Henry Tolles IV was born on 8 August 1736 in New Haven, Connecticut and died on 5 May 1810 in Weathersfield, Vermont. The Tolles family in New England can be traced to Henry Tolles IV’s great-grandfather, Henry Tolles I who settled in Wethersfield, Connecticut in 1668. During the American Revolution, Tolles was a Private in Captain William Upham’s Company in the Vermont Militia (1780). He served with his son, Clark. Henry Tolles also participated in the French and Indian War, serving as a soldier in Captain Hitchcock’s Company of New Haven, Connecticut in defense of Fort William Henry.
Henry Tolles IV was married to Hannah Clark of Milford, Connecticut on 25 November 1757. Hannah’s ancestry is notable as she was a lineal descendant of William Gibbard, Secretary of the New Haven Colony, and Edmund Tapp, the Assistant Governor of the Connecticut Colony.