)
On day two, we got down to business with the General Membership meeting in the Holiday Inn Narragansett Room under the direction of Past President Susan Morris filling in for current President Louise Aitcheson, whose mother, Leela Aitcheson, passed away the week before the reunion. Leela’s grandson, Jack Baumgartner, winner of the 2022 Barlow Westcott Scholarship, was also not able to attend, but spoke to the meeting via a video link. Jack is a student at Northeastern University.
At the General Membership meeting Susan Morris reprised her prior role as SSWDA President (one more rodeo) and scholarship winner Jack Baumgartner thanked the membership via a video.
2022 Barlow Westcott Memorial Scholarship Recipient
SSWDA Chaplain Laura Westcott led a service in which we remembered Leela and others who have passed since our last meeting, Treasurer Bart Westcott reported that our 256-member society is financially healthy (despite the pandemic) and growing, and the membership approved the following slate of SSWDA officers and directors for 2022-2024:
| President: Louise Aitcheson Vice President: David Leflar Secretary: Mary Pat Carroll Treasurer: Bart Westcott |
Registrar/Genealogist: Jeff Westcott Historian: David Wescott Smith Chaplain: Laura Westcott Quarterly Editor: Connie Stirling Webmaster: Jim Leflar |
Scholarship Chair: Pete Bentson Board of Directors: Lynn Hulkow, Judy Fregoe, Jennifer Verruto, Cathie Westcot |
Officers and Board members elected at the meeting included Connie Sterling, Cathie Westcot, Judy Fregoe Jeff Westcott, Laura Westcott, David Smith, and Bart Westcott.
It was then off to nearby Wickford for a walking tour of this historic harbor village with local historian Tim Cranston, starting at the town dock and the house where Captain John Westcott ran a chandlery, and then on to other Westcott homes and the Old Narragansett Church. As Tim wrapped up the tour at the location of a farm where the young Oliver Spink Westcott lived and worked, Chuck Westcott, a descendant of Oliver Spink Westcott, filled us in on the story of this famous educator.
Local historian Tim Cranston began the Wickford tour at the home of Captain John Westcott, providing a photo op for Chuck Westcott, the chandler’s proud descendant.
One of the highlights of the reunion was a genealogy workshop conducted by newly elected SSWDA Registrar/Genealogist Jeff Westcott on Friday and Saturday afternoons and just about every spare moment over the weekend. Interactive sessions with Jeff’s database of more than 90,000 Stukely descendants helped clarify lineal relations and grew by several hundred names.
Cohost Rosemary Smith with “Swag Bag” Winner Anabelle Doro
In the evening we returned to the Narragansett Room for a Rhode Island Italian Fiesta and special guests from the Warwick (R.I.) Historical Society, WHS President Felicia Gardella and Pegee Malcolm, who is also Chair of the Warwick Commission on Historical Cemeteries. Both organizations have been involved in the development of an interpretive sign at Stukely and Juliana Westcott’s burial place (Warwick Historical Cemetery 165). In a brief ceremony, SSWDA Treasurer Bart Westcott presented Felicia with a donation to defray the cost of the sign and to recognize the long-standing partnership between SSWDA and the WHS.
Felicia then had the honor of picking the winning ticket in a drawing for a “swag bag” with Rhode Island mementoes and treats, and the winner was Annabelle Doro, niece of Mary Pat Carroll. And then we stood behind the reunion banner for a picture.
As the local hosts for the 2022 Reunion, we thank everyone who journeyed to South County for the reunion and the SSWDA Board for its help and support to make the event happen. And we look forward to gathering with cousins in two years in another locale where Westcotts have left their mark.