Thomas Wadsworth (bef. 1688 - 1716)

Born before 29 Jan 1688 in Hartford, Hartford County, Connecticut Colony

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 15 May 1716 after age 28 in Hartford, Hartford County, Connecticut Colony

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Carolyn Napoli [send private message] and Barry Smith [send private message]

Biography

Thomas was christened at the First Church of Hartford, Connecticut on January 29, 1687-8.^[1] He was the son of Thomas Wadsworth and Elizabeth Barnard.^[1][2][3]

It seems likely he is the Thomas Wadsworth who died on 15 May 1716 and is buried at the Ancient Burial Ground in Hartford.^[4] Administration papers were granted to the widow Sarah of Thomas Wadsworth, Jr. on 4 June 1717.^[5]

Research Notes

Parentage and Son

The 1725 will of Thomas's father Thomas Wadsworth Sr. included a legacy to grandson Thomas Wadsworth, as well as son John.^[6] John Wadsworth sold land to his nephew Thomas Wadsworth in 1773. This grandson was then the son of a son of Thomas Wadsworth Sr. other than John. His other recorded sons and christening years were William (1680), Thomas (1687), and William (1692). Presumably, the elder William died young and the younger one was named in his honor.

No other Thomas seems to have been alive for the above timespan, so it is almost certain the Thomas attached here as son was the grandson in the will. His father was then either Thomas or the younger William. The inference that his father was this Thomas comes from the lack of any record that William survived to adulthood. On the other hand, this Thomas Wadsworth died in 1716, around the time the present Thomas was born, with inferred year close to his christening date, and he was married. So unless additional information is forthcoming, it cannot now be doubted that Thomas's father was the Thomas deceased in 1716, and it makes sense then that Thomas Wadsworth Sr. had left a legacy to his grandson since his son Thomas had already deceased.

Disputed Child

Some online trees include another child, Lucy Wadsworth, also born around 1716, who married John Arnold. This is almost certainly wrong, and indeed, Lucy Arnold was not a Wadsworth at all. The claim seems to originate from a nineteenth century bible record. It is only viewable at the CT State Library, but this is supposedly an excerpt, transcribed on Lucy's profile on the FamilySearch global tree:^[7]

The John Arnold, (son of Serg't John) born July 8, 1715, lived in the same place as his father, had married about 1740 or a little later, Lucy Wadsworth, dau. of Thomas Wadsworth, Sen. This Thomas Wadsworth was descendant of Wm. Wadsworth in Hartford in 1626, an emigree. The Hockanum Wadsworth lot was next north of the Arnold lot, and was given to Thomas by his father in 1675. Thomas Wadsworth, Jr., brother of Lucy, the wife of John Arnold, Jr., married Sarah, sister of John. Sarah (Arnold) Wadsworth, died in 1778.

This bible has been called "old", but an online blogger has viewed the pages and believes these annotations were added in the 1800s, so still long after Lucy lived and not by someone who had firsthand knowledge of her life. That blogger wrote other problematic statements in the bible, some of which were worded as speculative, so it is clear some of the information was his own conclusions based on the sources he had available. This is discussed nicely at this blog post about Lucy's husband John.^[8]

So the information in the bible is secondary, and already known to be partly dubious. In addition, there is something wrong in the above excerpt. It says that the Lucy was the daughter of Thomas Wadsworth Sr. and that that Thomas was given land by his father in 1675. So he was at least 21 in 1675 and was born by 1654. He cannot be the present Thomas Wadsworth born in 1687-8 — it would be his father. And on the other hand, the Thomas Wadsworth Jr. in the bible quote who married Sarah Wadsworth was not the son of that man, but rather the grandson. So the quote has generations provably mixed-up and is definitely not reliable.

So who was Lucy? She was Lucy Case, daughter of John Case and Sarah Arnold. Here is her father's profile. This attribution is made by Dr. John Wesley Arnold in "A Connecticut Arnold Memorial" published in 1992. It is provable from a 1739 deed, which begins:^[9]

To all People to whom to whom these presents Shall Come Greeting Know thee that Wee John Arnold Junr. and Lucy Arnold Wife of John Arnold Junr. which Lucy before Marriage was Lucy Case both of Hartford in the County of Hartford and Colony of Connecticutt in New England for the Consideration of thirty four pounds money and to this said Lucy Case before her Marriage with the said John Arnold by our Honed. father in Law Dibro [i.e. Disbro or Disborough] Spencer of Hartford in the County and Colony aforesd...

Back then, people were less precise with relationship names, and in particular "father-in-law" could refer to stepfather as well as our current use of the word. Disbro was Lucy's stepfather.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Barbour: Page 616
2. ↑ Hinman: Page 321
3. ↑ Wadsworth: Page 237 -- Wadsworth gives the birth year as 1793 [sic]
4. ↑ The slab covering his sarcophagus is etched with the death date and states he was in his 26th year, differing some from the recorded christening date. The original church record should be rechecked to see if the christening date is correct.
5. ↑ Manwaring: Vol II, Page 446
6. ↑ Manwaring: Vol II, Pages 595-596
7. ↑ FamilySearch Global Tree, profile for Lucy Arnold
8. ↑ "Disambiguating John Arnold of Hartford (1683 – 1741)", blog post by Keith Smith, 10 August 2017
9. ↑ Hartford County, Connecticut, Deeds vol. 6 pp.308-9

• Barbour, Lucius Barnes. Families Of Early Hartford, Conn. (Genealogical Pub. Co., 1977)

• Hinman, Royal Ralph. A Catalogue of the Names of the First Puritan Settlers of the Colony of Connecticut (Case, Tiffany & Co., Hartford, 1846)

• Manwaring, Charles William A Digest of the Early Connecticut Probate Records (Higginson Book Co., 1899)

• Wadsworth, Horace Andrew. Two hundred and fifty years of the Wadsworth family in America (Lawrence, Mass., 1883)

• Find A Grave, database and images (findagrave.com : accessed 07 January 2019), memorial page for Thomas Wadsworth (before 29 Jan 1687 –15 May 1716), Find A Grave Memorial no. Find A Grave: Memorial #16909669, citing Ancient Burying Ground, Hartford, Hartford County, Connecticut, USA ; Maintained by CMWJR (contributor 50059520). Note that as of 21 June 2022, the manager for the FindAGrave profile refuses to change the birth year from 1687. If Barbour's transcription of the baptismal record linked here is to be believed, then this is almost certainly written old-style, so on Wikitree we would write it as 1688. Even if the year was recorded in the church register as 1687 and the double-date in the transcription was added by the author, we would need to interpret the date as January 1687/8 since the previous child Rebecca was baptized in May 1686. Unless there were unusual gaps of months between birth and baptism, it is highly improbable that Thomas was born only about eight months after his sister. This citation is kept because the linked memorial includes a useful photo of the grave monument.