Person talk:Isaac Willey (4)

Miscellaneous extraneous material moved from the person page. [19 February 2014]

From A Dictionary of Surnames, Hanks and Hodges, Oxford, 1988

Willey is old English wilig (willow) + leah (wood or clearing).

In England there are 5 parishes and 5 towns named Willey as well as one town named New Willey, a Willey Manor in Herefordshire dating from 1086, a Willey House in West Surrey, a Willey Moor in Cheshire, and a Willey River in Wiltshire. On the Severin River, there was the Willey Foundry from 1719-1776, at least, which even made artillery used against America in the Revolutionary War. Surnames were adopted in England between 1250 and 1450.

The Willey name is widespread in England, but fairly rare among immigrants. Only four male Willeys came to New England before 1685.

1) Richard Willey married Alicia Somersby 3 Oct 1546 in Alford, Lincoln, England. Rycherd Wylley and Salley Freer married in Mumby, (7 miles east of Alford) England July 4, 1603. On 3 NOV 1605 they had a son Allen who married Alice Mason on 15 MAY 1628 in Alford, Lincolnshire. Allen joined the Boston Church on 2 NOV 1634. 2) John Willey, born 1610, was in Reading, Mass in 1635. He married Elizabeth Clough in Watertown on 21 JUN 1644 and they had at least 3 children: Tim born 1653, Susanna born 1655, and Sarah born 1658. This John moved to Colchester, CT, about 1650 and worked on the New London mill-dam in 1651.

3) Isaac Wiley.The proximity of Allen and John to Isaac in age, in England, in Boston, and for John, in New London suggests a fraternal relationship. There is a tradition among the Delaware Willeys of three brothers coming from England. The only "proof" is that in a time when children were traditionally given family names, Isaac's son John named his first three boys Isaac, John, and Allen.

4) The fourth Willey is Thomas Willey born 1608 in Chilmark parish, Wiltshire, who came to the US in 1635 and was an original settler of Salisbury and Nantucket, MA.

"The Willey line was probably not of the north of England, but of Willey, in Salop (or Shropshire)... kindly take the trouble to look up the history of the place named Willey in the Victoria History of England, volumes on Salop..."

"WILLEY peculiar to Lincolnshire" according to Guppy quoted in the Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and NH.

The Baptismal Record of the Hartland First Church, Vol DG 2, page 8 22 in the CT Hartford Times Genealogy column December 27th, 1915 contains clues to the origin of the Willey family given by editor Noah Little

--jaques1724 20:53, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

The Wiley family book as well as NYG&BR 51:261 say there is no proof that Robert Hempstead married a daughter of Isaac Wiley. I am going to remove the connection to the Wiley family but leave the daughter Joanna Wiley. Robert Hempstead's wife's name seems to be just 'Joan', not Joanna, anyway. Not sure if you just want to delete this probably non existant daughter. At any rate, I will add the source on Joan (---) Hempstead's page. There also seems to be confusion over who married Andrew Lister - the 'daughter' or the widow of Isaac Wiley? Could use some sorting. Maybe when I get done with Hempstead. Daniel Maxwell 05:33, 4 June 2014 (UTC)