Family Card - Person Sheet
Family Card - Person Sheet
NameThomas WHEELER 
893
893Birth Dateabt 1590
Will Date16 Jan 1653/4
Immigr Dateabt 1637
Freeman Date17 Apr 1637
FlagsImmigrant
FatherThomas WHEELER (~1563-)
Misc. Notes
According to Threlfall’s GMC50,894 Thomas Wheeler “was born about 1590 at Cranfield, Bedfordshire, the ‘eldest son’. There he grew up. On 5 May 1613 at Cranfield, he and Ann Halsey were married. This was a double wedding with Robert Halsey and Ann Wheeler. Presumably it was a case of a brother and sister marrying a sister and brother. Unfortunately, the relationships are not yet proved. About 1636-7, along with his brothers and at least two sisters, he emigrated to New England and settled in Concord, Massachusetts. From the Roll of Arrears of Payment of Ship Money, 1637, county Bedford (a tax list): ‘Thomas Wheeler gone into New England, 01-05-00’. He was made a freeman of the colony on 17 April 1637.
“Within a few years, many Concord families were attracted to Fairfield, Connecticut. There Thomas Wheeler and his two youngest brothers and other Concord families migrated in the summer of 1644, led by the Reverend John Jones. Fairfield had been settled in 1639 by a few families from Windsor, Connecticut, and other places under the leadership of Roger Ludlow. The Jones party swelled the population of Fairfield, but Concord lost ‘a 7th or 8th part of the Towne’ and ‘many more resolved to goe after them, so that many houses in the Towne stand voyde of Inhabitants and more are likely to be’.
“It is said that he was the first settler at Black Rock and that he built a stone house or fort having a plank roof on which he mounted two four-pounders, one pointing toward the mouth of the harbor, the other toward an Indian fort situated at the head of the harbor, now known by the name Old Fort, which at times was defended by 200 Indians and served as their refuge in the numerous wars with rival tribes from further inland. His home lot at Pequonnock of 2 1/2 acres, recorded in January 1649, was bounded on the northeast with the home-lot of Thomas Wheeler, junior, on the northwest by James Bennett’s, on the southeast by John Evart’s and on the southwest by the highway.
“[p. 502] Thomas Wheeler made his will on 16 January 1653/4 and the inventory was made on 23 August 1654. He provided generously for his wife Ann, and to his ‘eldest son Thomas’ who lived in Concord, he gave his home-lot and all land, divided or undivided, in Concord. To his daughter Sarah, wife of Thomas Sherwood, he gave 10 shillings, and to her son Thomas a colt. To his four grandchildren (Mary, James, Thomas and John Bennett, children of his daughter Hannah, then dead) and to James Bennett who had married his daughter in 1639, he gave 10 shillings each. To his son John, his sole executor, he left all his estate in Fairfield, reserving to his wife Ann the right to his house and lands left for her use at Greenlea. He made Lieutenant Thomas Wheeler (who was his youngest brother), Robert Lockwood and Andrew Ward overseers of his will. His widow, Ann, died in Fairfield in 1659, her will dated 21 August and her inventory dated 20 October following. She bequeathed to her eldest son Thomas and his wife and children, to the children of her daughter Hannah (mentioning Sarah and Hannah Bennett by name), to grandchild Sarah Sherwood and Annis Sherwood ‘wife of my son-in-law’. She gave her best hat to Rebecca Turney, and to Ann Squire a petticoat. An illegible part of the will may have mentioned her son John.”
“Within a few years, many Concord families were attracted to Fairfield, Connecticut. There Thomas Wheeler and his two youngest brothers and other Concord families migrated in the summer of 1644, led by the Reverend John Jones. Fairfield had been settled in 1639 by a few families from Windsor, Connecticut, and other places under the leadership of Roger Ludlow. The Jones party swelled the population of Fairfield, but Concord lost ‘a 7th or 8th part of the Towne’ and ‘many more resolved to goe after them, so that many houses in the Towne stand voyde of Inhabitants and more are likely to be’.
“It is said that he was the first settler at Black Rock and that he built a stone house or fort having a plank roof on which he mounted two four-pounders, one pointing toward the mouth of the harbor, the other toward an Indian fort situated at the head of the harbor, now known by the name Old Fort, which at times was defended by 200 Indians and served as their refuge in the numerous wars with rival tribes from further inland. His home lot at Pequonnock of 2 1/2 acres, recorded in January 1649, was bounded on the northeast with the home-lot of Thomas Wheeler, junior, on the northwest by James Bennett’s, on the southeast by John Evart’s and on the southwest by the highway.
“[p. 502] Thomas Wheeler made his will on 16 January 1653/4 and the inventory was made on 23 August 1654. He provided generously for his wife Ann, and to his ‘eldest son Thomas’ who lived in Concord, he gave his home-lot and all land, divided or undivided, in Concord. To his daughter Sarah, wife of Thomas Sherwood, he gave 10 shillings, and to her son Thomas a colt. To his four grandchildren (Mary, James, Thomas and John Bennett, children of his daughter Hannah, then dead) and to James Bennett who had married his daughter in 1639, he gave 10 shillings each. To his son John, his sole executor, he left all his estate in Fairfield, reserving to his wife Ann the right to his house and lands left for her use at Greenlea. He made Lieutenant Thomas Wheeler (who was his youngest brother), Robert Lockwood and Andrew Ward overseers of his will. His widow, Ann, died in Fairfield in 1659, her will dated 21 August and her inventory dated 20 October following. She bequeathed to her eldest son Thomas and his wife and children, to the children of her daughter Hannah (mentioning Sarah and Hannah Bennett by name), to grandchild Sarah Sherwood and Annis Sherwood ‘wife of my son-in-law’. She gave her best hat to Rebecca Turney, and to Ann Squire a petticoat. An illegible part of the will may have mentioned her son John.”
