Thomas Willett Rev. Samuel Hooker, son of Rev. Thomas Hooker, Puritan divine and founder of Hartford, Connecticut. Some have claimed that his great-grandson was Marinus Willett, who also served as Mayor of New York, from 1807-08. This claim has been refuted by E. Haviland Hillman in an article published in "The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record", Volume 47 at 119, published in April 1916. The descendants of Thomas Willett were numerous. The 'Dorothy Q.' of the poem of Oliver Wendell Holmes was Thomas Willett's great-granddaughter, and the great-grandmother of Holmes. Another of Thomas Willett's descendants is American musician Parthenon Willett Miller
Mayor of the District of Columbia times since the City of Washington (a smaller municipality within the District of Columbia) was officially granted a formal government in 1802. From 1802 to 1812, the mayor was appointed by the President of the United States; Washington's first mayor was Robert Brent, appointed in 1802 by Thomas Jefferson. Between 1812 and 1820, the district's mayors were then selected by a district council. From 1820 to 1871 the mayor was popularly elected. Originally, four separate municipalities were located within the District of Columbia, and each was governed separately: the City of Washington, Georgetown, Alexandria County (retroceded to the state of