"9. Deacon Nathaniel Wales, Esq. … was born at Milton, 28 May, 1694, and died at Windham, 5 November, 1782. In ecclesiastical matters he followed the example of his father, and was also active in the civil and military affairs of the town, church or colony, from May 1730, when he was commissioned ensign of the first military company of Windham, until his death. In October, 1740, he was promoted to a lieutenancy of the same company; from 1751 he was repeatedly commissioned justice of the peace and of the Courts of Windham County, and from 1753, most of the years to 1778, he was one of the leading members of the Connecticut Assembly. On 20 May, 1772, he was chosen a member of the Committee of Correspondence, composed of the principal men in the Assembly, among them being Ebenezer Silliman, Samuel Holden Parsons, Silas Deane, Joseph Trumbull and Erastus Wolcott. As a member of the Council or Committee of Safety from 1775 until 1777, he performed valuable service for the cause of Independence. In September, 1775, he was sent by the Council to Philadelphia to procure funds from the Continental Congress with which to further the patriotic interests in Connecticut, and, during the same year, he was appointed by the Assembly a member of a Committee to wait upon the Provincial Congresses of New York and New Jersey 'in order to procure intelligence of the measures that might be adopted by them respecting the common cause of the British Colonies.'
In the industrial world, too, Mr. Wales made his influence felt and achieved a competency. And his sagacity and business force were exemplified in the enterprise, begun with Colonel Elderkin in December, 1755, of erecting a factory on the Willimantic River for the manufacture of gunpowder, which seems to have been highly successful, as in May following Mr. Wales reported to the Assembly that 1000 pounds of the powder had been produced in the interim."
