Person:Thomas Welles (1)

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Thomas Welles (14 January 1660) is the only person in Connecticut's history to hold all four top offices: governor, deputy governor, treasurer, and secretary. In 1639, he was elected as the first treasurer of the Colony of Connecticut, and from 1640–1649 served as the colony's secretary. In this capacity, he transcribed the Fundamental Orders into the official colony records on 14 January 1638, OS, (24 January 1639, NS).

Disputed Lineages

The quality of the references used in the Wikipedia article for this person are in dispute.

Mary Beardsley married Thomas Wells of Wethersfield and Hadley, son of Thomas and Frances (Albright) Wells. They are not connected with the family of Governor Thomas Welles.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9} Siematowski, Donna Holt. The Descendants of Governor Thomas Welles of Connecticut: 1590-1658. (Baltimore: Gateway Press, 1990).

   Thomas Welles married Alice Tomes soon after July 5, 1615 in Long Marston, Gloucestershire, and the couple had eight children. After her death, he married again about 1646 in Wethersfield. His second wife was Elizabeth (nee Deming) Foote, sister of John Deming and widow of Nathaniel Foote. Elizabeth had seven children by her previous marriage; there were no children from the second marriage.Ground.[1]

2. ↑ Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1860-1862)
   4:478.

   "THOMAS, Hartford, an orig. propr. as also at Wethersfield, appears first in the Rec. of that Col. Trumbull I. 9, as the sec. magistr. at the Gen. Ct. 1 May 1637, when war was denounc. against the Pequots, they hav. long been hostile, and the proportion of 90 men fixed for the sev. plana. viz. Hartford, 42, Windsor, 30, and Wethersfield, 18. Yet it is quite uncert. when he came from Eng. tho. satisfactor. kn. that he brot. three s. John, Thomas, and Samuel, and three ds. Mary, wh. d. bef. her f. prob. unm. Ann, and Sarah; equal. uncert. is the name of his w. though we can hardly doubt whether he brot. one; and stranger still is the uncertainty of his prior resid. in Mass. He had good proportion of the patents for Swampscot and Dover, wh. he sold Aug. 1648, to Christopher Lawson. We may then safely conclude, that a person of his educ. and good est. had not come over the water bef. 1636, and that he staid so short a time at Boston or Cambridge as to leave no trace of hims. at either, and he was estab. at Hartford bef. Gov. Haynes left Cambridge. There is, indeed, a very precise tradit. of his coming, with f. Nathaniel, in the fleet with Higginson, 1629, to Salem; but that is merely ridiculous. He took, for sec. w. a. 1645, Elizabeth wid. of Nathaniel Foote of Wethersfield; on the d. of Gov. Haynes, 1 Mar. 1654, the Dept. Edward Hopkins being in Eng. on pub. business, he was made head of the Col. with title of Moderator, but on the day of elect, in May, Hopkins was chos. Gov. and Welles Dept. tho. H. never came back to conn. being tak. by the great Protector into his Parliam. so that in 1655, hav. had the duty to fulfil in the vaction of the chair, he was chos. Gov. and Webster, Dept. and in 1656, accord. to the constitut. of the Col. "that no person be chos. Gov. above once in two yrs." Webster was made Gov. and in 1657, Winthrop Gov. while Welles was Dept. both yrs. and in 1658 made Gov. again with Winthrop for Dept. Both chang. places in May 1659, and Welles d. 14 Jan. foll. at Wethersfield. His wid. d. 28 July 1683; d. Ann m. 14 Apr. 1646, Thomas Thompson of Farmington, and next, Anthony Hawkins; and Sarah m. Feb. 1654, capt. John Chester, outliv. him less than ten yrs. and d. 16 Dec. 1698."

3. ↑ Thomas Welles, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.

   The Welles Family Genealogy referenced and quoted in the Wikipedia article is riddled with errors, if not fraudulent statements, refer to the Welles Family Association website [2]. As of 9 February 2012, this website has gone down. It may be being rebuilt (which was needed) or may have disappeared forever.

4.   FROM VIRKUS COM OF A GEN VOL VII P 452 UNDER WARREN STEPHEN M. WELLS, COHASSETT, MA.
5.   Thomas Welles, in Connecticut State Library.
6. ↑ Thomas Welles, in Anderson, Robert Charles; George F. Sanborn; and Melinde Lutz Sanborn. The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635. (Boston, Massachusetts: NEHGS, 1999-2011)
   7:288-92.

   ORIGIN: Tidmington, Worcester [NEHGR 80:279-303].
   MIGRATION: 1635 (based on possession of a houselot in Cambridge on 8 February 1635/6 [CaTR 19]).
   BIRTH: By about 1590 (based on estimated date of marriage), son of Robert Welles of Tidmington, Worcester [NEHGR 80:279-303].
   DEATH: Wethersfield 14 January 1659/60 {WetVR Barbour 285, citing "LR1:39"].

7. ↑ In the absence of extant christening information or other record of the Governor's birth, a birth date circa 1590 would make Gov. Thomas Welles about two years older than his first wife. This seems a reasonable conclusion. Although the grandfather of Thomas Welles lived in the Manor of Stourton in Whichford, Warwickshire, there is no record of Thomas's baptism there even though records from there still exist. As Thomas's father had his own property in nearby Tidmington and as the christening records of Tidmington are no longer extant, it seems the more likely location of his birth. Robert Charles Anderson apparently agrees, although he does not go so far as to assert that Thomas Welles was actually born at Tidmington.
8. ↑ There never was an Elizabeth Hunt married Thomas, his first wife Alice Tomes was mother to all of his children. See the Talk page for a description of how that theory started.