Chris & Julie Petersen's Genealogy

Edmund Wells

Male 1654 - Aft 1723  (~ 70 years)


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  • Name Edmund Wells 
    Christened 16/16 Jan 1653/4  Dudley St Thomas, Worcestershire, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Died Aft 1723  of Dudley St Thomas, Worcestershire, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I2978  Petersen-de Lanskoy
    Last Modified 27 May 2021 

    Father Edmund Wells,   b. Bef 1625, , Worcestershire, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. From 22 May 1699 to 16 Jun 1701, Dudley, Worcester, England Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age > 74 years) 
    Mother Ann Hickman,   b. Bef 1627, , Worcestershire, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   bur. 16 Oct 1680, Dudley St Thomas, Worcestershire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 53 years) 
    Married Bef 1647  of, Dudley St. Thomas, Worcestershire, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Family ID F1594  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Margery Bate,   bur. 27/27 Jan 1704/5, Dudley St Thomas, Worcestershire, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Married 4 Jun 1681  Dudley St Thomas, Worcestershire, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Children 
     1. John Wells,   c. 17 Feb 1683, Dudley St Thomas, Worcestershire, England Find all individuals with events at this location
     2. Joseph Wells,   c. 31 Jan 1685, Dudley St Thomas, Worcestershire, England Find all individuals with events at this location
     3. William Wells,   c. 26 Dec 1687, Dudley St Thomas, Worcestershire, England Find all individuals with events at this location
     4. Samuel Wells,   c. 29 Dec 1689, Dudley St Thomas, Worcestershire, England Find all individuals with events at this location
     5. Mary Wells,   c. 25 Nov 1693, Dudley St Thomas, Worcestershire, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   bur. 4 Jan 1697, Dudley St Thomas, Worcestershire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 3 years)
     6. Thomas Wells,   b. Abt 10/10 Jan 1694/5, of Dudley, Worcester, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 4 Feb 1760, Hebron, Tolland, Connecticut, United States Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 65 years)
     7. Ann Wells,   c. 1 Jun 1696, Dudley St Thomas, Worcestershire, England Find all individuals with events at this location
     8. Daniel Wells,   c. 9 May 1703, Dudley St Thomas, Worcestershire, England Find all individuals with events at this location
    Last Modified 28 May 2021 
    Family ID F753  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • RESEARCH_NOTES:
      1. TAG 46:180-183: "The Wells (Welles) Family of Hebron, CT. and Cambridge, N.Y.," by John G. Hunt:
      "Writing in September 1848, Dr. Asa Fitch, tireless biographer of Washington County, New York, recorded the account furnished him by Austin Wells of Cambridge, N.Y., at that time, as follows:
      "Grandfather Thomas Wells came from Dudley in Worcestershire, England, to Saybrook, Connecticut, in 1712. He there married a Miss Merrill and had three children."
      In 1898, however, there appeared a variant version, titled "A History of the Ancestors and Descendants of John Howell Welles." In that it was said that Thomas Welles, born at Dudley, England, in 1694, came to America in 1712, marrying Elizabeth Merrill at Saybrook, Conn.; died in 1760 at Hebron in the same colony, having had seven sons. See also Wm. H. Cutter, "Genealogical and Family History of the State of Connecticut" (1911), 4:1905.
      The will of Edmund Wells the elder of Dudley, England, innholder, dated 22 May 1699, was proved at Worcester, England, 16 June 1701. After naming wife Elizabeth, the testator left to son John Wells land in Dudley; to three grandchildren (Children of Thomas Wells, dec'd), the testator left £100 and three silver spoons. Further he referred to "my son Edmund Wells' Children" to whom he left £50 of money. Next a shaky signature he placed on this will an armorial insigne [a chevron between three flames of fire] in wax.
      Dated 20 April 1687, the will of the deceased son of the previous testator was proved at Worcester in August 1687. In it Thomas Wells of Dudley, aforesaid, chandler, left to his two children, Thomas and Mary, all his houses and lands whenever they should reach the age of 21 years; named his loving father Edmund Wells the elder, and his loving brother John Wells of Bridgenorth.
      Thus it seems that the Thomas Wells who was born in 1694 was son of Edmund Wells the younger of Dudley. If so, this would account for the fact that Thomas Wells, progenitor of the family of Wells of Saybrook and Hebron, Conn., named his eldest son Edmund. The elder Edmund Wells of Dudley is found in Worcestershire records as early as 1657. Was he akin to that Edmund Wells named in 1645 and 1650 in Great Britain's Calendar of Proceedings of the Committee for Compounding with Delinquents (Papists), and in the Proceedings of the Committee for Advance of Money? Was the latter Edmund (seemingly a papist) akin to that Swithin Wells, noted papist, who was hanged in 1591 for non-conformity? See the "New Catholic Encyclopedia" (1967), 14:869. The family of the last named is outlined in Berry's "Hampshire Genealogies" 110, as well as in John Hutchins' "History of the County of Dorset" (3rd ed.) 1:668. Arms of this family were a chevron between two martlets..."

      2. FHL book 929.273 W462c "History and Genealogy of the Wells Family. Some Ancestors and Descendants of Thomas Wells of Saybrook and Hebron, Connecticut, who had come from Dudley, Worcestershire, England in 1712. Supplementing: "The History and Genealogy of the Wells Family" by Philip L. Cobb, 1897"; compiled by John. L. Cobb, 1999, pp. 4-8:
      "My father Philip Lothrop Cobb, as a young civil engineer in the 1890's and later, collected material about his Wells ancestry, particularly in Cambridge, Washington Co., NY, where a number of members of the family had settled in the late 1700's. He had contact with a few of those of the family, and in 1913 with his wife, copied gravestone inscriptions there.
      Albert Welles's "History of the Welles Family(s) 1876: 161-4," gives some information about our immigrant ancestor Thomas Wells who had come from Dudley, Worcestershire, England to Saybrook, Connecticut in 1712, and eventually removed to Gilead parish in Hebron, CT in 1725. Tradition was that he was born in Dudley, in the Black Country Midlands of England, January 10, 1694; he was called variously: sailor, farmer, in his will: husbandman. Saybrook, CT Town Records Vol. L2, page 512 show that Thomas Wells and Elizabeth MerrillS were married 13 May 1720, and Vol. L2, page 269, their son Edward (Edmund) was born 8 Feb, 1721/2; Elizabeth (daughter of a Thomas and Elizabeth (ROE) MERRELLS Jr. of Hartford, CT) was born there 13 Dec. 1685 or 6, and died at Hebron, CT 13 Dec. 1770 age 84 years old. April 10, 1721 he bought of Joseph Whittlesey, a dwelling house and lot of five acres in Saybrook. By 1725 the family had moved away to Gilead parish in the town of Hebron, CT, where he purchased a small property (at least 55 acres, as by the legacies in his will), and died Feb. 4, 1760 age 66 years. (His will made 20 Dec. 1745 and proved 16 June 1760, E. Haddam, CT pro. dist. court rec., vol. 3, pages 58-9; mentions wife Elizabeth and son Thomas executors, and sons Edmund & Joseph; (tradition says there were other sons: John, Samuel, William, and Daniel; no mention of any daughters).
      Going into the English ancestry of our Thomas Wells, back in 1968, a John G. Hunt of 821 N. Jackson, Arlington, VA 22201 had sent me abstracts of a couple of wills of Wellss who lived in Dudley, Worcs., England in the 17th century: a Thomas Chandler, will 1687, and an Edmund, innholder, bur. 8 Jan. 1701/2, speculating that these might be of my Wells family. In 1978 I was in England with a group interested in family history, and the opportunity came for my wife and I to go to Worcester to the county record office, where I was able to examine microfilm of the parish registers of the two churches of Dudley: St. Edmunds, and St. Thomas, as well as other documents in the archives there. In both parishes I found records of baptism, marriage and burial of members of this Wells family: the earliest in St. Edmunds Church: Richard and Ann (Reynolds) Wells and Children, and then later, in St. Thomas church: an Edmund and Ann (HICKMAN) Wells where the births and baptisms of seven children appear including the Thomas of the aforesaid 1687 will, and Edmund, b. 16 Jan. 1653/4, whose marriage banns were published 4 June 1681 to a Margery BATE apparently dau. of John & Margery (LEE) BATE of Rowley Regis, Staffs. This Edmund had a least seven children whose births and baptisms are there recorded from 1683 to 1703. Margery died 27 Jan. 1704/5, and Edmund whose occupation is given in the records as edgetoolmaker, appears to have been alive in 1723. (His name appears in the Feet of Fines of Stourbridge in 1705.) My immigrant ancestor Thomas does not appear in this P.R. of births and baptisms. Those appearing are in order: John, Joseph, William, Samuel, Mary b. 26 Oct. 1693, bur. 4 Jan. 1697/8. Ann, bp. 1 June 1696, and Daniel. The gap of about 2.5 years between Mary and Ann suggests to me that my Thomas Wells belongs here, but was not recorded for some reason or another.
      Through use of the International Genealogical Index microfiche for the counties of Worcs., Warwicks., Shrops., and Staffs., I speculate that the senior Edmund Wells innholder, b. guess ca. 1625, was son of another Edmund bp. 26 Apr. 1606 at Alveston, Warwicks., (near Stratford-on Avon), m. there 20 July 1620 to a Jane ANGE, bp. there 21 Aug. 1608, dau. of an Edmond ANGE, bp. there in 1571; this Edmund Wells, in turn possibly son of a John Willes of Welford-on-Avon, Warwicks., and Alicia MILLES of Fellongley, Warwicks., b. 1558. The above Richard Wells in the St. Edmunds Ch., Dudley record appears to have been the Richard "an old man", bur. 8 Nov. 1656 from St. Thomas Ch., Dudley, ... and was another son of John and Alicia (MILLS) Wells, WillES.
      Reference: "Wells Chronicle (Wells Family Research Association) Orin R. Wells, P.O. Box 5427, Kent, WA 98064: 1995, 1997."
      p. 17: "No mention of any daughters of Thomas Wells the immigrant ancestor, has been found in the records. References: "Hist. and Gen.: Wells Fam.," by P.L. Cobb 1897:4; Mrs. James Edson (Mary Elizabeth Houghton) Wells, Munson Rd., 8243 U.S. Rt. 20, Westfield, NY 14787. Feb. 21 and Mar. 21, 1995."

      MARRIAGE:
      1. FHL book 929.273 W462c "History and Genealogy of the Wells Family. Some Ancestors and Descendants of Thomas Wells of Saybrook and Hebron, Connecticut, who had come from Dudley, Worcestershire, England in 1712. Supplementing: "The History and Genealogy of the Wells Family" by Philip L. Cobb, 1897"; compiled by John. L. Cobb, 1999, pp. 4-8, reports that Edmund's "marriage banns were published 4 June 1681 to a Margery BATE apparently dau. of John & Margery (LEE) BATE of Rowley Regis, Staffs."
      The author neglects to mention that there was also a Margery Bate, daughter of William and Katherine Bate, who was christened in Dudley St. Thomas 13 Jun 1658. I have not seen the marriage banns he reports and it might be in that bann that her residency is given in Rowley Regis. A marriage is recorded in the IGI indexing for Dudley, but it suspiciously has a date of 4 Jun 1681, which is the same as the bann. Since it is more common for the marriages to occur in the parish of the bride, a subsequent marriage should probably be search in Rowly Regis to confirm that we have the right Margery Bate in the marriage. If the marriage was with Margery of Dudley, the marriage would most likely have been in Dudley's records. Surprisingly Margery who was chr. in 1658 in Dudley is the only child shown in the parish of parents William and Katherine.