Thomas Welles is the only person in Connecticut's history to hold all four top offices: governor, deputy governor, treasurer, and secretary. In 1639, he was elected as the first treasurer of the Colony of Connecticut, and from 1640–1649 served as the colony's secretary. In this capacity, he transcribed the Fundamental Orders into the official colony records on 14 January 1638, OS,.
Biography
Welles was born in Tiddington, Warwickshire, England around 1590, the son of Robert Welles and Alice Robert Hunt of Stourton, Whichford, County Warwick, England, born about 1543. He married Alice Tomes on September 28, 1615 at St. Peter's Church, near Banbury, Oxfordshire, England. She was born around 1593 in Long Marston, Gloucestershire, England, the daughter of John Tomes and Ellen Phelps. A brother of Alice Tomes, also named John Tomes like his father, was a faithful royalist who during the escape of Charles II sheltered him in his home on the night of 10 September 1651 when the king was a fugitive after the Battle of Worcester. After the death of Alice, Welles married again about 1646 in Wethersfield, Connecticut. His second wife was Elizabeth Foote, who was a sister of John Deming and the widow of Nathaniel Foote. Elizabeth had seven children by her previous marriage; there were no children from the second marriage. The first appearance of Governor Thomas Welles's name in Hartford was on 28 March 1637, according to the Connecticut Colonial Records. Welles came to Hartford with Reverend Thomas Hooker in June 1636. Some believe a copy of a grant in which he is named confirms this statement. He was chosen a magistrate of the Colony of Connecticut in 1637, an office he held every successive year until his death in 1660, a period of twenty-two years. He was elected deputy governor in 1654, and governor of the Connecticut Colony in 1655, and in 1656 and 1657 was deputy governor to John Winthrop the Younger; in 1658 governor, and in 1659 deputy governor, which position he held at his death on 14 January 1660 at Wethersfield, Connecticut. It is thought that he was buried in Wethersfield, Connecticut. Some sources indicate that his remains were later transferred to the Ancient Burying Ground in Hartford. In either case, his grave is presently unmarked. His name appears on the Founders of Hartford, Connecticut Monument in Hartford's Ancient Burying Ground.
Children
The children of Thomas and Alice Welles who lived into adulthood were:
Mary
Anne
John, settled in Stratford in 1645, serving as a magistrate and a probate judge there before his death in 1659. His son, John, married Mary Hollister the daughter of Lt, John Hollister and Joanna Treat, the daughter of Richard Treat.
Samuel, became a Captain and settled in Wethersfield, Connecticut. He married as his first wife Elizabeth Hollister, the daughter of Lt. John Hollister and Joanna Treat, the daughter of Richard Treat. Elizabeth and Samuel were the parents of six children. Elizabeth died in 1659 and he married as his second wife Hannah, the daughter of George Lamberton of the New Haven Colony. There were no children by the second marriage. His son Samuel married Ruth Rice, daughter of Edmund Rice, on 20 June 1683 and they had six children.
