WILLIAM WELLS OF SOUTHOLD AND Hrs DE~CENDANTS, A. D. 1638 TO 1878. BY THE REV. CHARLES \VELLS HA YES, CANON OF ST. LUKE'S CATHEDRAL, PORTLAND, ME.; COi.RESPONDING SECR.E- TARY OF THE M.. .\lNE HISTORICAL SOCIETY; MEMBER OF THE NE\11 ENGLAND HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIIITY. BU FF ALO, N. Y.: BAKJo;R, JONES & Co., Pl.INTERS AND BINDERS. MDCCCLX~VIII. -------- --- - ------------------- Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, BY CHARLES W. k ROBERT P. HAYES, Int.be Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. PREFACE, HE present volume has grown out of the request of a relative, four years T ago, to fill up ~ome blanks in a Family Bible. How the response to that request grew from a letter into a pamphlet, and from a pamphlet into a volume ; by what unthought-of study, correspondence, and visits to the old homes of the family, a labour of love has reached its present stopping-place, I need not detail to any who have had anything to do with genealogical research. Some special acknowledgment, besides that given on each page, is due for co-operation in this work, without which I could have done comparatively noth­ ing. Mr. CHARLES B. MOORE, of New York, has kindly added to his'' Southold Index of 1698," ( in itself a mine of genealogical material,) many letters and his­ torical notes, and a transcript of all his MS. Index of 1775 relating to the name of \Yells. l\1y cousin, Mr. GEORGE E. SIBLEY, of the same city, has taken a large share of the labour involved in the work, and nearly all its pages bear witness to his patient and accurate research. To Mr. JOHN \V ARD DEAN, the accomplished Librarian of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, I am indebted fo1 Yaluable assistance and direction. Among the largest contributors of unpul · lished material are the Rev. EURYSTIIEUS H. WELLS, of Upper AqueLoguc, JOSEPH WrcKH \M CASE. Esq., of Southold, BESJA~II~ F. WELLS, of Wellsburgh, N. Y., Dr. ELMORR H. WELLS, of Meshoppen, Pa., and Mis·s SARAH M. \VELLS, of Nashville, Tenn. But most of all, my thanks, and those of all interested in the work, are due to my brother, ROBERT P. HAYES, of Buffalo, who has made all the arrangements for the printing, anrl superintended and corrected the proof from first to last, with a care and juclgment which have made the book attractive, and worthy of its purpose, in appearance, if not in contents And in saying this, I do not forgtt our obligations to the Printer, for their skill and patience in a kind of work testing both severely. The numerous errors inevitable in such a work need no apology, and those of carelessness or wilful blindness, if such there he, admit of none. To the family Jor whom the book is printed, I hope it may plead its own excuse, first for venturing into print at all, and next for not :::.waiting a ten or twenty years' longer incubation before making its appearance. C. W. H. 135 State St., Portland, Maine, November 1, 1878. PLAN OF NUMBERING. THE INTEGRAL Figure after each name, beginning with Chapter II., p. 33, denotes the GENERATION in America; and the DECIMAL, the Number in that Gmeratiqn in the order in which the names occur in the book. Thus, William III. 3•1 (p. 39) is the first one mentioned of the third generation, or grandchildren of William I. of Southold; and Mary 4•80 (p. 272) the e!,ghtieth and last here given of the fourth generation, or his great-grandchildren. · CONTENTS. CHAPTER, PAGE. I. THE WELLS Name and Family in England 5 II. William I. of Southold, r638.71 . 17 III. ELDER BRANCH: -- William II. and his eldest son 34 IV. John, second son of William II. 51 V. Henry, third son of William II., and his eldest son 61 VI. Obadiah, second son of Hemy I. 76 VII. Henry of Montague, son of Obadiah 90 VIII. Elder sons of Henry of Montague . II3 IX. Richard, fifth son of Henry of Montague 12::l X. Younger children of Henry of Montague 171 XI. Abner, youngest son of Henry I. 195 XII. YOUNGER BRANCH: -- Joshua I. and his eldest son 209 X!!!. """'"Pl, cPrnn,l cnn nf Jnchn<'l L 218 XIV. Daniel, third son . 233 XV. Solomon, fourth son . 262 XVI. Natha~iel, fifth son 265 XVII. Fregift, sixth son . 271 XVIII. DAUGHTERS of William I. of Southold 2S1 SUPPLEMENT and Indexes, 285-300. NOTES on Allied Families, 89, 106, 145, 192 THE SPECIAL ATTENTION of the Critical and the Uncritical Reader £s asked to the COR­ RECTIONS AND ADDITIONS £n flte SUPPLEMENT, Pages 285-9. Mistakes may be avoided as well as corrected, by noting the number of each paragraph of the Supplement on the margin of the Page to which it refers. CHAPTER I. THE \VELLS FAMILY IN ENGLAND. ~HE English name WELLS appears to have two distinct @, derivations. · ( 1 .) The Saxon well, a well or spring, from wellan, to spring, bubble up, or flow, and the kin~red Danish wel and German quelle, is found in Domesday Book as "Guella," meaning there, apparently, a stream or rivulet flowing into the German Ocean, and applied to the ancient Norfolk sea­ port at its mouth.* No doubt many families of the name may find a like origin for their patronymic, in some John or Robert "of the vVell"; and possibly the old cathedral city of Somerset, and other towns in England, have derived their appellation from the same familiar word.t (2.) As a family name, however, it is more commonly de­ rived through the Norman-French val, a vale, and its plural vals or vaux, from the Latin val/is. VAL, V ALS, VAUX, VAL­ LIBUS, all with and without the prefix DE, are found m numer. ous records from the Norman Conquest of 1o66 to the end of the fifteenth century, applied to families in almost every county in England, but mostly in Lincoln, Norfolk, Essex, * Blomfield, Hist. Norfolk, 1808, IX. 282. t As Well, Lincoln and York; Upwill and Outwell, Norfolk, "where lived the ancient family of WELLS," &c. "Sometimes a cottager or SD}all proprietor would get the name A I the Welle, or De La Welle, afterwards shortened into WELLS," Lower's Patronym. Brittan., London, 1860. Blomfield, VII. 470. (George E. Sibley.) 6 THE WELLS FAMILY IN ENGLAND. CH.I. and Kent, and of French origin.* A little later we have W ALLYS (1220), WELLYS (1475), WYLLYS (1463), WILLS, (these last two rare,) \VELL, DE \VELL (1401-89), WELLES, DE WELLES (1283), and finally \VELLs; this last form as early as the beginning of the thirteenth century.t \VELS appears to be Dutch, found at New York, 1678, and Ley­ den, 1723.:t: There is no doubt that the ancient cathedral city of Nor­ wich, or its vicinity, was the birthplace of WII.LIA11 \YELLS of Southold, the common ancestor of the Long Island fam­ ilies of that name. According to a Southold tradition of two centuries, he was the son of the Rev. \VILLIA~1 \VELLES, Rector of the Church of St. Peter ~Iancroft, 1598-1620, and Prebendary of Norwich Cathedral, 1613-20, whose tombstone in St. Peter's Church shows him to be de­ scended from the Norfolk and Lincolnshire family known in England since the Conquest, and holding from 1299 to 1503, one of the most ancient baronies in the kingdom. Hubert, Ranulf, and Robert, three sons of Harold de Vaux, a Norman baron, are said to have came into England about 1120, and settled, the two elder in Cumberland, and the youngest in Norfolk. About 1_194, Adam,. a grandson of Robert, holding the manor of Welles, near Alford, Lin­ colnshire, took the name DE \\TELLES.§ He appears to * Robert de Vals, Vallibus or Vaux, 1066; John De Vallibus or Vaux, Consta­ ble of Norwich Castle, &c. In this derivation the word is probably the same as our word/al/, from the Hebrew root 11nuphal, Greek sphallo, French ,waler. So DUVAL, DELAVAL, AVALO!'., Fr.; VAIL, Eng., &c. t Harrod, Castles and Convents of Norwich, 315-17, Blomf. Norfolk, I. 157, 11. 313, III. I7I, 191, V. 43, 303, VII. 470, IX. 38, &c. t Records of Dutch Ch .. N. Y., 1678. (N. Y. Gen. & Biog. Record, VIII. 172). Gideon Wds matr. Lugd. Bat. 1723. (Alhany MSS. 22. G. E. s.) § Dugdale, Baronage of England. · A. D. 1299. THE BARONS WELLES. 7 have died without issue, and to have been succeeded in his manor by his younger brother William, and he by his son WiUiam, and grandson ·Adam. The latter was summoned to Parliament, Feb. 6, 1299, as first Baron Welles*; was Constable of Rockingham Castle, and \Varden of the Forest. His arms are described in a MS. Roll of Arms of 1308,t "Sire Adam de Welles, de or, a un Lion rampaund de sable, od la courve fourchee." His successors in the Barony were I I. I 311. Robert, son of Adam. III. 1320. Adam, brother of Robert. IV. 1345. John, son of Adam II. V. 1361. John, son of John; a distinguished soldier in France and Scotland. VI. 1421. Leo, grandson of John IL, k.- at Towton Field, 1461. Vll. 1469. Richard, son of Leo, also Baron Willoughby de Eresby. VIII. 1469. Robert, son of Richard, d. s. p. IX. 1483. Richard Hastings, brother-in-law of Robert, d. s. p., I 503, when the Barony fell into abeyance between the descendants of the four daµghters of Leo, 6th Baron, and so remains, a decision to that effect having been given as lately as 1832.:j: From some offshoot of this noble house was descended WILLIAM WELLES of Norwich, the father of William of • Only four English Peerages older than this are now in existence.