Robert WELLES

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: Between 1637 and 1660; Chosen As Magistrate
• Occupation: 1639; Elected treasurer of the colony
• Occupation: 1643; Elected secretary
• Occupation: 1649; Commissioner to represent Connecticut in the confederation of New England colonies
• Occupation: 1654; Acting governor
• Occupation: 1655; Governor
• Occupation: 1656; Deputy governor
• Occupation: 1658; Governor
• Occupation: 1659; Deputy governor

Notes:

Name:
He was among the fist settlers of Hartford, coming probably from Cambridge, for 8 Feb 1635/6, "Thos. Wells" owned a house there, (Starr's Goodwin and Morgan Ancestral Lines, I, p. 221.) and he was made Freeman May 17, 1637. (Col. Hist. of Hartford, Love, p. 32.) Was also an early settler of Wethersfield, removing thither in 1646, and an original proprietor at both places. At Wethersfield he bought a house and 18 acres of Mr. John Plumb. He was a magistrate of the colony of Connecticut in 1637, which office he held every successive year until 1654, when he was chosen deputy governor. Besides holding other offices, he was elected governor in 1655 and as this office could not be held by the same man in consecutive terms, he was again elected deputy governor in 1656/7 and governor in 1658; deputy governor in 1659, which position he held at his death. He was first treasurer of the Colony 1639, and secretary of the Colon from 1640 to 1648. In 1649, 1654 and 1659, he was commissioner of the United Colonies. Trumbull includes him in a list of twelve men whom he calls the civil and religious fathers of Connecticut.

The information here given concerning the parentage of Governor Wells and the name of his wife was obtained from pleadings in a chancery suit brought in 1648 by John Welles of Tidmington, (Nephew ofGovernor) and his son Robert, a minor, against the grantees of land in Burmington, Warwickshire, conveyed by Thomas Welles of Hartford, Conn., in 1638. The pleadings show that the property in dispute at one time belonged to Robert Welles, father of the Governor. It seems probable, therefore, that the family home was in Burmington or one of the neighboring parishes.

Thomas married Alice TOMES in 1618 in England. Alice died about 1640 in Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: ? Hunt