Royce, a carpenter, joiner and blacksmith by trade, was one of Wallingford's original 38 proprietors authorized by the Connecticut General Assembly in 1667 to purchase land from the Quinnipiac nation.

On May 11, 1693, Royce was elected deputy representing Wallingford to the Court of the Connecticut Colony.

The prominent figures associated with the 1930s-1940s rehabilitation of the Royce House is an impressive roster of leaders in the historic preservation movement in New England.

The list includes Richard Henry Dana, William Sumner Appleton, Elmer Keith, J. Frederick Kelly, George Dudley Seymour, and Bertram Little.

[5] For a time it was a museum and then was used as a residence by Choate Rosemary Hall, until the school donated the house to the Wallingford Historic Preservation Trust in 1999.