David Wheeler (bef. 1626 - aft. 1699)

Born before 18 Jan 1626 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Sarah (Wyth) Wheeler — married 11 May 1650 in Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Descendants

Died after 7 May 1699 after age 73 in Rowley, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

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David Wheeler migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Biography

Birth and baptism

David was born to parents John Wheeler and Agnes (Yeoman) Wheeler, the seventh of 12 children, all baptized in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. David was baptized 18 Jan 1625/6 at St. Thomas parish in Salisbury.^[1][2]

Immigration

David Wheeler emigrated to Massachusetts on the Confidence in 1638 at age 12; he was listed on the ship's manifest as servant to John Ludwell, who is thought to have been a friend of David's father.^[3][4] The remainder of his family soon followed him, coming from Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, and settling in Salisbury, Massachusetts.^[5]

Early Life in the New World

David had several interactions with the Essex County courts, for activities that were criminal only in Puritan society:

• Sep 1646: David Wheeler "of Hampton" was charged with gathering peas on the Sabbath. His alledged partners in crime were his sister Anne and her husband.^[6]
• Feb 1647/8: David, with three companions, was charged with raccoon hunting that disturbed worship services (it seems that the disturbance of worship was the crime, not the hunting). Two of the companions appeared and were fined; David Wheeler and one companion did not appear and their cases were continued to a later court session.^[7]
• Mar 1647: the Court issued a summons to Hampton, on the charge made in Sep 1646, and the constable assigned to serve the summons reported that David was not at Hampton, but had removed to Newbury.^[8]
• Mar 1648 David and his companions were admonished (apparently having been judged or pleaded guilty) for the pea-gathering charge of Sep 1646.^[9]

These charges suggest that David, as a young man, was not an avid churchgoer, and that there was a constant need to gather food.

What is apparent from these records is that David was resident in Hampton in 1646 and removed to Newbury in late 1646 or early 1647. In 1646, David owned land in Newbury that is mentioned in a land transfer record.^[10]

Marriage, children, and residences

David married Sarah Wyth (also spelled Wythe or Wise) 18 Jun 1650 in Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony.^[11] According to records of Newbury and Rowley, the couple lived in Newbury from the time of their marriage, or shortly thereafter, until 1668 or 1669, when they moved to Rowley. They had 12 children, one of whom died in infancy; the first nine were born in Newbury, and the last three in Rowley:^[12]

1. Sarah, b about 1651
2. John, b 5 Dec 1653
3. Abigail, b 2 Feb1655/6
4. Jonathan, b 6 Jan 1656/7
5. Nathan, b 27 Dec 1659
6. Lydia, b 7 May 1662
7. Jethro, b 28 Mar 1664
8. A son, b 21 Apr 1666^[13]
9. A son, b 2 Apr 1668^[13]
10. Joseph, b 15 Sep 1669
11. Mary, bp 4 Sep 1670
12. David, bp 1 Oct 1676

Accuser of witchcraft

In 1680, twelve years before the famous witchcraft trials in nearby Salem, charges of witchcraft emerged in Newbury, and David Wheeler was among eight accusers. The accused person was Elizabeth Morse; David Wheeler's accusation was that Mrs. Morse caused his cows to miscarry. She was convicted and sentenced to death but, after she spent a year in dungeons in Ipswich and Boston, her conviction was overturned and she was released to return home.^[14]

Death

David Wheeler was admitted to church in Rowley 7 May 1699.^[12] He died sometime after that, but no direct records of his will, death, or probate records have been found.

Research Notes

1. As early as 1862, Savage asserted that David emigrated to the New World on the Confidence in 1638, but Savage provided no evidence.^[3] Contemporaneous examination of the original manifest of the 1638 Confidence voyage,^[4] not cited by Savage, listed emigrant John Ludwell, age 50, accompanied by servants Henry Hangert, age 40, and David Whealer, age 11 (12 at the time of the voyage), thus providing evidence in support of Savage's narrative. The two senior members of the Ludwell party disappeared from the historical record after the voyage, causing some researchers to think that the Ludwell party did not embark, but many scholars now think that the seniors may have perished during or shortly after the voyage.
   
   The emigration record of a John Wheeler on the Mary and John in 1634,^[15] caused many early writers to think that father John Wheeler and all family members other than David emigrated in 1634, and that David joined them in Massachusetts in 1638. That narrative was powerfully challenged by Davis,^[16] who noted the baptism of David's brother Henry 8 Feb 1635/6 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, which convincingly demonstrated that John Wheeler and family did not make the 1634 voyage on the Mary and John. Whether the John Wheeler of the Mary and John manifest was David's father (who withdrew and postponed his emigration) or another John Wheeler remains unknown. No record of the Wheeler family's emigration, other than that of David on the Confidence in 1638, has been found. The first evidence of the family's presence in the New World appeared in Salisbury land records in 1639.^[17]
   
   Additional information about the Wheeler family's emigration and earlier interpretations of the historical record are available in the profiles of John Wheeler and John Ludwell.
2. It is reasonable to propose that Benjamin Wheeler, who appears in other records, was child 8 or 9, born either 21 Apr 1666 or 2 Apr 1668. Benjamin appears in military records in 1690^[18] (age 22 or 24), listed as a resident of Rowley. Probate papers^[19] of Benjamin Wheeler, who died intestate in 1697, state that he was "of Newbury" and that the administrator of his estate was Nathan Wheeler. Blodgette^[12] noted the military service record and, without references, stated that Benjamin died in 1691 (in military conflict?) and that his will, written in 1690, mentioned Nathan and was probated in 1691. A 2021 search for probate records of Benjamin Wheeler found the 1697 records cited here, and no records from 1690-91. In any case, there is agreement that the Benjamin of later record was one of the sons born in 1666 or 1668, and that the other son died young.

Sources

1. ↑ Image of original baptism record Ancestry.com link (subscription)
2. ↑ England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975, database, FamilySearch.org. FamilySearch.org link
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England. Boston: Little, Brown, & Co, 1860-1862 (original publication). Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1969 (reprint with indexes and corrections). 4:496. Archive.org link
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Drake, Samuel Gardner. Result of some researches among the British archives for information relative to the founders of New England : made in the years 1858, 1859 and 1860. Boston: New England Historical Genealogical Society, 1860. p 59. Archive.org link
5. ↑ More information on the family's immigration history, which has been confusingly interpreted by various writers, is presented in Research Note 1 and in the profile of David's father John.
6. ↑ Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County Massachusetts, Vol 1, 1636-1656. Salem, MA: The Essex Institute, 1911. (Henceforth referenced as EQC). p 110. HathiTrust.org link.
7. ↑ EQC. p 134. HathiTrust.org link
8. ↑ EQC. p 113. HathiTrust.org link.
9. ↑ EQC. p 139. HathiTrust.org link
10. ↑ Currier, John J. History of Newbury, Mass., 1635-1902. Boston: Damrell & Upham, 1902. p 91. Archive.org link
11. ↑ Vital records of Newbury, Massachusetts, to the end of the year 1849. Salem, Massachusetts: Essex Inst., 1911. 2:506. Archive.org link.
12. ↑ ^{12.0 12.1 12.2} Blodgette, George B. Early Settlers of Rowley, Massachusetts, Including All Who Were Here Before 1692, with a Few Generations of Their Descendants. The Essex Institute, 1887. p. 403. Archive.org link.
13. ↑ ^{13.0 13.1} See Research Note 2.
14. ↑ Doliber, Donald A. "It happened in Essex County." The Essex Genealogist. Vol 1 (1981) p 74. AmericanAncestors.org link (subscription)
15. ↑ Great Migration Newsletter, v 17, p 13. 2008. AmericanAncestors.org link (subscription).
16. ↑ Davis, Walter Goodwin. The Ancestry of Annis Spear, 1775-1858, of Litchfield, Maine. Portland, Maine: Southworth-Anthoensen Press, 1945. : p 132-135. Archive.org link.
17. ↑ Sorting Out the Wheelers. In Great Migration Newsletter. Vol. 24, No. 1. p. 1 (citing Salisbury Town Records 1:10). AmericanAncestors.org link (subscription).
18. ↑ Colonial Soldiers and Officers in New England, 1620-1775. Online database. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2013. AmericanAncestors.org link (subscription)
19. ↑ Essex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1638-1881. Online database. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.) AmericanAncestors.org link (subscription)

Acknowledgments

Considerable early work was done on David Wheeler's profile but not assembled into a biography. That information has been preserved on this page.