Thomas WELLES, (GOVERNOR)

                   BIRTH: LTR 432- IGI File Record, but see lengthy write-up under OTHER, below.

DEATH:  LTR 424-3,  Copy of RootsWeb WorldConnect information

OTHER: From the Welles Family Association:
Governor Thomas Welles-- Errors in Literature 
Chapter 2
Page 19 Paragraph numbered 5

OTHER: Thomas Welles did not come to America as the personal representative of Lord Say and Sele and help establish Saybrook Colony in 1635, then come upriver to Hartford by 1637. Some claimed that Welles was a secretary to Lord Say and Sele. However, primary evidence for this fact has not been found, although circumstantial evidence would allow for such a conclusion. Welles did have a good education, as evidenced by books in English and Latin in his estate. He did have dealings with the Fenne family... James Fiennes and a partner bought his land in Burmington. Welles would have been acquainted with the family as they were the most prominent lords in the area, seated nearby at Broughton Castle. As a neighboring fellow-Puritan, Welles must have been aware of the Warwick Patent and the plans to develop Saybrook Colony and Salton Park in Windsor as places of refuge for Puritan lords in case flight from England was necessary. Some have suggested that Say and Sele developed the story of Welles being his secretary in order to mask Welles' removal for religious reasons as a business venture. In any case, Welles did have close associations with Say and Sele and did have the talents of a secretary. However, he had little, if anything, to do with Saybrook Colony. A review of the know facts and literature with Elaine Staplins and Joyce Heckman of the Saybrook Colony Association affirms the belief that no primary evidence links this Thomas Welles with Saybrook at any time. He was most unlikely to have been at a fort in 1635-1636 with a family of six children. The one family who resided there, that of Governor George Genwick, is noted for being the only such family. The scenario that Welles and his family came to Boston, sailed to Saybrook Colony and lived there awhile, then sailed upriver to Hartford must be rejected. No primary evidence for his ever having been at Saybrook Colony exists, and his whereabouts can be accounted for between Boston, Cambridge, and Hartford for the period involved.
His arrival in Boston in before 9/ Jun 1636 when his deed was witnessed by Winthrop and Dudley, his listing as a head of the household in the Feb 1635/36 Newtown (now Cambridge), MA, town records and his appointment to the General Court in March 1637 indicate that he was part of the group of about 100 people who came to Hartford from Cambridge with Rev. Thomas Hooker in June 1636. This sequence allows only the winter of 1636/37 for residence in Saybrook Fort, not a likely prospect for a young family. Welles association with his former neighbor, Lord Say and Sele, and resulting associations with the Warwick Patentees who operated Saybrook Colony place him in the critical juncture between that group and the governing group of the Connecticut Colony headed by Hooker and Haynes. When Saybrook Colony merged with Connecticut Colony in 1644, Welles was appointed as one of the negotiators, presumable he was known to and respected by both colonies.

OTHER: Original Proprietors of Hartford:

OTHER: GOVERNOR THOMAS WELLES, an original proprietor of Hartford; his home-lot in 1639 was on the east side of the street now Governor St. He moved to Wethersfield, where he was also an original proprietor. He became a member of the Court of Magistrates, March 28, 1637 and continued a magistrate until he was chosen deputy-governor, May 18, 1654 (again in 1656,1657,1659); he was the first treasurer in 1639, Secretary of the Colony in Colonies; Governor in 1655 and 1658. He m. (1) in England, Elizabeth Hunt; [this information is incorrect, his first wife was Alice Tomes] (2) ab 1645 or 1646 Elizabeth Deming, a widow of Nathaniel Foote, of Wethersfield; died in Wethersfield Jan 14, 1659/60; his widowed died July 28, 1683.

OTHER: From the University of Connecticut
Homer Babbidge Library
Research and Information Services
U-5RI
369 Fairfield Road
Storrs, CT 06269-1005

OTHER: THE GOVERNORS OF CONNECTICUT
Bio graphs Of The Chief Executives Of The Commonwealth That Gave To The World The First Written Constitution Known To History
By Fredrick Calvin Norton
Patron's Edition Published By 
THE CONNECTICUT MAGAZINE
Company At Hartford, Connecticut
Copyrighted 1905 by Fredrick Calvin Norton
Printed by Dorman Lithographing Company at New Haven
Pages 19-21

OTHER: Thomas Welles, the fourth governor of Connecticut colony, was born in England in 1598, [this date has been disproved] but where he came from has not yet been determined. Absolutely nothing is known of his antecedents across the water.

OTHER: One of Governor Welles' descendants, Hon. Gideon Welles of Hartford, wrote of his ancestor, the governor, in 1843: "My father, who died in 1834, aged eighty years, used to tell me that our English ancestors were once of nobility: that amongst his earliest recollections were the strong injunctions of his grandfather and his great uncle, Samuel Welles of Boston, never to omit the letter "E" in his name; that the family had once great estates of which were wrongfully deprived and that in due time they would return. These were the remarks of old the men to him, born about thirty years after the death of Governor Welles, and who in childhood imbibed impressions brought from the parent land."

OTHER: A tradition, long believed to be true, connected Welles with the service of Lord Say-and- Sele, and made him one of the first settlers of Saybrook in 1636. This has been quite thoroughly disproven in the light of more recent investigation, and all statements of this sort concerning the governor's early career in America are purely conjectural.

OTHER: There is absolutely nothing to show that Governor Welles was ever secretary to Lord Say-and -Sele, but on the other hand it is more than probable that Governor Welles came to Hartford in 1636 from Boston. A copy of a grant in which he figures tends to confirm this statement. The first appearance of Governor Welles in Hartford was on March 28, 1637, according to the Colonial Records. He was one of the magistrates in 1637 and he held the office for many years. He rose rapidly in the councils of state, for at the election in 1639 he was chosen the first treasurer of the infant colony, holding the office until 1641 when he asked to be relieved. He was next secretary of the commissioners of the United Colonies. In 1649 he became one of the commissioners and served several years.

OTHER: He was chosen governor in 1655 and 1656; the next year he was deputy governor and in 1658 was re-elected governor of the colony. the following year he was deputy governor again, and that ended his eminently successful and honorable public career. Governor Welles went to Wethersfield to live in 1643 and he died in that town on January 14, 1660, (1657, o.s.).

OTHER: Concerning the exact spot where the governor's remains lie buried, there has been considerable controversy among historians.

OTHER: Albert Welles, a biographer of the governor, says that his remains were buried "on top of the hill near the fence on the south side of the old yard, in the rear of the meeting-house, where the remains of the Welles family for many generations now lie grouped."

OTHER: Benjamin Trumbull, the eminent historian, wrote regarding this: "Though Governor Welles was first buried at Wethersfield his remains were afterward removed to Hartford. Four of the first governors of Connecticut, Haynes, Wyllys, Welles, and Webster, lie buried at Hartford without a monument. Considering their many important public services this is remarkable. But their virtues have embalmed their names and will render their names venerable to the latest posterity."

OTHER: One of the very best authorities on this question contends that the governor was buried at Wethersfield and was never removed from that town. This seems to be the general belief.

OTHER: A writer says of the governor: "Governor Welles possessed the full confidence of the people, and many of the most important of the early laws and papers pertaining to the founding of the colony were drafted by him. The successful issue of Connecticut from her difficulty concerning the fort erected at Saybrook on one side and the Dutch encroachments on the other was largely due to his skill and wisdom."