I 929.2 W4629h 1235121 <3£NEAI-OGY COLLECTION ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00859 2294 ELLS OF SOUTHOLD 1G3S-1878. HAYES. CA, ^-£/£^ ^Ma/^ze^J^^^ '""^^Msoio ^a2^{s/Aa^ ^Wi6H.c<^S. W.Ji^m^. WILLIAM WELLS OF mMM And His Descendants, A. D. 1638 TO 1878 BY THE REV. CHARLES WELLS HAYES. CANON OF ST. LUKE'S CATHEDRAL, PORTLAND, ME. ; CORRESPONDING SECRE- TARY OF THE MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY ; MEMBER OF THE NEW ENGLAND HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY. BUFFALO, N. Y.: BAKER, JONES & CO., PRINTERS AND BINDERS. MDCCCLXXVIII. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, BY CHARLES W. & ROBERT P. HAYES, In the Office of tlie Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. PREFACE, present volume has grown THE out of the request of a relative, four years ago, to fill up some 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 Wells. My 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 Ward Dean, the accomplished Librarian of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, I am indebted for valuatjle assistance and direction. Among the largest contributors of unpub lished material are the Rev. Eurystheus H. Wells, of Upper Aqueboguc, Joseph Wickh \m Case, Esq., of .Southold, Benjamin F. Wells, of Wellsburgh, N. Y., Dr. Elmore H. Wells, of Meshoppen, Pa., and Miss Sarah M. Wells, 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, and superintended and corrected the proof from first to last, with a care and judgment which have made the book attractive, and worthy of its purpose, in appearance, if not in contents And in saying this, I do not forget 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 be, admit of none. To the family for whom the book is printed, I hope it may plead its own excuse, first for venturing into print at all, and ne.xt for not awaiting a ten or twenty years' longer incubation before making its appearance. C. W. H. 135 State St., Portland, Maine, November i, 1S78. Plan of Numbering. THE Integral Figure after each name, beginning with Chapter II., p. 33, in that denotes the Generation in America ; and the Decimal, the Number Generation in the order in which the names occur in the book. Thus, William III.^'' (p. 39) is the first one mentioned of the third generation, eightieth or grandchildren of William I. of Southold ; and Mary*-®° (p- 272) the 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, 1638-71 .... 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 Heniy I. 76 VII. Henry of Montague, son of Obadiah 90 VIII. Elder sons of Henry of Montague 113 IX. Richard, fifth son of Henry of Montague 128 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 XIII. Samuel, second son of Joshua I. 218 XIV. Daniel, third son ...... 233 XV. Solomon, fourth son ...... 262 XVI. Nathaniel, 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 is asked to the COR- RECTIONS AND Additions in the 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 WELLS FAMILY IN ENGLAND. tHE English name Wells appears to have two distinct derivations. (i.) The Saxon zuell, a well or spring, from wellan, to spring, bubble up, or flow, and the kindred 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 Well"; and possibly the old cathedral city of Somerset, and other towns in England, have derived their appellation from the same familiar word.f (2.) As a family name, however, it is more commonly de- rived through the Norman-French val, a vale, and its plural vals or vaiLv, from the Latin vallis. Val, Vals, Vaux, Val- LIBUS, all with and without the prefix De, are found m numer- ous records from the Norman Conquest of 1066 to the end of the fifteenth century, apphed to famihes in almost every county in England, but mostly in Lincoln, Norfolk, Essex, *Blomfield, Hist. Norfolk, 1808, IX. 282. Outvvell, Norfolk, "where lived f As Well, Lincoln and York; Upwell and the ancient family of Wells," &c. " Sometimes a cottager or small proprietor would get the name At the Welle, or De La Welle, afterwards shortened into Wells." Lower's Patronym. Brittan.. London, 1S60. 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 Wallys (1220), Wellys (1475). Wyllys (1463), Wills, (these last two rare,) Well, De Well (1401-89), Welles, De Welles (1283), and finally Wells, this last form as early as the beginning of the thirteenth century.f Wels appears to be Dutch, found at New York, 1678, and Ley- *- den, 1723.:}; There is no doubt that the ancient cathedral city of Nor- wich, or its vicinity, was the birthplace of WiixiAM Wells of Southold, the common ancestor of the Long Island fam- iHes of that name. According to a Southold tradition of two centuries, he was the son of the Rev. William Welles, Rector of the Church of St. Peter Mancroft, 1 598-1620, 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 1194, Adam, a grandson of Robert, holding the manor of Welles, near Alford, Lin- colnshire, took the name De Welles.§ 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 vford /all, from the Hebrew root natiphal, Greek sphallo, French avaler. So Duval, Delaval, Avalon, Fr.; Vail, Eng., &c. \ Harrod, Castles and Convents of Norwich, 315-17. Blomf. Norfolk, I. 157, 11. 313, III. 171, 191, V. 43, 303, VII. 470, IX. 38, &c. X Records of Dutch Ch.. N. Y., 1678. (N. Y. Gen. & Biog. Record, VIII. 172). Gideon Wels matr. Lugd. Bat. 1723. (Albany 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 WiUiam, and he by his son William, and grandson Adam. The latter was summoned to Parliament, Feb. 6, 1299, as first Baron Welles*; was Constable of Rockingham Castle, and Warden of the Forest. His arms are described in a MS. Roll of Arms of 1308,! " Sire Adam de Welles, de or, a un Lion rampaund de sable, od la courve fourchee." His successors in the Barony were II. 1311. Robert, son of Adam. III. 1320. Adam, brother of Robert. IV. 1345. John, son of Adam II. V. 1 36 1. John, son of John; a distinguished soldier in France and Scotland. VI. 142 1. Leo, grandson of John II., k. at Towton Field, 1 46 1. VII. 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., 1503, when the Barony fell into abeyance between the descendants of the four daughters of Leo, 6th Baron, and so remains, a decision to that effect having been given as lately as 1832.:]: 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.