Gov. Thomas Welles
M, #13591, b. 10 July 1594, d. 14 January 1660
Parents
Biography
Gov. Thomas Welles was born on 10 July 1594 in Near Stourton, Whichford, Warwickshire, England. He and
Alice Tommes were married on 7 July 1615 in Warwickshire, England. He and
Elizabeth Deming were married in 1646. He died on 14 January 1660 at age 65 in Wethersfield, Hartford County, Connecticut.
Thomas came to America abt. 1635 with three sons and three daughters. He became a magistrate almost immediately upon landing and held numerous offices in the Colony's government, including Treasurer, Secretary, and Deputy Governor. He was Governor of Connecticut in 1656 and 1658.
Connecticut State Library
Governor of the Colony of Connecticut 1655,1658
Born:
ca. 1590 in Stourton, Whichford, Warwickshire, England
College:
None
Political Party:
None
Offices:
Member, Court of Magistrates, 1637-1654
Deputy Governor of the Colony of Connecticut 1654, 1656, 1657, 1659
Treasurer of the Colony of Connecticut 1639
Secretary of the Colony of Connecticut 1640-1649
Commissioner of the United Colonies 1649
Governor of the Colony of Connecticut 1655, 1658
Died:
January 14, 1659/60 at Wethersfield, CT
Thomas Welles is the only man in Connecticut's history to hold all four top offices: governor, deputy governor, treasurer, and secretary. He was born ca. 1590 in Stourton, Whichford, Warwickshire, England, the son of Robert and Alice Welles.
Thomas arrived in Boston prior to 9 June 1636, when his deed was witnessed, but was probably not the Thomas Welles who was a passenger on the Susan and Ellen
in 1635 as reported in some sources (that Thomas was probably the Thomas Welles who became a resident of Ipswich, Massachusetts). Thomas is said to have been a secretary to Lord Saye and Sele. While no primary evidence for this has been found, the books in his estate suggest that he had a good education and he did have close associations with Saye and Sele, although he had little to do with the development of the Saybrook Colony. He perhaps lived at Newtown (now Cambridge), MA for a while, and was probably one of the group of about 100 to come to Hartford with Thomas Hooker in 1636.
Thomas Welles served a total of nineteen years in various Colony of Connecticut positions. He was a member of the first Court of Magistrates, elected March 28, 1637, and was reelected as a member of the Court of Magistrates from 1638 until 1654. During his terms as magistrate in 1648, 1651, and 1654 he sat on the panel hearing the witchcraft trials of Mary Johnson, John and Joan Carrington, and Lydia Gilbert. 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 May 18, 1654 he was elected as Deputy Governor and became the acting moderator of the General Court, as the elected governor, Edward Hopkins, was in England. He was elected governor in 1655 and 1658 and served again as deputy governor for 1656, 1657, and 1659. He was a commissioner to the New England Confederation in 1649 and in 1654. For a more extensive summary of Thomas Welles' service to the Connecticut Colony, see Appendix B of Siemiatoski's genealogy, below.
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.
Thomas Welles lived in Hartford from 1636 until the time of his second marriage. His house was on the same street as Governors Edward Hopkins, George Wyllys, John Webster, and Thomas H. Seymour, a street that was known as Governor Street until more recent times, when the name was changed to Popieluszko Court. He died on January 14, 1660 at Wethersfield and was probably buried there. 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 Monument in Hartford's Ancient Burying Ground.
Thomas Welles
: He was born about 1590, in Stourton, Whichford, Warwickshire, England, the son of Robert Welles
. He died 14 Jan 1659/60, Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut. He married, 5 Jul 1615 in Long Marston, Gloucestershire, England, Alice Tomes
, the daughter of John Tomes
and Ellen Gunne
. She was born before 1593 in Stourton, Whichford, Warwickshire, England and died about 1640-1646 in Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut. Thomas Welles married (second), 1646 at Wethersfield, Connecticut, Elizabeth Deming Foote. She was the daughter of Jonathan Deming and Elizabeth Gilbert and sister of John Deming and widow of Nathaniel Foote. She was born 1595 in Colchester, Essex, England and died 28 Jul 1683 in Wethersfield, Connecticut.
Children:
1. Mary Welles: born 1618 in Warwickshire in England. She died 31 Jul 1647, Milford, New Haven, Connecticut. She married before 1642, Milford, New Haven, Connecticut, Timothy Baldwin. He was born 1605 in Cholesbury, Bucks, England, the son of Richard Baldwin and Isabell Harding. He died 17 Jan 1665, Milford, New Haven, Connecticut.
2. Ann Welles: born about 1619 in Warwickshire, England. She died 1680, Farmington, Hartford, Connecticut. She married, 14 Apr 1646, Hartford, Hartford, CT, Thomas Thompson. He was born 1 Oct 1610, Burford, Shropshsire, England and died 25 Apr 1655 in Farmington, Hartford, Connecticut. He was the son of John Thompson and Alice Freeman. Ann married (second), 16 Jul 1656 in Farmington, Hartford, Connecticut, Anthony Hawkins. He was born 16 Jul 1644 in Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut, and died 28 Feb 1674 in Farmington, Connecticut.
3. John Welles
: born about 1621, in Warwickshire, England. He died 7 Aug 1659, Stratford, Fairfield, Connecticut. He married, 1647 in Stratford, Fairfield, Connecticut, Elizabeth Bourne.
She was born 1627, probably in England and died 8 Oct 1668, Stratford, Fairfield, Connecticut. She was not the daughter of Elisha Bourne and Patience Skiff, as is widely reported. She married (second), 19 Mar 1663 at Killingworth, Connecticut, John Wilcoxson of Stratford, Connecticut. He was born 1633 and died 19 Mar 1690 in Stratford.
4. Robert Welles: born 1624 in Warwickshire, England. He died before 1635 in England.
5. Thomas Welles: born about 1625 in Warwickshire, England. He died 1668, Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut. He married, 23 Jun 1654 in Hartford, Connecticut, Hannah “Anna” Tuttle, the widow of John Pantry. She was born about 1623 in Ringstead, Northampton, England, daughter of Richard Tuttle and Anne Taylor. She died 9 Aug 1683 in Hartford, Connecticut.
6. Samuel Welles (Hon. And Capt.): born about 1628 in Warwickshire, England. He died 15 Jul 1675, Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut. He married, 1659 in Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut, Elizabeth Hollister, the daughter of John Hollister and Joanna Treat. She was born 1640, Wethersfield, Connecticut and died 1673 in Wethersfield, Connecticut. Samuel Welles married (second) Hannah Lamberton, 1675 in Wethersfield, Connecticut, the daughter of George Lamberton and Margaret Lewen. She was born 1634 in London, London, England and died 1716 in Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut. She married (second) 1675, in Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut, John Allyn.
7. Sarah Welles: born about 1631 in Warwickshire, England. She died 12 Dec 1698, in Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut. She married Feb 1654, in Wethersfield, Connecticut, Captain John Chester, the son of Leonard Chester and Mary Sharpe. He was born 3 Aug 1635, Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts and died 23 Feb 1698 in Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut.
8. Joseph Welles: born about1637 perhaps in Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut. He died 1659, in Connecticut. Little information is known about him as he apparently died before his father wrote his will.
[Research note:
Many errors in the ancestry and descent of Governor Thomas Welles come from the book titled Wells and Allied Families, privately printed for Catherine J. Welles and Frances S. Welles by the American Historical Society in New York in 1927. Many of these errors remain in various family histories. The text below provides the best modern information in correction of these errors.]
Thomas Welles was born in Warwickshire, England about 1590, the son of Robert Welles. He is descended from a family that lived there for at least four generations. This family owned land, but was not counted as “gentlemen” or “nobility.” Reports that Thomas Welles is descended from a family of Norman descent in Essex are erroneous. He is also not connected to the family of Sir Lionel de Welles, Baron Welles, and Governor of Ireland. The Thomas Welles of this line had received land in Burmington in Warwickshire from his father and may have lived there prior to his immigration to America. His family had been wealthy enough to have him educated in Latin.
While in England, in 1615, he married Alice Tomes of Long Marston, a parish just across the county line in Gloucestershire from Warwickshire. On 5 Jul 1615, Thomas’s father and older brother deeded him property in Burmington, Warwickshire, in consideration for his upcoming marriage to Alice Tomes. This document established both the name of his wife and the name of his father and grandfather. This property was to be a jointure on behalf of Alice indicating that it would belong to her if she became a widow. It was purchased with her marriage portion.
Burmington is a very small parish and hamlet on the Worcestershire border, about 2 miles south east of Shipston-on-Stour, and 4 miles east south east of Whichford, Warwickshire. Other nearby places are: Little Compton, Tredington, Long Compton, Tidmington, Tredington, Todenham, Barcheston and Sutton under Brailes. It lies on the banks of the river Stour. Burmington is in the hundred of Kington, and the District of Stratford-on-Avon. Parish registers begin in 1582. The church there is dedicated to St. Nicholas and St. Barnabas and is located in the diocese of Coventry. It does not appear that Thomas Welles had his children baptized in this Parish, perhaps because of his Puritan persuasions. Another possibility is that the Burmington property was not their primary residence or that their children were baptized in a nearby parish where older records are not available.
Contrary to previously published material, it cannot be established that Alice Tomes has any royal line of descent. Some sources have incorrectly reported that Thomas Welles married Elizabeth Hunt, but this seems to come from a misreading of the court record. Welles’s sister’s father-in-law, Nicholas Hunt did give testimony, but this is not related to his marriage.
Thomas Welles and his wife probably converted to the Puritan faith about 1620. His neighbors, George Wyllys, the Griswolds, Rev. Ephraim Huit and Daniel Clark were all becoming associated with each other, with Lord Say and Sele (an English nobleman sympathetic to the Puritans), and with the group around Rev. Thomas Hooker. Although there were economic reasons to go to America, in families with the wealth of the Welles, the religious reasons were probably paramount. There is no question that the vast majority of the Puritans had strong convictions and felt that they were doing God’s will by venturing to the new lands across the Atlantic.
Thomas Welles is said to have been a secretary to Lord Saye and Sele. There is no primary evidence for this, but the books in his estate suggest that he had a good education and he did have close association with Saye and Sele. He seems to have had knowledge of, but little to do with the development of the Saybrook Company that was organized in Warwick. Some say that Lord Say and Sele invented the story about Thomas Welles being their secretary to mask his intentions to go to America for religious reasons under the guise of a business venture.
Thomas Welles has no known formal relations with the Fiennes family, who were the most prominent Lords in that area of Warwickshire, seated at nearby Broughton Castle, but the Fiennes family along with William Sprigg purchased the Welles’s land at Burmington before they left for America. This took place 20 Aug 1635.
Thomas Welles may have had some previous interest in New England because he owned a share in the Piscataqua patent in what is now New Hampshire. There is no evidence that he ever visited this site.
On 20 Aug 1635, before leaving for America, Thomas Welles and his wife Alice conveyed their land in Burmingham, Warwickshire to two men who later conveyed it to some others. These conveyances were subject to a lawsuit made by John Welles, Thomas’s nephew of Tidmington, England, who believed that he was the legal owner of the land. Thomas Welles and his wife acknowledged a document related to this suit on 9 Jun 1636 in Boston. Thomas may have traveled to Boston for this purpose from Cambridge where he was probably living at the time. This document confirms that Thomas Welles of New England was originally from Warwickshire. Additional documents involving this land are found from pleadings in a chancery suit brought in 1648 John Welles and his son Robert, a minor, against the grantees of the land in Burmington.
Thomas Welles arrived in Boston prior to 9 Jun 1636, when his deed was witnessed by Winthrop and Dudley, but he was not the Thomas Welles who was a passenger on the “Susan and Ellen” in 1635, as some sources report. That Thomas was probably the Thomas Welles who became a resident of Ipswich, Massachusetts. This Thomas was single and was born in 1598 and was likely a servant in the household of Sir Richard d’Saltonstall. The name of the ship in which the future Governor Thomas Welles arrived is not known but he sailed with his wife and six children.
After his arrival in America, Thomas Welles perhaps lived for a time at Newtown (now Cambridge), Massachusetts. Here he was listed as a head of household 8 Feb 1635/36.
Thomas Welles was probably one of a group of about 100 who came to Hartford, Connecticut with Rev. Thomas Hooker in 1636. They probably took the journey of about two weeks over the Indian trail that connected the Bay with the falls on the Connecticut River, later known as the Old Connecticut Path. It was a level route where fish could be caught and dried along the way.
Welles seems to have been in Hartford, Connecticut by the winter of 1637. His name appears early in Hartford town records among the inhabitants who, in 1639-40, had rights in the undivided lands. Afterwards he frequently served on town committees for the division of lands and determining the proportions and bounds of these divisions. He was also involved in the settlement of boundary disputes and the division among the Hartford settlers of the lands east of the river. He was quickly recognized as a man of education and ability and soon began a lifetime of public service to the Colony of Connecticut.
Thomas Welles served a total of 19 years in various Connecticut Colony positions. He was a member of the first Court of Magistrates, elected 28 Mar 1637 and was reelected to this position from 1638 until 1654. Also in 1637 he was appointed Clerk of the General Court at its first meeting. It was the first court to meet independently of the Massachusetts government. It was at this court that the three river towns of Connecticut were given their names of Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield.
This court of 1637 also declared war on the Pequot Indians in retaliation for the killing of several early settlers and a deadly raid on Wethersfield, Connecticut. Ninety men were incorporated into a force for this war from the three towns then in the colony. The Pequot Indians occupied the Connecticut River Valley and were caught up in the competition for the area by both the English and the Dutch and fiercely defended their territory against these incursions. A Puritan raid was conducted on the Pequot town at Mystic and about 500 native men, women and children were burned in their village. Only about 30 or 40 Pequots escaped. Those captured were sold into slavery and the remaining warriors were eventually hunted down and killed. This was the first war between Native Americans and settlers in the United States Territory and effectively eliminated the Pequots.
During the first three years of the Colony, there were two representatives from each of the three towns to the General Court and they had no titles or moderators. The General Court then consisted of an elected council of Magistrates and an elected council of Deputies. This Court met twice a year for spring and fall sessions. The Governor and Deputy Governor where chosen by the Court.
The idea of the form of government for the new colony came from the philosophy of Roger Ludlow, Rev. Hooker and Rev. John Warham that stated that God spoke to all believers and that, therefore, the entire body could make political decisions. This was contrary to the philosophy of the leaders of Massachusetts where only the political and religious leaders were considered important enough to make governmental decisions. Rev. Hooker based his theology on the Old Testament incident in which God told Moses to take ten leaders selected by each of the twelve tribes of Israel to help him to render judgments.
The General Court, including Thomas Welles, spent the first 3 years of their sessions developing this philosophy into the Fundamental Orders of 1639. This was the world’s first written constitution and placed government in the hands of the people, giving them the right to choose their own leaders. As secretary to the General Court, Thomas Welles transcribed these Fundamental Orders. At the time the colony consisted of about 500 settlers, but had essentially declared its independence concerning internal affairs, while still owning general allegiance to the British King.
In 1644, Welles was appointed one of the negotiators that set up the merger between the Saybrook Colony and Connecticut. It is likely that his English association with Warwickshire made him familiar with the Warwick Patentees who operated Saybrook Colony and put him in a good position to be a negotiator. It is unlikely, however, in spite of published reports, that he actually spent any time in Saybrook. His management of the potential threat of the Saybrook Fort at the mouth of the river and the encroachment of the Dutch from the West was certainly due to his diplomatic skill and wisdom.
In his capacity as Magistrate in 1648, 1651 and 1654, he sat on the panel hearing the witchcraft trials of Mary Johnson, John and Joan Carrington and Lydia Gilbert. He did not seem to have any special role in these trials.
In 1639 he was elected as the first treasurer of the Colony of Connecticut, and from 1640-1649 served as the secretary of the colony. He was frequently appointed to important committees and was heavily involved with the other leading men of the colony. He was a commissioner of the United Colonies from 1649 to 1659. At the last meeting of this body at Hartford in 1659, Mr. Welles was requested “for the encouragement of the Indians at Wethersfield that attend Mr. Pierson and refrain from Pawauging (pow-wowing) and from labor on the Lord’s Day.” Mr. Usher was ordered to deliver to Mr. Welles, Deputy Governor of Connecticut, six yards of trading cloth to be distributed to the “principal Indians amongst them.”
Although Thomas Welles was listed as one of the first proprietors of Farmington, Connecticut, he did not settle there at any time. It is likely that his investment in property there was a financial opportunity. In 1646 he gave his property there, on the corner of Main Street and Farmington Avenue, “with a dwelling house standing thereon,” to his daughter Anne when she married Thomas Thompson. The house lot included seven acres and 120 acres of arable land in the vicinity. Thomas and Anne Thompson established their residence in Farmington primarily because of this generous wedding gift. The deed for this gift of land was only officially recorded 23 Jan 1714 when Joseph Hawley, the grandson of Thomas Thompson, brought them in to the courthouse.
On 18 May 1654 Thomas Welles was elected as Deputy Governor and became the acting governor while both Governor Hopkins and Governor Winthrop were in England. He was elected Governor in 1655 and 1658 and served again as deputy governor for 1656, 1657 and 1659. He was the fourth colonial governor of Connecticut. At the time, the terms of the governor were limited to one year at a time. He was a commissioner to the New England Confederation in 1649 and in 1654. He also served on the War Commission for Wethersfield in 1653.
Thomas Welles became involved in the settlement of Stratford, in Fairfield County, Connecticut and sent his son John there to manage his affairs. During his terms as Governor, Connecticut, there was in a period of religious division centered around two religious leaders in Stratford. The General Court was unable to settle the differences, but the problem was largely solved when the dissenters moved to Hadley, Massachusetts, further up the Connecticut River and established their own church.
Thomas Welles lived in Hartford, Connecticut from 1636 until the time of his second marriage to Elizabeth Deming Foote in 1646. His house was on the same street as Governors Edward Hopkins, George Wyllys, John Webster, and Thomas H. Seymour, a street that was known as Governor Street until more recent times when the name was changed to Popieluszko Court. His new wife was managing the large estate of her former husband in Wethersfield and did not want to leave. Thomas Welles, therefore, left his home in the center of Hartford and moved to Wethersfield with his younger children. His new wife already had seven children from her previous marriage. She and Thomas Welles had no children from their marriage.
At Wethersfield he bought Mr. John Plum’s eighteen-acre homestead. Later he bought the Swayne homestead that was inherited by his grandson Captain Robert Welles.
Thomas Welles wrote his will 7 Nov 1659. Although he seemed to be in good health in the evening of 14 Jan 1659/60, but was, according to a letter by Governor Winthrop, “dead before midnight.”
His death occurred only five months after the death of his eldest son John Welles. His will left his wife the use of half his housing and orchard, with her own land returned to her. His own land and house went to his grandson Robert, the only child of his oldest son to live in Wethersfield. He left land to his sons Samuel and Thomas, and to Thomas, son of his deceased son John, 20 pounds to Thomas, Samuel and Mary’s children, Ann and Sarah. He left 10 pounds to Mary Robbins’ children. Elizabeth Welles, his widow, lived another 22 years, leaving all of her estate to her children and grandchildren by her first husband, Nathaniel Foote.
Thomas Welles was probably buried at Wethersfield, Connecticut. Some sources claim that his remains were transferred to the “Ancient Burying Ground” in Hartford, but there is no marked grave in either location. His name does appear on the Founders Monument at the Hartford Burying Ground. He is the only man in Connecticut history to hold all four top offices: governor, deputy governor, treasurer and secretary.
Bibliography
Connecticut State Library, “Thomas Welles, Governor of the Colony of Connecticut, 1655, 1658, www.cslib.org/gov/wellest.htm, 2002
Cutter, William Richard, New England Families, Genealogical and memorial: A Record of the Achievements of her People in the Making of Commonwealths and the Founding of a Nation, volume 2, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1915, pp. 1085-1086
Cutter, William Richard and William Frederick Adams, Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of the State of Massachusetts, volume 1, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1910, pp. 68-70
Fisher, Gordon, Ancestors of Gordon McCrea Fisher, www.familyorigins.com/users/f/i/s/Gordon-M-Fisher/FAM01-001/index.htm, 2000
Manwaring, Charles William, A Digest of the Early Connecticut Probate Records: Hartford District, 1700-1792, volume 2 of A Digest of the Early Connecticut Probate Records, Peck & Co., 1904, pp. 323-324
Morgan, Terry, Family Tree, “John Tomes/Ellen Gunne,” www.angelfire.com/folk,morgan/fam/fam02485.htm, 2006
Siemiatkoski, Donna Holt, The Descendants of Gov. Thomas Welles of Connecticut, 1590-1658, www.langeonline.com/welles.htm, Gateway Press, Inc, Baltimore, MD, 1990
Trumbull, J. Hammond, The Memorial History of Hartford County Connecticut, 1633-1884, reprint, BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2009, pp. 427, 435, 466-467,
Wells Family Association, “Errors in Earlier Literature” from The Descendants of Governor Thomas Welles 1590-1658,” www.rootsweb.com/`wellsfam/genealogy/.
| Last Edited | 29 August 2017 |