| Thomas Welles | |
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| In office 1639 – 1641 |
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| Succeeded by | William Whiting |
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| In office 1641 – 1648 |
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| Preceded by | Edward Hopkins |
| Succeeded by | John Cullick |
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Deputy Governor of the Colony of Connecticut
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| In office 1654 – 1655 |
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| In office 1656 – 1657 |
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| In office 1659 – 1660 |
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| In office 1655 – 1656 |
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| Preceded by | Edward Hopkins |
| Succeeded by | John Webster |
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| In office 1658 – 1659 |
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| Preceded by | John Winthrop the Younger |
| Succeeded by | John Winthrop the Younger |
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| Born | 1590 Stourton, Whichford, Warwickshire, England |
| Died | 14 January 1659/1660 Wethersfield, Connecticut |
| Nationality | British |
| Spouse(s) | Alice Tomes Elizabeth Deming Foote |
| Children | John Welles (1622–1659) Thomas Welles Samuel Welles Anne Welles Sarah Welles Mary Welles |
| Religion | Congregationalist |
Thomas Welles (1590–14 January 1659, OS/1660, NS) is the only man 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).
Contents |
Biography
Life
Welles was born in Stourton, Whichford, Warwickshire, England around 1590, the son of Robert Welles and Alice (Unknown) [1]. He married Alice Tomes soon after 5 July 1615 in Long Marston, Gloucestershire, England. She was born around 1593 in Long Marston, Gloucestershire, England, the daughter of John Tomes and Ellen (Gunne) Phelps. A brother of Alice Tomes-Welles, also named John Tomes like his father, was a faithful royalist who during the escape of Charles II sheltered him in his home on the night of 10 September 1651 when the king was a fugitive after the Battle of Worcester.
After the death of Alice, Welles married again about 1646 in Wethersfield, Connecticut. His second wife was Elizabeth (Deming) Foote,[2] who was a sister of John Deming[3] and the widow of Nathaniel Foote. Elizabeth had seven children by her previous marriage; there were no children from the second marriage.
The first appearance of Governor Thomas Welles's name in Hartford was on 28 March 1637, according to the Connecticut Colonial Records. Welles came to Hartford with Reverend Thomas Hooker in June 1636. Some believe a copy of a grant in which he is named confirms this statement. He was chosen a magistrate of the Colony of Connecticut in 1637, an office he held every successive year until his death in 1660, a period of twenty-two years. He was elected deputy governor in 1654, and governor of the Connecticut Colony in 1655, and in 1656 and 1657 was deputy governor to John Winthrop the Younger; in 1658 governor, and in 1659 deputy governor, which position he held at his death on 14 January 1660 at Wethersfield, Connecticut.
It is thought that he was buried in Wethersfield, Connecticut. Some sources indicate that his remains were later transferred to the Ancient Burying Ground in Hartford. In either case, his grave is presently unmarked. His name appears on the Founders of Hartford, Connecticut Monument in Hartford's Ancient Burying Ground.
Children
- John (1622–7 August 1659), settled in Stratford in 1645, serving as a magistrate and a probate judge there before his death in 1659.[1][4] His son, John, married Mary Hollister the daughter of Lt, John Hollister and Joanna Treat, the daughter of Richard Treat.
- Thomas, settled in Hartford, Connecticut; his daughter Rebecca married Captain James Judson and settled in Stratford, Connecticut in 1680[1] James and Rebecca's son David, also a Captain, built the Captain David Judson House, located on the same spot where his great grandfather William had built his first house, made of stone, in 1639.
- Samuel, became a Captain and settled in Wethersfield, Connecticut.[1]. He married as his first wife, Elizabeth Hollister, the daughter of Lt, John Hollister and Joanna Treat, the daughter of Richard Treat. Elizabeth and Samuel were the parents of six children. Elizabeth died in 1659 and he married as his second wife,Hannah, the daughter of George Lamberton of the New Haven Colony. There were no children by the second marriage.
- Captain Samuel's daughter Sarah married Ephraim Hawley of Stratford and settled in what is now Trumbull in 1683. Sarah and Ephraim 's Great-Grandaughter was Abigail Wolcott, (8 February 1756–4 August 1818) who married on 10 December 1772, Oliver Ellsworth (29 April 1745–26 November 1807),Princeton University 1764, who was an American lawyer and politician, a drafter of the United States Constitution, and the third Chief Justice of the United States.[5]
Descendants
Thomas Welles's descendants number in the thousands today. Some of his notable descendants include;
- James Phinney Baxter III, Ph.D., Litt.D., L.H.D., D.Sc., LL.D., (1893-1975), American historian, educator and academic, He won the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for history, for his book Scientists Against Time. He was the Director of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) (1942–1943). He also served as president of Williams College from 1937—1961.
- Lyman Beecher (1775–1863) was a Presbyterian clergyman, temperance movement leader, and the father of many noted leaders, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Ward Beecher, Charles Beecher, Edward Beecher, Isabella Beecher Hooker, and Catharine Beecher, and a leader of the Second Great Awakening of the United States.
- Robert Foster "Bob" Bennett (born 18 September 1933) is the junior senator from Utah, who is a member of the Republican Party. He is the son of Frances Marion Grant and U.S. Senator Wallace F. Bennett.
- Emily Newell Blair (1877–1951) a U.S. political activist, American feminist, suffragist and writer. From 1925 to 1934 she was an Editor of Good Housekeeping magazine.
- William Welles Bosworth, a prominent American architect of the 20th Century.
- Dr. C. Loring Brace IV, Biological anthropologist.
- Gerald Warner Brace (1901–1978) was an American writer, educator, sailor and boat builder.
- Lydia Cornell (born July 23, 1953) is an American actress, writer, novelist, comedienne, blogger and talk-radio host.
- Henry Leavitt Ellsworth (1791–1858),The first Commissioner of the U.S. Patent Office, a major donor to Yale College, founded what became the United States Department of Agriculture.
- Gerald R. Ford, U.S. President.
- Stephen Foster (1826–1864) known as the "father of American music", was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of the 19th century.
- Dr. John Franklin Gray (1804–1882), the first practitioner of Homeopathy in the United States.
- Jethro A. Hatch, was the first physician in Kentland, Indiana and a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Indiana's10th district.
- William Welles Hollister (1818-1886), a Californian rancher, entrepreneur and founder of Hollister, California.
- Gertrude Sanford Legendre (1902-2000) was an American socialite who served as a spy during World War II. She was also a noted explorer, big-game hunter, environmentalist, and owner of Medway plantation in South Carolina.
- Sarah Palin, Alaska Governor and 2008 Republican Vice-Presidential nominee [6].
- Henry Shelton Sanford (June 15, 1823 – May 21, 1891) was an American diplomat and businessman who founded the city of Sanford, Florida.
- Gideon Welles, the United States Secretary of the Navy, 1861–1869.
- Rear Admiral Roger Welles, Jr. (1862–1932) San Diego”s First “Navy Mayor” and Director of Office of Naval Intelligence, during World War I. He was also the first commander of the USS Oklahoma (BB-37).
- Sumner Welles (1892–1961), U.S. Undersecretary of State, 1937–1943.
- Daniel H. Wells (1814–1891) was an apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and the third mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, United States.
- Henry Wells, (12 December 1805–10 December 1878) founded the American Express Company, Wells Fargo & Company and Wells College, a nationally recognized private coeducational liberal arts college located in Aurora, Cayuga County, New York, on the eastern shore of Cayuga Lake.
- Wilford Woodruff (1 March 1807–2 September 1898) was the fourth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1889 until his death in 1898.
Notes
- ^ a b c d Siemiatkoski, Donna H (1990). The Descendents of Governor Thomas Welles of Connecticut, 1590-1658, and His Wife, Alice Tomes. Gateway Press. http://books.google.com/books?id=wpNYAAAAMAAJ&source=gbs_ViewAPI&pgis=1.
- ^ "Demings in America". http://abraley.home.att.net/gendocs/deming/index.html. Retrieved 2008-02-14.
- ^ Deming, Judson Keith (1904). John Deming and His Descendents. Dubuque, Iowa: Press of Mathis-Mets Co.. p. 4. OCLC 2285125.
- ^ Raymond, Marcius (1892). Sketch of Rev. Blackleach Burritt and related Stratford families : a paper read before the Fairfield County Historical Society, at Bridgeport, Conn., Friday evening, 19 February 1892. http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/ow/14079585.
- ^ Buchanan, James M. (1991). The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789–1995 (2nd ed.). Supreme Court Historical Society. http://www.supremecourthistory.org/04_library/subs_volumes/04_c09_h.html.
- ^ Ancestry.com website retrieved on 2009-7-6[1]
References
- William Richard Cutter, New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial, Lewis Historical Publishing, NY, 1914
- Frederick Calvin Norton, Governors of Connecticut, 1905
- Reverend Samuel Orcutt, History of the Old Town of Stratford, Connecticut, 1886
- Edmund Welles, The Life and Public Services of Thomas Welles, Fourth Governor of Connecticut, 1940
- Lemuel Welles, The English Ancestry of Gov. Thomas Welles of Connecticut, New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 1926
- Calhoun, John D. & Lewis G. Knapp. Stratford: A Pictorial History, 1850-1970, (Images of America Series) Arcadia Publishing, 1999. ISBN 0738535796
- Knapp, Lewis G. In Pursuit of Paradise: History of the Town of Stratford, Connecticut. West Kennebunk, ME: Phoenix Publishing, 1989. ISBN 0914659421
- Wilcoxson, William Howard. History of Stratford, 1639-1939, Stratford, CT: Stratford Tercentenary Commission, 1939.
External links
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