Parents of Unknown Phelps c 1600-1639

Question

The parentage attached to Unknown Phelps should be addressed by the PGM and Quakers projects.

The parents are currently marked Uncertain. The given name of Mr Phelps in the Massachusetts Bay colony is nowhere recorded. The nickname "Henry" has remained on the profile as it is frequently encountered as an erroneous and/or unproven given name. If the given name of Mr Phelps is unknown it would follow that his parents would be Unknown rather than Uncertain (yes, there could be exceptions to that but those are not in play here).

The question is of interest to the Quakers project as Mr Phelps is the father of one of the founders of the first Quaker meeting in Salem (and likely first in Massachusetts), Nicholas Phelps. (Note: I see Nicholas has developed an unmanaged duplicate profile which I will adopt and merge in the project managed profile.)

Comments

From pgm point of view, those parents should be disconnected, but certainly we should hear from the quaker project to see if they know something.

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Thanks, Anne. Unknown Phelps is a 10th ggf and I have never found any documentation of his given name or place of origin. I'll wait to see if Michael Cayley or other colleagues in Quakers project have anything to add. Anderson shows the sons Nicholas and Henry arriving on the Hercules 1634...wonder if the father arrived later. There is considerable disagreement about the passenger list for the 1634 sailing from Sandwich of the Hercules.

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I have no information to contribute and agree the parents should be disconnected.

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I have an ancestor Henry Phelps b. 1619 in England, d. 1676 in Salem, Essex, MA. married in 1644 to an Anna Tresler b 1622 in Salem, Essex, MA.  Have not confirmed him, her or any of the dates yet.

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Hi, Tom. The Henry Phelps to which you are referring is the son of this Unknown Mr Phelps. Henry's profile is here: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Phelps-261

I do not believe there is any record that the son Henry Phelps died in Massachusetts in 1676. He and his second wife moved to Perquimans, North Carolina where they were encountered by the early Quaker colleague of George Fox named William Edmundson. He made record of their meeting in North Carolina in his journal which is linked from the profile of Henry. Edmundson wrote in part, "He [Phelps] and his wife had been convinced of the truth in New England, and came there to live, who not having seen a Friend for seven years they wept for joy to see us."  This was in 1672. Whether Henry's death is recorded I am uncertain. I am descended from his brother Nicholas (which would appear to make us some variety of cousin).

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Tom, now that I look at the Phelps-261 profile I see it is naming one person as first wife in the bio and yet someone else is attached as first wife above. There were two men of this name and I am wondering if something is mixed up here. Have alerted some of the PGM team that have worked on the profile. Will post back here (and on the profile) when it gets sorted out.

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I have nothing to add, but thanks for working on this line. I'm descended from Nicholas Phelps and have enjoyed learning about him.

Answer 1

Ah Ha, I do have to get back on the line. Y'all may have it done already but Francis is not tied to anyone any further back and he is as far back as I am positive of. Thanks for getting me to the right guy.  I am of brother Edward , who is of Henry (I think). Thanks for the info