Gabriel WHELDEN

                   Historical detail in NOTES


....According to "Early Wheldens of Yarmouth," by J. W. Hawes (Library of Cape Cod History and Genealogy, No. 43], Gabriel Whelden, born in England, first appears in Plymouth Colony in 1638, hence he could hardly have come in 1628 as claimed, for the very full records of that region and period did not ignore a settler?s presence for a decade. To quote from Mr. Hawe?s account: "His children were no doubt born in England and were probably by a first wife. When he died in 1654 his wife was Margaret, who, it seems clear, was his second wife and not the mother of his children. He apparently came to Yarmouth about 1639 with a family of grown children. He left Yarmouth about 1648."Another account is found in "The History of Malden" (1899), by D. P. Corey, p. 158: "Gabriel Wheldon, or Welding, who appears to have been a personal friend of Mr. Matthews, was with that minister at Yarmouth, and took the oath of fidelity with him. He came here [i.e., to Malden] with Mr. Matthews, and in his will calls himself 'of the 'Towne and church of Mauldon.' With his youngest son, John, he sold . . . four parcels of land in Arnold, county Nottingham. Essex Deeds, i. 24. This forbids the conclusion that he was a fellow countryman of Mr. Matthews; but from the apparently close connection of the parties, I am inclined to believe that his wife, Margaret, was from Wales, and perhaps owned a relationship with the pastor.", Further, as to Gabriel: "He died in Malden in January, 1653/4. . . With the exception of a legacy of ten shillings to the Malden church, his estate, valued at £40,11,8, was left to his wife; but the claims of his elder children caused a contention. . . . The widow, who may have been a second wife, returned to England. " She went back in 1655 with Mr. Matthews.Now since Gabriel Wheldon first appears in New England in 1638, and his daughter Ruth was married to Richard Taylor eight years later, it is almost certain that Ruth was born in England. Yet according to the Bearse manuscript, the mother of Ruth Wheldon was Margaret, an Indian princess. (Strange, how every Indian ancestress was a princess) Did Gabriel Wheldon, one wonders, find the Indian girl straying about the British Isles? And why should the widow Margaret, if born an Indian, return to England with her pastor ? It is also to be noted that two independent students reached the conclusion, from the record sources examined, that Margaret was most probably a second wife, and hence not the mother of Ruth. No conscientious investigator, with any knowledge of conditions in colonial New England, could accept-the statement of the Bearse manuscript, totally undocumented, that the wife of Gabriel Wheldon was an Indian.