Isaac Wells (1598 - bef. 1673)

Born 1598 in England

Descendants

Died before 24 Dec 1673 before age 75 in Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Puritan Great Migration Project WikiTree [send private message] and Hollis Bartlett [send private message]

Isaac Wells migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See The Directory, by R. C. Anderson, p. 364) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Disputed Origins

He could not possibly have been son of Thomas Well(e)s who was born several years later! Also Anderson includes no son Isaac for Thomas.

A Wells family history referenced by Torrey gives him as the son of Joseph Well(e)s, who came to Boston in 1635. It says Isaac was born in 1618 and with wife Margaret had only one child Joseph, born 1642, who married Grace Dipple. According to this source, Mary (Wells) Huckins was Isaac's sister, rather than his daughter^[1]

The year of Isaac's birth (1598 or 1618) is crucial for deducing his father and his children. If born in 1598, Isaac would have been about the same age as his presumed father Joseph and thus not his son. However, a birth in 1618 would make Isaac about the same generation as his daughters given above.

Biography

Isaac Wells took the oath as an inhabitant of Scituate on February 1, 1638, and was a constable for Barnstable in 1642^[2]

In 1640 Isaac was one of the first settlers of Barstable. He joined the church on 27 May 1643^[3] and was on a list of Barnstable inhabitants taken 23 Feb 1662.^[4]

Isaac Wells m. "(probably his 2d wife)" Margaret —, who d. bef 24 Aug 1675 when her inventory was taken. Administration was granted 27 Oct 1675 to Mr. John Miller and Isaac Chapman, said to be "nearly related to her and entitled to her property," indicating no (living?) children of her own. ^[5][6]

Their children included:

1. Possibly Lydia, who married Ralph Chapman^[7] (according to Anderson, Lydia (Wells) Chapman was related, but may not have been a daughter^[8])
2. Mary, who married Thomas Huckins in 1642.^[9]
3. Elizabeth who married Henry Atkins.^[10]

Isaac Wells's will was made on 25 June 1673 and signed by a mark. It was witnessed by Thomas Hinckley and Joseph Laythorpe. An inventory of his estate was taken 24 December 1673 by Thomas Laythorp, Joseph Laythorp and James Lewis. The only bequest was to his widow, Margaret, who made oath to the inventory 7 March 1673/4.^[11][12]

Death:

Date: 28 NOV 1671

Place: Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts^[13]

Burial:

Date: 4 JUN 1672

Note

From Blake's The History of Barnstable:^[14]

Page 368: "There is no other record of the settlement of Barnstable until the arrival of Rev. John Lothrop and his associates on the 21st of October, 1639 (N. S.). The greater part of Mr. Lothrop's church accompanied him to Barnstable, leaving the remaining few "in a broken condition." Besides Joseph Hull and Thomas Dimock and their associates as mentioned in the grant, we find here in the autumn of 1639, John Lothrop, the pastor, Mr. Mayo, Mr. Lumbard, sr., Isaac Wells, Samuel Hinckley, Samuel Fuller, Robert Shelley, Edward Fitzrandal, Henry Ewell, Henry Rowley, James Cudworth, William Crocker, John [Page 369] Cooper, Henry Cobb, George Lewis, Robert Linnell, William Parker, Edward Caseley, William Caseley, Henry Bourne, Anthony Annable, and Isaac Robinson.

"The town was incorporated September 3, 1639, and on the first Tuesday of December, the same year, its deputies took their seats in the general court.

"Others came to the town during the fall, winter and spring following, so that in 1640 we find here these heads of families in addition to those already mentioned: Thomas Allyn, Nathaniel Bacon, Austin Bearse, William Bills, Abraham Blush, John Bursley, John Caseley, Henry Coggen, John Crocker, Dolor Davis, Richard Foxwell. Roger Goodspeed, James Hamblin, Thomas Hatch, Thomas Hinckley, Thomas Huckins, John Hull or Hall, Samuel Jackson, Laurence Lichfield, Thomas Lothrop, John Smith, Thomas Shaw, John Scudder, John and Samuel Mayo, Thomas Lombard, Bernard Lombard, and Robert Linnet. Before the lands were divided others had arrived, among whom were: Richard Berry, Francis Crocker, John and Nicholas Davis, William Tilley, David Linnet, Benjamin and James Lothrop, Nathaniel Mayo, Samuel Lothrop, John Foxwell, Thomas Blossom, John Blower, Thomas Boreman, William Pearse, John Russel, Nicholas Sympkins, Laurence Willis, and Samuel House."

Sources

1. ↑ History of the Welles Family by Wells, Albert, (New York, 1876), see page 141 for Isaac
2. ↑ Records of the colony of New Plymouth in New England : printed by order of the legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by New Plymouth Colony; Shurtleff, Nathaniel Bradstreet, 1810-1874; Pulsifer, David, 1802-1894; Publication date 1855-1861; Publisher New York : AMS Press. See Vol 1, page 110 for the oath, page 53 for appointment as constable.
3. ↑ NEHGR, "Scituate and Barnstable Church Records," 9:280.
4. ↑ Barnstable, MA: Town Records, 1640-1793, (Boston MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2002), online AmericanAncestors.org, v1:6 and v2:64. [1]
5. ↑ Torrey's New England Marriages to 1700 Volume 3, page 1625. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015, which states WELLS, Isaac (-1673) & Margaret ____ (-1675); by 1620 Scituate/ Barnstable {Winthrop-Babcock 276; Seeley-Vail 172; Wells (,10) 141; Booth (1910) 69; MD 25:89; Warner-Harrington 743}
6. ↑ Hawes, James W. "Nicholas Snow of Eastham", in Smith, Leonard H, comp. Cape Cod library of local history and genealogy: a facsimilie edition of 108 pamphlets published in the early 20th centur y. (Baltimore [Maryland]: Genealogical Pub. Co., c1992), p. 23. digital at https://familysearch.org/eng/library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=titledetails&titleno=356514&disp=Nicholas+Snow+of+Eastham
7. ↑ Ancestry of Daniel James Seely, St. George, N.B., 1826, and of Charlotte Louisa Vail, Sussex, N.B., 1837 (St. John, N.B., 1912; with a List of Their Descendants by Bacon, William Plumb, (New York: T. A. Wright, [1914?]), see page 172
8. ↑ Lydia Wells page 293, Great Migration 1634-1635, T-Y. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2012.) Originally published as: The Great Migration, Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume VII, T-Y, by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2011.
9. ↑ Ancestors of Henry Rogers Winthrop and His Wife Alice Woodward Babcock by Frost, Josephine C., ([New York?], 1927), see page 276 for Thomas Huckins
10. ↑ The Farwell Family by Jane Harter Abbott and Lillian M. Wilson, M.A., Ph.D. (1929) on page 278
11. ↑ The Mayflower Descendant, Volume 25, page 89.
12. ↑ "Massachusetts, Plymouth County, Probate Records, 1633-1967," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-997D-V3KJ : 9 March 2023), Wills 1633-1686 vol 1-4 > image 351 of 616; State Archives, Boston.
13. ↑ Source: #S404 Record for Abigail Welles
14. ↑ History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1637-1686-1890. New York: Blake, 1890. Open Library

• Source S404 Title: Public Member Trees Publication: Ancestry.com: The Generations Network, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2006;

Repository: #R17