Thomas Welles (c. 10 July 1594 – 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 to 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).[1] He was the magistrate during the first witch trials, the Hartford or Connecticut Witch Trials.[2][3]
Biography
Coat of Arms of Thomas Welles
Welles was born in Tiddington, Warwickshire, England around 1590, the son of Robert Welles and Alice Hunt of Stourton, Whichford, County Warwick, England, born about 1543.[4][5] He married Alice Tomes on 28 September 1615 at St. Peter's Church, near Banbury, Oxfordshire, 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, named John Tomes like his father, was a faithful royalist. During the escape of Charles II, Tomes sheltered him in his home on the night of 10 September 1651 when the king was a fugitive after the Battle of Worcester.
New World
Welles came under duress during this period of political and religious unrest. On 3 November 1634 the court of Star-chamber had asked him to answer in full articles against him charging him with holding puritan tenets. His property was confiscated, and he was scheduled to be sentenced on 16 April 1635. Welles evaded punishment by proceeding to New England as secretary to William Fiennes, first viscount Saye and Sele, a protector of Nonconformists.
Welles left England with his wife and children, emigrating to the English colonies in North America. After he and Lord Saye and Sele landed at a fort at the mouth of the Connecticut River (which developed as Saybrook), they traveled to Boston, arriving prior to 9 June 1636.[6]
Saye and Sele returned to England, discouraged by the difficulty of colonization. Welles stayed as he was unwilling to face the Star-chamber. He joined a party of emigrants in Newtown (now Cambridge) in Massachusetts, among whom were Thomas Hooker and Samuel Stone.[7]
Thomas Welles was first documented in colonial records as head of household in Newton ("Newe Towne", now Cambridge, Massachusetts).[2][7] Welles was next documented in Hartford on 28 March 1637, according to Connecticut Colonial Records. He had moved there with Reverend Thomas Hooker.[2]
Welles was chosen a magistrate of the Colony of Connecticut that same year. He held the office for twenty-two years until his death in 1660, a period of twenty-two years.[2]
In Connecticut, his wife Alice died. Welles remarried in 1646, to
Elizabeth (Deming) Foote.[8] She was the widow of Nathaniel Foote (who founded Wethersfield). She was a sister to John Deming.[8] Elizabeth had seven children by her previous marriage. She and Welles did not have any children together.
Welles was elected deputy governor in 1654, and as governor of the Connecticut Colony in 1655. In 1656 and 1657 he served as deputy governor to John Winthrop the Younger; in 1658 he was elected governor again, and in 1659 as deputy governor. He died in office on 14 January 1660 at Wethersfield, Connecticut.[9]
Welles's family accompanied him to the colonies. After Alice died, he remarried a widow in 1646. They had no children together.
The children of Thomas and Alice (Tomes) Welles who lived into adulthood were:[5]
Mary (circa 1618 – 1647)
Anne (circa 1620 – 1680)
John (circa 1622 – 7 August 1659), settled in Stratford in 1645, serving as a magistrate and a probate judge there.[9][10][11] His son, John, married Mary Hollister, daughter of Lt. John Hollister and Joanna Treat,[12][13] the daughter of Richard Treat.[14]
Thomas, Jr. (circa 1625 – 1668) settled in Hartford, Connecticut; his daughter Rebecca married Captain James Judson and settled in Stratford in 1680.[15] James and Rebecca's son David Judson, also a Captain, built the Captain David Judson House. It was located on the same site where his great-grandfather William Judson had built his first house, made of stone, in 1639.
Samuel (circa 1628 – 15 July 1675), became a Captain and settled in Wethersfield, Connecticut.[15] He married Elizabeth Hollister, daughter of Lt. John Hollister and Joanna Treat,[12][13] the daughter of Richard Treat.[14] Elizabeth and Samuel Welles had six children. After Elizabeth died in 1659, Samuel married as his second wife Hannah, daughter of George Lamberton of the New Haven Colony. They had no children. His son Samuel married Ruth Rice, daughter of Edmund Rice and his wife, on 20 June 1683. The couple had six children.[16]
Case, Lafayette Wallace. The Hollister family of America: Lieut. John Hollister, of Wethersfield, Conn., and his descendants Publisher Fergus printing company, 1886
Cutter, William Richard. New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial, Lewis Historical Publishing, NY, 1914
Deming, Judson Keith. Genealogy of the descendants of John Deming of Wethersfield, Connecticut: with historical notes University of Wisconsin – Madison: Publisher Press of Mathis-Mets Co., 1904
Johnson, Alfred. The Hon. James Phinney Baxter, A.M., LITT.D. The New England historical and genealogical register, Volume 75. Publisher New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1921
Jordan, John W. Genealogical and personal history of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania. New York: Lewis Historical Pub. Company 1913.
Laas, Virginia Jeans Bridging two eras : the autobiography of Emily Newell Blair, 1877–1951. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press 1999.
Mathews, Barbara Jean. The Descendants of Governor Thomas Welles and his Wife Alice Tomes, vol. 1, 3rd edition. Wethersfield, CT: Welles Family Association, 2015.
McGhan, Judith. Genealogies of Connecticut families: from the New England historical and genealogical register Baltimore: Publisher Genealogical Publishing Company, 1983 ISBN0-8063-1030-8.
Norton, Frederick Calvin The governors of Connecticut: biographies of the chief executives of the commonwealth that gave to the world the first written constitution known to history, Publisher Connecticut Magazine Co., 1905.
Pumpelly, Raphael. My Reminiscences, Raphael Pumpelly. Publisher: H. Holt and Company, 1918.
Raymond, Marcius Denison. Gray genealogy : being a genealogical record and history of the descendants of John Gray, of Beverly, Mass., and also including sketches of other Gray families. New York: Higginson Book Company, 1887.
Raymond, M D. Souvenir of the Sherburne Centennial Celebration and Dedication of Monument to the Proprietors and Early Settlers, held on Wednesday, 21 June 1893. New York: M.D. Raymond, 1892.
Raymond, Marcius D. 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. Bridgeport : Fairfield County Historical Society 1892.
Siemiatkoski, Donna Holt. The Descendants of Governor Thomas Welles of Connecticut, 1590–1658, and His Wife, Alice Tomes Baltimore: Publisher, Gateway Press, 1990.
Treat, John Harvey. The Treat family: a genealogy of Trott, Tratt, and Treat for fifteen generations, and four hundred and fifty years in England and America, containing more than fifteen hundred families in America Publisher The Salem press publishing & printing company, 1893.
Welles, Benjamin. Sumner Welles: FDR's global strategist : a biography. New York: M.D. Raymond, 1892. Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 1997. ISBN0-312-17440-3.
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