Ralph Wallen (bef. 1595 - bef. 1643)

Born before 1595 in England

Husband of Joyce (Unknown) Lombard — married before 1623 in England [uncertain]

Descendants

Died before Aug 1643 at about age 48 in Plymouth Colony

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Ralph Wallen migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1620-1640). Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Disputed Origin and Children

Some without source have claimed he was the son of Ralph Wallen and Margaret Lawson, and made other claims about his life in England prior to emigration as described in the Research Notes below. However, Anderson and other leading Plymouth researchers have concluded that “nothing is known” of the English origin of Ralph Wallen or his wife Joyce ___. ^[1][2][3]

In addition, a previous version of this profile identified Anne Walden, and Richard and Jane Wallen (no WikiTree profiles, both died young), as additional children. These children have been removed for the reasons described in the Research Notes below.

Biography

Based on the date of his marriage, Ralph Wallen was likely born in England before 1595. By 1623, he had married Joyce ___.^[4]

Arrival on the ‘’Anne’’

In April 1623, Ralph and Joyce Wallen sailed from London on the HMS "Anne," accompanied by the "Little James," bound for Plymouth in the New World.^[5][6] These were the 3rd Puritan sailings for America, following the "Mayflower" in 1620 and the "Fortune" in 1621. There is no known manifest of the passengers on the Anne, however their passage is proven by their inclusion in the 1623 land division specifically for passengers on the Anne. The records of the land division indicate that " "Ralfe Walen" received an allotment of land near the Eel River, abutting against Hobes Hole.^[7] "Raph" Wallen is listed as one of the Purchasers, i.e., the planters resident in Plymouth Colony in October 1626.^[8] Ralph and Joyce Wallen participated in the division of cattle and goats in Plymouth Colony in 1627.^[9] "Raph" Wallen appears on the list of freemen in the colony in 1633, among those made free before 1 January 1632/3.^[10]

Children of Ralph and Joyce Wallen

The 1627 Division of Cattle list includes only Ralph and Joyce in this family, and most researchers agree that this Division of Cattle list captures all residents of Plymouth Colony at that time, even newborn babies, excluding only a few transient residents.^[11] Thus, it is likely that that Ralph and Joyce were a childless couple on June 1, 1627.^[12] However, Ralph and Joyce probably had at least one and possibly two children after 1 June 1627. These included:

1. Mary (probably), b. abt 1628, m. John Ewer, m. John Jenkins^[13]
2. Thomas (possibly), b. abt 1630^[14]

Later Life

Ralph Wallen was still alive on February 5, 1638, as he acknowledged receipt of a payment from Thomas Clark on that day.^[15] He also received a portion of a cow in a distribution in July 1638. ^[16] However, he died before August 1643, when Plymouth Colony listed its men between the ages of sixteen and sixty who were able to bear arms. Ralph's name was not on that list, nor did he request a dispensation.^[17] Joyce Wallen sold property on September 7, 1643, calling herself a widow.^[18]

Research Notes

Last Name at Birth

Ralph Wallen's name is spelled in various ways in the available records. On the 1623 Plymouth division of land, he is called Ralfe Walen,^[19] while in a 1627 division of cattle, he is called Ralph Wallen.^[20] In later generations, his likely descendants spelled this name Wallen, Walling, Wallin, Walwin, Walden, and other variants. The predominant spelling of his name in the Plymouth records is “Wallen,” and therefore that spelling is used for this profile.

Disputed Origin

Some, without source, claim that Ralph Wallen was born in Halton, Lancashire, the son of Ralph Wallen and Margaret Lawson, who married at All Saints church in Rotherham, Yorkshire, West Riding, on 13 July 1578,^[21] and moved to Halton in Lancashire before Ralph was born. Possibly contradicting this claim is a second marriage at that same church in Rotherham on 2 Dec 1600 between a “Ralph Wollin” and Margaret Woodruff, indicating the older Ralph may still have been living in Yorkshire rather than Lancashire in 1600.^[22] The only source attached to this profile which makes these claims about Ralph’s English origins is Hawley, which cites no sources.

Similarly, a previous version of this profile claimed:

The Wallen (Walling) story of Plymouth in New England begins in Halton, near Lancaster, a tiny English village, where three brothers: Richard, Ralph Jr., and Thomas Wallen, lived. Their parents were Ralph Wallen, Sr., and his wife Margaret (Lawson) Wallen, both from Yorkshire, England. They had been married in Rutherford, West Riding of Yorkshire, in 1578 and lived in Halton, Lancashire. Ralph Jr., was born around 1590. Richard and Thomas were born around 1595 to 1598. Apparently the family were Puritans who hoped to reform the Church of England from within rather than organizing a new religion.

Some have also claimed that he was a tailor.

However, no source for these family stories is cited.

Disputed Children

A previous version of this profile identified three additional children of Ralph and Joyce Wallen:

1. Anne Walden, b. abt 1618, m. John Smalley
2. Richard Wallen, b. abt. 1630, died young (no WikiTree profile)
3. Jane Wallen, b. abt 1623, died at birth (no WikiTree profile); the profile also claimed that she was the twin of Anne, who was likely born a few years earlier.

No source was cited for the claims concerning Richard or Jane and there does not appear to be any basis for those claims.

Some researchers have identified Anne (Walden) Smalley as the daughter of Ralph and Joyce; this argument may originate with Wilder, who bases the claim on the similar last name, proximity in Plymouth colony at the time of Ann Walden’s marriage to John Smalley in 1638, and the fact that Joyce Wallen’s household was the only Wallen family in Plymouth at the time of their marriage.^[23] However, other evidence contradicts this claim. As noted above, there is no child listed for Ralph and Joyce Wallen in the Division of Cattle in 1627, indicating that Ralph and Joyce were a childless couple in 1627. If Anne Walden was born to Ralph and Joyce Wallen in or before 1627, she should appear on this list, but she does not. If she was born to them after 1627, then she would have been only 11 years old or younger when she married John Smalley in 1638. Several carefully-researched sources conclude that only Mary (probably) and Thomas (possibly) can be identified as the children of Ralph and Joyce.^[24]

Sources

1. ↑ Eleanor Cooley Rue, "Widow Joyce Wallen of Plymouth (1645) and Widow Joyce Lombard of Barnstable (1664): One and the Same?" The American Genealogist, 67 (1992): 47-53, at 47; Image copy for subscribers : accessed 28 Jan 2021 (“Nothing is known of their English background.”).
2. ↑ Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, 3 vols. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995), 1915 (origin listed as “Unknown”).
3. ↑ Charles Edward Banks, The English Ancestry and Homes of the Pilgrim Fathers Who Came to Plymouth on the "Mayflower" in 1620, the "Fortune" in 1621, and the "Anne" and the "Little James" in 1623 (1929; reprint, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1962), 165 ("Nothing is known of their English origin...").
4. ↑ Anderson, Great Migration Begins: 1620-1633, 1915-16.
5. ↑ Rue, "Widow Joyce Wallen of Plymouth (1645) and Widow Joyce Lombard of Barnstable (1664)," 47.
6. ↑ Anderson, Great Migration Begins: 1620-1633, 1915.
7. ↑ Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, et al, eds., Records of the colony of New Plymouth, in New England, 12 vols. (Boston: William White, 1855-1861), 12:6 ["Plymouth Records"].
8. ↑ Plymouth Records, 2:177. For a description of this 1626 list of Purchasers, see Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History & People 1620-1691, Kindle Edition (Provo, UT: Ancestry Publishing, 1986), Appendix F.
9. ↑ Rue, "Widow Joyce Wallen of Plymouth (1645) and Widow Joyce Lombard of Barnstable (1664)," 47; citing Plymouth Records, 12:12. For a description of the 1627 Division of the Cattle, see Stratton, Plymouth Colony, Appendix G.
10. ↑ Plymouth Records, 1:3.
11. ↑ See, e.g., Stratton, Plymouth Colony, 28 ("Most Plymouth Colony scholars believe that the contemporary record of this “Division of the Cattle” contains the name of every resident of the colony at the time, including even a recently born baby. Thus we have a highly significant record of most Plymouth Colony residents as of 1627."); George Ernest Bowman, "The Division of Cattle in 1627," The Mayflower Descendant. 1 (1899): 148-154, at 148 ("This record is of great value to students of Pilgrim genealogy, as it contains the names of all members of the Pilgrim families in Plymouth on that date, including even Jonathan Brewster's little daughter Mary, born but five weeks before.").
12. ↑ Rue, "Widow Joyce Wallen of Plymouth (1645) and Widow Joyce Lombard of Barnstable (1664)," 47; citing Plymouth Records, 12:12 ("When the cattle were divided in Plymouth on 1 June 1627, each person, even a baby, was given a share; since the only Wallens named were Ralph and Joyce, they apparently had no living children at that time.")
13. ↑ Anderson, Great Migration Begins: 1620-1633, 1916; Rue, "Widow Joyce Wallen of Plymouth (1645) and Widow Joyce Lombard of Barnstable (1664)," 49-52. The claim that Mary is the child of Ralph and Joyce Wallen is based on her second husband John Jenkins' claim in 1660 to be the "heir apparent" of Ralph Wallen.
14. ↑ Anderson, Great Migration Begins: 1620-1633, 1916; William B. Saxbe, Jr., "Thomas Walling and his Way with Women: Seventeenth-Century Misconduct as an Aid to Identification," The American Genealogist, 73 (1998): 91-100. AmericanAncestors.org. Image Copy for subscribers accessed 30 Jan 2021. Saxbe makes a detailed case based on a pattern of scandals that the Thomas Walling who appears in Providence, Rhode Island, beginning in 1650 is the same Thomas Wallen who appears in Barnstable in the Plymouth Colony shortly before 1650, and that he is the son of Ralph and Joyce Wallen. He concludes that the relationship is “probable.”
15. ↑ Rue, "Widow Joyce Wallen of Plymouth (1645) and Widow Joyce Lombard of Barnstable (1664)," 48; citing Plymouth Records, 1:76.
16. ↑ Rue, "Widow Joyce Wallen of Plymouth (1645) and Widow Joyce Lombard of Barnstable (1664)," 48; citing W.T. Davis, et al., eds., Records of the Town of Plymouth, 3 vols. (Plymouth, Mass.: various publishers, 1889-1903), 1:4.
17. ↑ Rue, "Widow Joyce Wallen of Plymouth (1645) and Widow Joyce Lombard of Barnstable (1664)," 48; citing Plymouth Records, 8:187-189.
18. ↑ Rue, "Widow Joyce Wallen of Plymouth (1645) and Widow Joyce Lombard of Barnstable (1664)," 48; citing Plymouth Records, 12:95.
19. ↑ Plymouth Records, 12:6.
20. ↑ Plymouth Records, 12:12.
21. ↑ C.S. James, et al, eds. ‘’Yorkshire Marriage Registers. West Riding,’’ 4 vols. (London: Phillimore & Co., Ltd., 1914-15). 1:21; ‘’Internet Archive,’’ Image Copy, volume 1.
22. ↑ Yorkshire Marriage Registers. West Riding, 1:43.
23. ↑ Maribelle Wilder, A Wallen-Walling Genealogy (Baltimore: Gateway Press, 1985), 2-4.
24. ↑ See, e.g., Anderson, Great Migration Begins: 1620-1633, 1916; Rue, "Widow Joyce Wallen of Plymouth (1645) and Widow Joyce Lombard of Barnstable (1664)," 52; Saxbe, "Thomas Walling and his Way with Women," 100.

See also:

• Anderson, Robert Charles. Pilgrim Migration: Immigrants to Plymouth Colony 1620-33. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2004. [Ralph Wallen, 476-77].

• Davis, William T. Ancient Landmarks of Plymouth. Boston: Damrell & Upham, 1887. Internet Archive. Image copy: accessed 26 Jan 2021. [See pps. 155-56, discussing "Wallens Wells" near the Eel River where Ralph Wallen had his property].

• Free UK Genealogy. FreeReg, Parish Registers search. Database Index of Parish records. https://www.freereg.org.uk/search_queries : accessed 25 Jan 2021.

• Hawley, Wanda. "Name: 2878961 -- Hawley-Hoover A Family History." Rootsweb. link: accessed 26 Jan 2021.

• Hoppes, Ronald Alvin. Ancestors of Ronald Alvin Hoppes, "Ralph Wallen, Jr." link: accessed 26 Jan 2021.

• Hurd, Hamilton, comp. History of Plymouth County, Massachusetts. Philadelphia: J.W. Lewis & Co., 1884. Internet Archive. Image copy: accessed 25 Jan 2021.

• Lawson, Woody Marshall. Decendents of James Lawson 1775-1857, "Ralph Walling." link: accessed 26 Jan 2021. [citing Worldconnect project posting by John Wallen; and Wallin.]

• Smith, Ethel Farrington. "John Jenkins of Barnstable, Massachusetts." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. 149 (1995): 339-59.

• Wallin, Carolyn D. Elisha Wallen The Longhunter. Johnson City, TN: Overmountain Press, 1990.

• The Anne and the Little James (Wikipedia)

• Passengers of the Anne and the Little James (Wikipedia)

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