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
Willett Pot Still Reserve process for the product was performed using the more common column still distillation method – with a pot still used only for the doubler stage. The product is named after the Willett family which founded the company that produces it. The company began as the Willett Distilling Company. John David Willett (born in 1841) had been the master distiller for the Moore, Willett & Frenke Distillery, which he had formed with his brother-in-law Thomas S. Moore of Bardstown, and a Mr. Frenke of Louisville. In 1876, Willett fell ill and sold his interest in the company. The resulting company became