Descent from Colonial Gov. Thomas Welles

Early Connecticut Leader Held all Top Posts

Jul 14, 2009 Rosemary E. Bachelor

Connecticut Colonial Gov. Thomas Welles was the only person to ever hold all four top governmental positions in the colony.

In addition to being elected the Connecticut Colony's first treasurer, Welles was its second secretary, served three terms as Deputy Governor and was elected Governor in both 1655 and 1658.

Thomas Welles the Immigrant

There were two men named Thomas Welles in New England by 1635 and they have been confused with each other, thereby making uncertain their birthdates and place of origin in England. The deed of a Thomas Welles was witnessed in Boston in June of 1636. A Thomas Welles was a 1635 passenger on the Susan and Ellen, and a Thomas Welles became a resident of Ipswich, MA.

Colonial records first place the Connecticut Thomas Welles in Hartford in early 1637. Welles may have come from Newtown (later Cambridge), MA with Rev. Thomas Hooker and Hooker's congregation in 1636. Thomas married Alice Tomes, the mother of all the Welles children, in England. Their children were John, Thomas, Samuel, Anne, Sarah and Mary Welles. Their children were John, Thomas, Samuel, Anne, Sarah and Mary Welles. Thomas later married Elizabeth (Deming) Foote, a widow with seven children, in Wethersfield, CT.

Welles Genealogy: Line of Descent

The following line of descent was furnished to this writer in 1988 by Thomas Welles descendant Marjorie (Lyman) McNeil of Los Angeles, CA, an avid family researcher.

• Thomas Welles and Alice Gunne Tomes of England and Wethersfield, CT
• John Welles (1621-1659) of Stratford, CT, and the former Elizabeth Bourne (1627-1678), wed in 1647
• John Welles (1648-1714) of Stratford, who in 1669 married Mary Hollister, born 1650, Wethersfield, CT
• Thomas Welles (1692-1724) of Stratford and Sarah Stiles (1693-1721), married in 1710
• Ephraim Stiles Welles (1712-aft. 1760) of Stratford in 1738 married Martha Walker (b. ca. 1713)
• Diantha Welles (1760-1843) in 1782 wed John Ayres Jr. (1759-1830) of Stratford, CT; both died at Gouveneur, NY
• Elcy Ayres (1784-1867) of Stratford, CT, in 1802 married Nathan Welles (1778-1858) of Ripton Parish, CT and Litchfield, OH
• Elcy Marie Welles (1812-1867) of Montgomery Co., NY, married, in 1835, Ransom M. Welton (1815-1845); both died in Akron, IN
• Celestina Welton (1844-1924) in 1862 married Aaron Dyer Ball (1843-1895) of Akron, IN and Oswego, KS
• Flora Etta Ball (1863-1900) married in 1882, David Jennings (1860-1931). Flora died at Oswego, KS, and David died in Arkansas.
• Alta Myrtle Jennings, born 1883 in Kansas and died in California; married in 1904, Paul C. Lyman (1885-1948)
• Marjorie P. Lyman, born in 1911 at Eldorado, KS; married in 1931 Henry I. McNeil, born in 1908, Edmond, OK

Famous Thomas Welles Descendants

Presbyterian clergyman Lyman Beecher (1775-1863), a Thomas Welles descendant, was himself the father of several notable children, including Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry Ward Beecher. Other well known descendants include 19th century songwriter Stephen Foster, former U. S. President Gerald R. Ford, recent political newcomer Sarah Palin, Henry Wells, the founder of American Express, Wells Fargo and Wells College, Wilford Woodruff, fourth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy during the Civil War.

(Learn about the Hereditary Order of Descendants of Colonial Governors.)

The copyright of the article Descent from Colonial Gov. Thomas Welles in Genealogy is owned by Rosemary E. Bachelor. Permission to republish Descent from Colonial Gov. Thomas Welles in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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