Wells, Hugh

Hugh WELLS (1590 - 1645) and Frances BELCHER (1598 - 1678)

my 10-grandparents

Hugh WELLS was born about 1590 in Colchester, Essex, England, and married about 1619 to Frances BELCHER, born about 1598. Hugh died about 1645, and Frances died in Mar 1678. Their 4 children were born in Colchester, including Thomas WELLS, my 9g-grandfather.

The family came to New England in 1635, in the Globe, along with Hugh's younger brothers, Richard and Joseph. They landed in Boston, and went to Hartford, CT, the next year, and Hugh settled his family in Wethersfield, CT.

After her husband died, Frances married Thomas COLEMAN, and removed from Wethersfield, CT to Hadley, MA about 1659. They had 1 child.

1 Frances BELCHER b: 1598 in England, d: 1678

+ Hugh WELLS b: 1590 in Colchester m: 1619 in England, d: 1645 in Wethersfield
......2 Hugh WELLS Jr b: 1625 in Colchester, d: 22 Dec 1678
......2 Mary WELLS b: 1626 in Colchester, d: 03 Jul 1700 in Hartford
...... + Jonathan GILBERT b: 1618, m: 1650, d: 10 Dec 1682 ; Inn-keeper at Hartford
......2 John WELLS b: 1628 in Colchester, d: 18 Oct 1692
......2 Jonathan WELLS b: 1622 in Colchester
......2 Thomas WELLS b: 1620 in Colchester, d: Bet. 30 Sep–14 Dec 1676 in Hadley
...... + Mary BEARDSLEY b: 1631, m: May 1651, d: 20 Sep 1691

+ Thomas COLEMAN
......2 Deborah COLEMAN
...... + Daniel GUNN

Hugh's brother Richard was with them on the Globe, but I don't know what happened to him. [WW, p. 447]

Hotten [JCH, pp. 119-121] has the manifest of the Globe, which sailed from London to Virginia, containing the name Richard WELLS, age 26, but no other WELLS, and no other voyage by the Globe.

Sources

[AC] Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts (1910) by Adams and Cutter

[FAW] Families of Ancient Wethersfield (This is Vol II of History of Ancient Wethersfield) (Requires Ancestry.com license)

[JCH] The original lists of persons of quality; emigrants; religious exiles; political rebels; serving men sold for a term of years; apprentices; children stolen; maidens pressed; and others who went from Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600-1700 : with their ages and the names of the ships in which they embarked, and other interesting particulars; from mss. preserved in the State Paper Department of Her Majesty's Public Record Office, England (1874) by John Camden Hotten

[OJH] Hodge genealogy from the first of the name in this country to the present time : with a number of allied families and many historical facts (1900) by Orlando John Hodge

[WW] A history of Hatfield, Massachusetts, in three parts (1910) Wells and Wells

Updated 11 May 2021 by William Haloupek. Contact haloupek at gmail dot com.