Maj. Jonathan Welles

  Noted events in his life were:

• Family History: From The Descendants of Governor Thomas Welles of Connecticut And his Wife Alice Tomes, Volume 1, Third Edition, Page 490. + 842 viii. (l\/Iaj.) JONATHAN, b. 9 Aug 1732; d. 27 Jan 1792; m. 14 Dec 1758 CATHERINE SALTONSTALL.

• Family History: From The Descendants of Governor Thomas Welles of Connecticut and his Wife Alice Tomes, Volume 2, Part B, By Barbara Jean Mathews, CG, FASG, Welles Family Association, 2015, p. 839 - 844. 842. MAJOR JONATHAN WELLS (Col. Thomas, Samuel II, Hon. & Capt. Samuel, Gov. Thomas), born 9 August 1732 in Glastonbury, Connecticut (Barbour citing VR 1:60); and died 27 January 1792 in Glastonbury, in the 60th year of his age (Barbour citing VR 1:110), buried in Green Cemetery, Glastonbury (Hale 40, gives the year as 1782). He married on 14 December 1758 in Glastonbury, Connecticut (Barbour citing VR 1:107) CATHERINE SALTONSTALL, daughter of Capt. Roswell Saltonstall and Mary (Haynes) Lord, granddaughter of Gov. Gurdon Saltonstall, and great granddaughter of Gov. John Haynes, baptized 11 September 1737 in Branford, Connecticut (HH 796), and died 11 March 1818, at age 80 in Glastonbury (Barbour citing VR 1:107), buried with her husband in Green Cemetery (Hale40, “Catherine, relict of Jonathan”).

His tombstone reads, “Reader reflect and be assured that as my body has returned to this native dust so ere long must your's. Prepare then for the solemn event; that your exit may be serene and your future existence happy on the fruition of your God” (Green Cemetery, Glastonbury, Hearn Collection, record no. 304).

Jonathan graduated from Yale College in 1751; a classmate was Roswell Saltonstall, his future brother-in-law. “He taught [at] the Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven, and then for over a year, until April 1756, he served as a Tutor in the college. He then settled on a farm in his native town” (Yale Bios. 2:274). Mr. Jonathan Wells of Glastonbury was a Deputy to the legislature starting in October 1760 and serving until his death (Col. Recs. 112436,479; HH 796).

From January to March 1776, Jonathan Wefls of Glastonbury was Captain of the 6th company of Maj. Erastus Wolcott's Regiment, serving in Cambridge, Massachusetts, even occupying Boston once the British left in mid-March (Conn. Men 381). He was promoted to Major of the 6th Regiment in May 1777; at his resignation he was succeeded byJohn Belden (Conn. Men 434). He took the Oath of Fidelityin 1777, residing at that time in the First Parish (Glastonbury (1853)101). Note: His service is not to be confused with that of Jonathan Welles, Esq., of Hartford, as the towns of residence of the two men are usually given in the records.

“About 1774 he became embarrassed in his affairs, and was obliged to petition the Assembly for protection from imprisonment for debt” (Yales Bios. 2:274). That petition was continued in March 1775 (Col. Recs. 142408), and again in May 1776 because “by means of the present troubles in America no business of that nature hath since been transacted” (Col. Recs. 15:381 382).

“On 26June 1821,]on[atha]n Welles, Mary Welles, Gurdon Welles, Elisha and Catherine Hale, all of Glastonbury, and Samuel and Sarah Richards of Farmington, for $25.00,conveyed to the Hartford Manufacturing Company land given by our grandfather Thomas Welles, Esq., to his three sons, William, John and Jonathan, all deceased” (HH 796 citing Glastonbury Deeds 192438).

Children, surnamed WELLS, born in Glastonbury, Connecticut (Barbour citing VR 1:107):

2952 i. MARY, b. 9 Oct 1759; d. 17 Jun 1832, at age 71 years, bur. in Green Cemetery, Glastonbury (Hale40, by her parents).

2953 ii. (I-Ion.) ROSWELL, b. 20 Aug 1761; d. 19 Mar 1830 in Wilkes Barre, Luzerne Co., Pennsylvania; m. in 1788 in Wilkes Barre HANNAH BUTLER, daughter of Col. Zebulon Butler and Anne Lord, b. 28 Feb 1770in Lyme, Connecticut (Barbour citing VR 1:108). Roswell graduated from Yale College in 1784 (Yale Bios. 2:274). He moved to Wilkes Barre in 1786. He was appointed Judge of Luzerne County in 1793; representative to the Pennsylvania legislature 1797 1798, 1804-1806, and commander of a regiment of militia in 1800 (Welles (1968) 5:41, all data not otherwise cited).

2954 iii. JONATHAN, JR., b. 28 Dec 1763;and d. 23 Apr 1853, at age 89, bur. in Green Cemetery, Glastonbury (Hale 40); m. 10 Dec 1818 in Boston, Massachusetts (Barbour citing Glastonbury VR 2:165), JERUSHA WELLES (#6981), daughter of John Welles, Jr. (#2945), and Mehitabel Goodrich, his first cousin once removed, b. 15 Oct 1780 in Glastonbury (Barbour citing VR 2:46), d. 2Jan 1845, at age 64, bur. in Green Cemetery, Glastonbury, Connecticut (Hale 40). He served as Town Clerk from 1817 to 1829 (Welles (1968) 5:42). (Ancestors of Welles Benner Eastman.).

2955 iv. SARAH, b. 24 Aug 1765; d. 14 Sep 1842 (Pension Abstracts 2872, S17652); m. aft. 1796 LT. SAMUEL RICHARDS, b. 17 Sep 1753 in Canaan, Connecticut, d. 31 Dec 1841 in Wilkes Barre, Luzerne Co., Pennsylvania (Pension Abstracts 2872, S17652), most probably at the home of his daughter Cornelia7 (Richards) Butler, wife of John Butler, a coal operator in Wilkes Barre (Hyde 765). Samuel Richards resided in Farmington, Connecticut, when he applied for a Revolutionary War pension on 11 Apr 1818. He was 65 years old and provided information that his first wife and their family, i.e., his sixteen-year-oldson, and seven-year-old daughter, all died when Samuel was 43 years old, that is, circa 1796; he was then married to his second wife, who survived him (Pension Abstracts 2872, S17652). He stated that he had served as a volunteer from May to Nov 1775, was commissioned an Ensign on 1 Jan 1776, and served through 1776 in New York and on Long Island. He was commissioned Lieutenant on 1 Jan 1777 in the 3rd Connecticut Regiment under Col. Samuel Wyllys, where he served for four more years (Revolutionary \War Pension Files, NARA series M-805, reel 687, pension S17652). Lt. Samuel Richards was an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati, having served in the Revolutionary War from May 1775 to Jan 1781 (Conn. Men 375).

2956 v. ELIZABETH, b. 2 Sep 1767; d. 16 Mar 1802 (West Hartford First Congregational Church Records, slip index citing 1:160); poss. the Elizabeth we11s'5who m. (FANH 1973) GURDON SALTONSTALL WHITING, son of Nathan Whiting and Mary Saltonstall, b. 10 Sep 1766 in New Haven, Connecticut (Barbour citing VR 2:90), bapt. 14 Sep 1766 by the Rev. Chauncey Whitdesey (New Haven First Congregational Church Records, slip index citing 1:62,gives mine as Girdian Salbinsen Whiting, but this is corrected on 9:36); (1.9Jul 1804 (FANH 1973).

2957 vi. GURDON, b. 29 Jul 1770; d. 26 May 1773, bur. in Green Cemetery with his parents (Hale 40, which gives age as 3 days rather than 3 years).

2958 vii. (Rev.) GURDON, b. 20 Jul 1773; d. 8Jun 1852, at age 78, in Oswego, Tioga Co., New York (Hale Death Notices, Hartford Courant, issue of 3Jul 1852, p. 1326, which notes he was from Glastonbury but died in Oswego); m. 25 Mar 1798 (Conn. Marriages 5:110; Glastonbury Buckingham Eastbury Church Records, slip index citing 2:88; NEHGR 1:398) POLLY (CLARKE) NICHOLSON, widow of Ambrose Nicholson, Jr. (his death at Genesee [New York] reported in a letter dated 2 Jan 1798 to Gideon Hale, Jr., Barbour citing Glastonbury Private Record), b. 15 Feb 1771, perhaps in Wethersfield, Connecticut (HH 797). He div. Polly 14 May 1819 on grounds of her adultery with Ichabod Goodrich (Conn. Divorces 11:27). Gurdon was a “wandering Methodist preacher” (Welles (1927) 10).

2959 viii. CATHERINE, b. 18 Mar 1778; d. 8 Dec 1848, at age 70, bur. in Green Cemetery, Glastonbury (Hale 38); m. 29Jun 1820 in Glastonbury, the Rev. William Lockwood officiating (Barbour citing VR 3:60), cor. ELISHA HALE (#2929). She was admitted to church by the Rev. Mr. Riddell (Glastonbury First Congregational Church Records, slip index citing 4192).

Published Works: HH 796-797; Hyde 765-768; Saltonstall 35-36; Weis' AR (1993) 8-9, lines 3 & 4 (Gov. Gurdon Saltonstall was of royal descent; the descendants of Jonathan5 thus have lineage to three colonial Connecticut governors --Haynes, Welles, and Saltonstall - as well as lineage to King Edward III.); Welles (1876) 193; Welles (1968) 5:40: family CCCXCVIII (states that Mary“ married James Gosler), 5:41: family CCCXCIX, 5:41: family CCCXCIX, 5:43: family CCCCI; Yale Bios. 2:273-274 (conflates Jonathan (#842) with Jonathan (#820)).

Jonathan married Katherine Saltonstall, daughter of Rosewell Saltonstall and Mary Haynes, on 14 Dec 1758 in Connecticuit. (Katherine Saltonstall was born on 17 Feb 1735 and died in 1818 in Glastonbury, Hartford, Connecticut.)

  Noted events in their marriage were:

• Marriage: Ancestors and Descendants of Sir Richard Saltonstall of New England, by Richard M. Saltonstall, 1897. Catherine Saltonstall, dau. of Rosewell (155), m. Jonathan Welles of Glastonbury, Conn., grad. Yale Coll. 1751; d. 1792