Thomas Welles (abt. 1590 - 1660)

Born about 1590 in Tidmington, Worcestershire, England [uncertain]

Ancestors

Husband of Alice (Tomes) Welles — married 28 Sep 1615 in St. Peter's Church, Drayton near Banbury, Oxfordshire, England

Husband of Elizabeth (Deming) Welles — married about 1645 in Wethersfield, Connecticut Colony

Descendants

Died 14 Jan 1660 at about age 70 in Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Puritan Great Migration Project WikiTree [send private message], Merilee Burton [send private message], Greg Wendt [send private message], and Wiley Walters [send private message]

Thomas Welles migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See The Great Migration (Series 2), by R. C. Anderson, vol. 7, p. 288) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Note: Multiple Thomas Welles/Wells

This was not the Thomas Wells/Welles who married to Abigail Warner and immigrated aboard the Susan and Ellen in 1635 to settle in Ipswich.

This is not the Thomas Wells who married Frances (Albright) Wells Coleman. His children were immigrants to Connecticut and Massachusetts. Eldest son, Thomas Wells, married Mary (Beardsley) Wells Belden and settled at Hadley, Massachusetts Bay.

Biography

Thomas Welles was Founder of Hartford and a Governor of Connecticut.

Gov. Thomas Welles was born about 1590, the second son of Robert Welles of Tidmington, Worcester, and his wife, Alice (Unknown).^[1][2][3] The date is an approximation based on his marriage and age of his wife. His father’s primary residence was in Tidmington making this his likely birthplace, though the baptismal records do not begin until 1611 so this cannot be confirmed. Online records which state he was ‘born 10 July 1590,’ or ‘born about 1598, or ‘born at Stourton,’ or ‘born at Whichford’ are all in error. The records at Stourton, Whichford and the surrounding area have been carefully searched by the Welles Family Association and his baptism has not been found.

The origins and ancestry of Gov. Thomas Welles is proven by a sale of land he received from his father. On 5 July 1615 as part of a marriage settlement, Robert Welles, with the consent of his eldest son Robert, gave land in Burmington, Warwickshire to his second son Thomas Welles who was soon to marry Alice Tomes. This marriage occurred on 28 September 1615 at the parish of St. Peter’s in Drayton near Banbury, Oxfordshire, England.^[4][5] Thomas sold this same land in 1635 shortly before leaving for New England. In 1648, John Welles, nephew of Thomas, sued in Chancery for recovery of the land which John believed should have descended to him as the senior male heir of the Welles family. A fair number of witnesses were deposed, and their testimony proves all the family connections for four generations.^[3]

Thomas Welles (about 1594 - January 14, 1660) is the only man in Connecticut's history to hold all four top offices: governor, deputy governor, treasurer, and secretary. In 1639, he was elected as the first treasurer and from 1640-1649 served as the colony's secretary. In this capacity, he transcribed the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut into the official colony records in 1639.

The first appearance of Governor Thomas Welles's name in Hartford was on March 28, 1637, according to the Connecticut Colonial Records. Welles came to Hartford with Reverend Thomas Hooker in June 1636. Some believe a copy of a grant in which he is named confirms this statement.

He was chosen a magistrate of the Colony of Connecticut in 1637, an office he held every successive year until his death in 1660, a period of twenty-two years. He was elected deputy governor in 1654, and governor of the Connecticut Colony in 1655, and in 1656 and 1657 was deputy governor to John Winthrop, Jr.; in 1658 governor, and in 1659 deputy governor, which position he held at his death on January 14, 1660.

He was magistrate, 1637-60; treas.1639-51; sec., 1640-48; gov. pro tem., 1651; dep. gov., 1654, et seq.; gov. Colony of Conn., 1655-58; commr. for United Colonies, 1659; An original prop. of Hartford; his home lot in 1639 was on the east side of the street now Governor St. He removed to Wethersfield, where he was also an original prop. He became a member of the Court of Magistrates Mar 28, 1637, and continued a magistrate until he was chosen dep-Gov. May 18, 1654-56,57,59; was the first treasurer 1639; Sec. of the Colony 1640, and held the office until 1649. In 1649 he was a Comm. of the United Colonies; Gov. 1655 and 1648; inv. L1069-9.^{[citation needed]}

First Marriage

Thomas married September 28, 1615, as his first, to Alice Tomes (b c. 1593 ), daughter of John Tomes, of Long Marston, Gloucestershire.^[1] They had six children together (all of Thomas Welles' children were with this first wife).

This marriage has been established by the court proceedings to have taken place shortly after he received his land in 5 Jul 1615.

Second Marriage

After his first wife's death, he married again by about 1646 in Wethersfield, CT, to Elizabeth (Deming?) Foote, the widow of Nathaniel Foote, and possibly the sister of John Deming.^[1] Elizabeth had seven children by her previous marriage; there were no children from the second marriage to Thomas Welles.^[6]

Will

Thomas Welles wrote his will on 7 November 1659 and it was proved on 11 April 1660 in Hartford Probate.^[7][8][9]

I Tho. Welles of Wethersfield, being in health of body but fynding the Symptoms of Mortality uppon me, am called to set in order that little Estate committed to me. As I have receaved what I am or have from the devine hand of allmighty God, so I comitte my soull to him, resting uppon his ffree grace and favor manifest through the Lord Jesus, any my body to a comely buriall. My will is that my wife annum out of my Estate during her life, she keeping the said houseing in Repair, and that the land wch I head of hers should return to her agayne; also I give her the bay mare & two kine, to be Sett forth by my Overseers, and that howsehold stuffe wch remaynes that was formerly hers, and the use of such Implements of household during the tyme she remaynes a wyddowe as my Overseers shall sett forth. Alsoe I give to my grandchild Robert Welles, the sonne of my sonne John diceased, the House & Lott I live uppon, wch I bought of Mr. Plume & Pennywise to the cross fence on the south side, during his life, and wn he shall have attayned the age of one & twenty years, & after his Decease to his heirs for ever. And whereas ther yet remayneth a little household stuff wch I thought to have divided betwixt my Children, I now conceive yt more convenient that it remayne to my heire Robert Welles, he paying in convenient tyme, as my overseers shall find him able, Twenty pound apiece to my Children, vi.., Tho. L20, Samuel L20, My daughter Mary s Children L20, Anne L20, & Sarah L20, & ten pound to my Cossen Robbins Children. My just debts being first paid, I give my ffarme on the East side of the great River to be divided betwixt my sonne Samuel & my gran child Tho. Welles, sonne to my sonne John deceased; and I give to my sonne Tho. Welles my meadows and swamp in Pennywise on the north side the fence, and also the fower acres of Swamp wch I bought of Nath. Willett, & my upland on the East side the great River by Mr. Hopkins ffarme, wth the ffence, having sold that wthhin the fence to Capten Cullick & given Six rodde in breadth & the whole length to Ed. Andrews. And I desire my Loveing ffriends Mr John Talcoat & Mr. Cotton, Techer att Wethersfield, to be overseers of this my will, & give them five pound apeece out of my Estate. And so long as my wife remaynes a widdow Shee may injoy & Improve my whole Estate if my overseers Findye yt meet, they (discharging) out of it my just debts & takeing in the debts oweing to mee & manteining my heirs, in Lewe of her twelve pounds,--and that shee may keepe the better (words not readable.)

In witness to this my will I have hereunto sett my hand the day & yeare above written.

Tho. Welles.

No witnesses.^[10]

Death and Legacy

Thomas Welles died on 14 January 1659/60 at Wethersfield, Connecticut.^[1] His remains were buried in Wethersfield, but were later removed to Hartford, Conn., and rest with those of several other early Governors of Connecticut.^{[citation needed]}

Thomas had left most of his estate to his grandson, Robert (the son of his deceased son, John). On 7 September 1676, his widow petitioned the court for relief, "respecting what was allowed her by the will of her husband." Thomas had left her one-half his housing and orchard and twelve pounds per year. The court saw fit to admonish the grandson, ordering him to "set her part of the house in repayre ... and that what he hath damnyfyed her Barne by parting with the other part of the Barn that he did adjoyn to it, he shall repayre." He also was ordered to contribute specific commodities to make up the twelve pounds annually for her support.^[11]

Children

Children of Thomas and his first wife, Alice (Tomes):^[1]

1. Mary Welles, b say 1618; m by 1643 to Timothy Baldwin
2. Anne Welles, b say 1620; m 1) Hartford 14 Apr 1646 to Thomas Thompson, 2) Anthony Howkins
3. John Welles, b say 1622, d by 18 Aug 1659; m by about 1648 to Elizabeth Bourne, and she m 2nd to John Wilkinson
4. Thomas Welles, b say 1629; m Hartford 23 Jun 1654 to Hannah (Tuttle) Pantry, widow of John Pantry and daughter of Richard Tuttle
5. Samuel Welles, b say 1635; m 1) by 1660 to Elizabeth Hollister, daughter of John Hollister, 2) Hannah Lamberton, daughter of George Lamberton
6. Sarah Welles, b say 1633; m Feb 1653[4?] Wethersfield to John Chester, son of Leonard Chester.

Above are the only proven children of Gov Thomas Welles. Some include the following child (without evidence or source).^[12]

• Joseph Welles

Welles' eldest son, John, settled in Stratford, Connecticut in 1645, serving as a magistrate and a probate judge there before his death in 1659. Another son, Thomas, settled in Hartford; his daughter Rebecca married Captain James Judson and settled in Stratford in 1680. James and Rebecca's son David, also a Captain, built the Captain David Judson House, located on the same spot where his great grandfather William had built his first house, made of stone, in 1639. Welles' other son, Samuel, became a Captain and settled in Wethersfield. Samuel's daughter Sarah married Ephraim Hawley of Stratford and settled in Trumbull in 1683.^{[citation needed]}

Research Notes

Governor of Connecticut. TAG 28:164 (ancestry wife and some descendants); ner 80:279 (ancestry), 84:286 (wife's ancestry), 343 n; Stevens-Miller, v. 1; Stiles, Wethersfield; Hale-House; Welles family in England and United States, 2nd ed. 1876 (in LC); Life and public service of Thomas Welles 1940 (pamph). #1165, 1369, 1533, 2097, 2172. [Source: Colket]

For a list of the sessions in which he was Assistant, Treasurer, Commissioner, Moderator, Deputy Governor, and Governor, see Jacobus' List of Officials in Connecticut and New Haven Colonies prior to Jan. 1, 1666.

Thomas Welles, Hartford, an original proprietor, as also at Wethersfield, appears first in the Record of that Colony (Trumbull I. 9, as the sec. magistrate at the General Court, 1 May 1637, when war was denounced against the Pequots, they having long been hostile, and the proportion of 90 men fixed for the several plantations, viz. Hartford, 42, Windsor, 30, and Wethersfield, 18. Yet it is quite uncertain when he came from England, though satisfactorily known that he brought three sons, John, Thomas, and Samuel, and three daughters, Mary (who died before her father, probably unmarried), Ann, and Sarah.

Equally uncertain is the name of his wife, though we can hardly doubt whether he brought one; and stranger still is the uncertainty of his prior residence in Massachusetts. He had good proportion of the patents for Swampscot and Dover, which he sold August, 1648, to Christopher Lawson. We may then safely conclude, that a person of his education and good estate had not come over the water before 1636, and that he staid so short a time at Boston or Cambridge as to leave no trace of himself at either, and he was established at Hartford before Governor Haynes left Cambridge. There is, indeed, a very precise tradition of his coming, with father Nathaniel, in the fleet with Higginson, 1629, to Salem; but that is merely ridiculous. He took for second wife, about 1645, Elizabeth, widow of Nathaniel Foote of Wethersfield; on the death of Gov. Haynes, 1 Mar. 1654, the Deputy Edward Hopkins being in England on public business, he was made head of the Colony with title of Moderator, but on the dayof election in May, Hopkins was chosen Governor and Welles Deputy, though Hopkins never came back to Connecticut, being taken by the great Protector into his Parliament, so that in 1655, having had the duty to fulfil in the vacation of the chair, he was chosen Governor and Webster, Deputy, and in 1656, according to the constitution of the Colony, "that no person be chosen Governor above once in two years, Webster was made Governor, and in 1657, Winthrop Governor while Welles was Deputy both years and in 1658 made Governor again with Winthrop for Deputy. Both changed places in May 1659, and Welles died 14 January of the following year at Wethersfield. His widow died 28 July 1783; daughter Ann married 14 April 1646, Thomas Thompson of Farmington, and next, Anthony Hawkins; and Sarah married February 1654, Capt. John Chester, outliving him less than ten years, and died 16 Dec. 1698. [Source: James Savage, A Genealogical Dictionary...]

There is a great deal of incorrect information about Gov. Thomas Welles, in publications old and new. He had no wife named "Alice Hunt or Elizabeth Hunt." Please see Errors in Earlier Literature

• 1/26/2013 Bob Fields: Analysis of sources at http://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Thomas_Welles_%281%29 and http://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person_talk:Thomas_Welles_%281%29 shows that Governor Thomas was never married to Elizabeth Hunt, all children were from first wife Alice Tomes.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4} Anderson. The Great Migration, 1634-1635, vol. VII: T–Y. (2011) : pages 188-292.
2. ↑ Mathews. Descendants of Governor Thomas Welles. (2015): pages 185-207.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} NEHGR, vol. 80. Welles, L.A. English Ancestry of Gov. Thomas Welles. (1926): pages 279-305.
4. ↑ Mathews. Descendants of Governor Thomas Welles. (2015): page 185.
5. ↑ Note: This marriage has only recently been discovered and does not occur in older secondary sources.
6. ↑ Anderson on Nathaniel Foote, pp 542-43)
7. ↑ NEHGR 80:301
8. ↑ NEHGR 84:286-90
9. ↑ Manwaring, pp 161-163
10. ↑ Manwaring, pp 161-62
11. ↑ Manwaring, p 163
12. ↑ Describing the family of Joseph's purported father, Robert Charles Anderson wrote, "Some accounts of [the Thomas Welles] family include sons Robert and Joseph, for whom there is no evidence, so they have not been [included here] (Anderson, p 292).

• <span id="GM7".</span>Anderson, Robert Charles. Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, volume VII: T–Y. (Boston: NEHGS, 2011) : pages 188-292. "Thomas Welles," featured name.

• Anderson, Robert Charles, (1995) "Nathaniel Foote," featured name. Great Migration 1634-1635, C-F. NEHGS, AmericanAncestors.org (Vol II C-F, Pages 540-44).

• Mathews, Barbara Jean CG FASG. The Descendants of Governor Thomas Welles of Connecticut and his Wife Alice Tomes, volume 1, 3rd edition (Connecticut: Welles Family Association, 2015).

• Welles, Lemuel A., The English Ancestry of Gov. Thomas Welles of Connecticut, in New England Historical and Genealogical Register, volume 80 number 3 (NEHGS: July 1926): pages 279-305. Reprint also available reprint here.

• Manwaring, Charles Wm. (1904) Digest of the Early CT Probate Records, Vol. I. R.S. Peck & Co, Archive.org (Pages 161-163).

• Welles Family Association, "The Descendants of Governor Thomas Welles and Alice Tomes: Chapter 2, Errors in Earlier Literature." Archive.org saved 30 Jun 2017 Significant primary genealogical research.

• Welles, Lemuel Aiken, (1926) "The English Ancestry of Gov. Thomas Welles." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Boston, MA: NEHGS AmericanAncestors.org (Vol 80, Pages 279-305) Caution: contains errors re: Hugh Wells.

• Welles, Lemuel Aiken, (1930) "Ancestry of Alice Tomes, Wife of Gov. Thomas Welles of Connecticut." New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol 84. AmericanAncestors.org (Vol 84, citing pp 286-90).

• Bradford, Mildred, (2000) Moses S. Curtis Descendants and Ancestors. Baltimore: Gateway Press, WorldCat.org
• Founders Monument, Hartford CT
• Hawley, Elias, (1890) The Hawley Record. Buffalo, N: E. H. Hutchinson & Co., Archive.org (Page 442).
• Helligso, Martha Stuart, (1985) John Deming Of Wethersfield, Ct ... WorldCat.org
• Hinman, R. R., (1968) Catalogue Of Names Of The First Puritan Settlers Of The Colony Of Connecticut. Genealogical Publishing Co.
• History and Genealogy Unit, Connecticut State Library, (Apr 1999) "Thomas Welles: Governor of the Colony of Connecticut 1655, 1658." Archive.org saved 6 Aug 2013
• Jacobus, Donald Lines, compiled & edited (1930-2). History and Genealogy of the Families of Old Fairfield. For the Eunice Dennie Burr Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution (Fairfield, Connecticut), Vol. 1, page 655

• Joseph, "Thomas Welles." The Parker and the Pitkin Family Trees

• McKinnon-Suggs, Eileen, (16 Apr 2009) "Thomas Welles," Our Kingdom Come Caution: incorrect, confounds this with another Thomas Welles/Wells.

• Millard/Miller of Rehoboth, Ancestry.com, http://awtc.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=PED&db=njpatrn&id=I023635&style=TABLE NOTE: Generic Ancestry Link only

• Nareen, et al, (16 Aug 2008) 'Judge Thomas Welles." Find A Grave Memorial# 29066320
• Orcutt, Samuel, (1886) A History of the Old Town of Stratford and the City of Bridgeport, Connecticut, Part II. Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, Archive.org (Pt 2, p 1325) Caution, incorrect'.

• Private User, (3 May 2017) Colonial Gov. Thomas Welles Extensive citations and bio data.
• Starr, Frank, (1915) Various Ancestral Lines of James Goodwin and Lucy (Morgan) Goodwin of Hartford, Connecticu. Hartford: Archive.org (Vol. 1, Page 219-38).

• Torrey, Clarence Almon, New England Marraiges Prior to 1700. (Genealogical Publishing Co, Inc., Baltimore, MD, 1992)
• Tryon, Mary Frances, (1972) "Demings And Their Kith 'N Kin, 2 Vols." WorldCat.org
• Welles, Albert, (1876) History of the Welles family in England and Normandy ... New York: Albert Welles Archive.org (Pages 110-11) Caution, incorrect.

• Welles, Catherine J. and Frances S., Welles, Catherine J. and Frances S., (1929) Welles and Allied Families ... New York, New York : American Historical Society, FamilySearch.org (Pages 1-6). Caution: incorrect. See Errors in Earlier Literature
• Weis, Frederick Lewis, Ancestral Roots Of Sixty Colonists Who Came To New England Between 1623 And 1650. (Genealogical Publishing Co. Inc., 1992)

• "Gov Thomas Welles." Family Search. Accessed Oct. 14th, 2020. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LH1P-T42.

• "Connecticut, Vital Records, Prior to 1850," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPMH-RJ8Q : 21 September 2019), Thomas Wells, ; citing Death, , Compiled by Lucius A. and Lucius B. Barbour, housed at State Library, Hartford, Connecticut; FHL microfilm 008272249.

• Wikipedia:Thomas_Welles

See also:

• Welles Family Association
• Society of the Founders of Hartford