Return to main Johnson file
Send comments and corrections to anneb0704@yahoo.co.uk
THOMAS WELLS (d. 1666)
ABIGAIL WARNER (bp. 1614–1661), daughter of William Warner
Thomas Wells died on 26 October 1666. [1] He married Abigail, the daughter of William Warner. [2][3]
Abigail, the daughter of William Warner, was baptized on 2 June 1614 in Boxted, co. Essex. [2] She died on 22 July 1661. [1]
Thomas came to New England on the Susan and Ellen in 1635. [1] He received a houselot in Ipswich that year. [1] He took the freeman's oath in 1637. [1]
Deacon Thomas of Ipswich bought 200 acres at Wells, Maine from Mr. William Symonds in 1657, but did not live there. [4]
Thomas made his will on 31 November 1666; it was proved on 15 November 1666. An affluent man, his inventory, taken on 12 November 1666, amounted to £952-17-00. He mentioned his wife Abigail, his eldest son Nathaniel, his second son John, his youngest son Thomas, his eldest daughters Sarah Massie of Salem and Abigail Tredwell of Ipswich, and his youngest daughters Elizabeth, Hannah, and Lydia Wells. He referred to his brother Daniel Warner, his Uncle Lumpkin, Francis Littlefield, his son John's father-in-law and "our Cussen Marye Baker (alias Love) of Colchester." He made provisions for the education of his young daughters. [5]
Abigail Wells made her will on 22 July 1671; it was proved on 26 September 1671. She mentioned her five daughters—Hannah Wells, Elizabeth Burnham, Lydia Ropes, Sarah Massie, and Abigail Treadwell—and her sons Nathaniel, Thomas, and John Wells. She named Nathaniel her executor. [6]
Children of Thomas Wells and Abigail Warner
i. Nathaniel Wells died on 15 December 1681 in Ipswich. [3][1] He married Lydia Thurley on 29 October 1661. [3][1] She married second Nathaniel Emerson. [1]
ii. John Wells died on 11 April 1677 in Wells, Maine. He married Sarah Littlefield.
iii. Sarah Wells married John Massie of Salem before 1666. [3][1]
iv. Abigail Wells married Nathaniel Tredwell of Salem and Ipswich on 19 June 1661. [3][1]
v. Reverend Thomas Wells was born on 11 January 1646/7. [3][1] He died on 10 July 1734. [3] He married Mary Perkins on 10 January 1669/[70?] in Ipswich. [1] She died on 26 January 1726/7 in Amesbury. [1] The inscription on his gravestone says: [1]
Interred here the BODY of, the RevD. Mr. THOMAS WELLS, first Pastor, of the first Church of CHRIST in Amesbury, who Departed this life. July ye 10th, 1734. in the 87th. year of his Age, & the 62D. of his Ministry, having served his Generation by the will of GOD, he fell on sleep, and (we trust) enjoys a Prophets reward.
Hoyt says that for nearly half a century he was the leading spirit of Amesbury. [1]
vi. Elizabeth Wells was born 1668. [3] She married James Burnham on 9 June 1669. [3][1]
vii. Hannah Wells [3] might be the Hannah who married Richard Simonds on 16 August 1679. [1]
viii. Lydia Wells married John Ropes of Salem on 25 March 1669. [3][4][1]
Endnotes:
1. David Webster Hoyt, The Old Families of Salisbury and Amesbury, Part 1 (Providence: Snow and Farnham, 1897): 348–9.
2. "Great Migration 1634–1635, T–Y," digitized book, AmericanAncestors.org, originally published as: Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration, Immigrants to New England, 1634–1635, Volume VII, T–Y (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2011), 243–7.
3. Charles K. Wells, Genealogy of the Wells Family of Wells, Maine (Milwaukee: Burdick & Armitage, 1874).
4. Charles Thornton Libby, Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire. (Portland, ME, USA: The Southward Press, 1928), 750.
5. "Essex County, MA: Early Probate Records, 1635–1681," database with images, AmericanAncestors.org, case 29317 (Thomas Wells).
6. George Francis Dow, The Probate Records of Essex County, Massachusetts,vol. 2 (Salem: Essex Institute, 1917): 241–3.
© A. Buiter 2014
15-Nov-2023 5:59 PM