WILLIAM PHELPS SR

• Death Notes
  • - b. 1590-1596, England; d. Jul. 14, 1672, Windsor, CT. 

• General Notes
  •  William Phelps Sr. was born say 1593 at Crewkerne, Co. Somerset, England.5 He was the son of William Phelps. William Phelps Sr. was baptized on 19 August 1599 at Abby Church, Tewkesbury, England. He married Mary (?) say 1617. William Phelps Sr. married Anne Dover on 14 November 1626 at Crewkerne, Co. Somerset, England. William Phelps Sr. died on 14 July 1672 at Windsor, Hartford Co., CT.6
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    William PHELPS - b. 1590-1596, England; d. Jul. 14, 1672, Windsor, CT. Together with brothers George and Richard, he arrived at Dorchester in 1630 in the 'Mary & John.' Freeman application Oct. 19, 1630; juror Nov. 9, 1630; constable 1631; deputy 1634-1635. Moved to Windsor about 1636, where he was magistrate 1639-1647 and 1656-1662. Purchased land from the Indian, Sehat, Mar. 31, 1665. Married first in England about 1617, Mary (bur. Aug. 13, 1626, Crewkerne, Somerset, England), the mother of his first four children. William married second Nov. 14, 1626, Crewkerne, Somerset, England. [There is no supporting record that indicate that he married a third time. Any such record would be welcome.]
    
    
    
    
    William was baptized in Tewkesbury Abbey on August 19, 1599, as son of William and Dorothy Phelps. He was twelve and his brother George was only five at the time of their father's death in 1611. Their mother died about two years later. There is no information on these brothers' lives in the next decade. William married about 1618, Mary (earlier texts say Elizabeth, see TAG), who may have been a Marshall. Their first son was baptized in Twekesbury on December 26, 1619.
    
    They may have left then for Exeter, Devon, for Marian Merritt says William Phelps was from the county town of Exeter. When they sailed for American in 1630 they brought their six children. Mr. George E. Phelps lists these as born in Tewkesbury but McBride saw no baptismal records for them there. It is possible they were on some of the ruined sheets and certainly, if born at Exeter, must have been on their lost sheets.
    
    William's Wives
    
    Henry R. Stiles in his History and Genealogy of Ancient Windsor, states that william Phelps married first Elizabeth (---), who died in Dorchester, that he married second in Windsor, Mary dover, and that she died on 27 Nov. 1675, he having predeceased her on 14 July 1672.
    
    These statements are repeated by Phelps Fam. 1:72-86, Maude Pinney Kuhns (The Mary and John, and other works such as Spear (7:63), with the addition of the years 1635 for Elizabeth's death and 1638 for the marriage to Mary Dover. Charles Edward anks, however, gives the name of the wife with whom William Phelps emigrated as "Mrs. Anne Phelps," without, unfortunately, a citation (Planters p. 90).
    
    No evidence has been found in American sources for these assertions. the dorchester vital records do not include those families that left for Windsor before 1643 and have nothing on the death of any Phelps. Windsor records do not include the claimed marriage to Mary Dover, and we have no evidence of her first name. The death record simply names "William Phelps his wife".
    
    The Crewkerne records prove that William Phelps had an apparent first wife, named Mary rather than Elizabeth, and that after her death he did indeed marry a Dover. The published assertion about mary dover may be a confusion of these two wives, or possibly the misapplication of an unidentified document in which Phelps mentioned a Dover as a relation.
    
    Whatever the case, no evidence has been found for the claimed marriage to Elizabeth or for the claimed marriage to Mary Dover. The conclusion that the latter marriage occurred in 1638 probably came from the birth of Timothy, in August of September 1639. The gap of five years between Timothy and the last child Mary in 1644 suggests that Mary may have been a menopause baby.
    
    THE MARY AND JOHN
    
    The Phelps did sail from Plymouth about 40 miles from Exeter where they joined other families from the southwest counties of England led by the Rev. John White the "great patron of new England migration." The group selected John Maverick and John Wareham as their ministers. There is an inscription for Wareham in the Palisade Cemetery, Windsor, Connecticut. William Phelps was a member of the original congregation formed in England to establish its own colony and church in New England.
    
    Before sailing they kept a solemn day of fasting, preaching and praying in the New Hospital in Plymouth. The party of 140 set out on March 20, 1630, in the Mary and John of 400 tons, described as Mr. Ludlow's vessel, with Capt. Squab, and arrived on May 30. A misunderstanding between the passengers and Captl. Squab led to the ship's company being put off at Natasket (Hull) instead of Charleston. Ten males set out afoot to Charleston Neck and Watertwon, were received, scantily fed and then returned to their group. They found pasturage for their sea-weary animals at Mattapan and named it Dorchester in honor of Rev. White and many of the group from Dorchester. of the man "past middle age and of good estates" were William Phelps, Henry Wolcott and Thomas Ford, and among the young men were Israel Stoughton, George Minot and Nathaniel Duncan. These families have a way of turning up in the Marshall family which is one clue that Elizabeth Phelps had been a Marshall. Their oldest son sailed to Barbgados in the company of other Marshalls soon after his mother's death.
    
    Dorchester, Mass.
    
    The Phelps stayed at Dorchester where, from the first, William Phelps was a prominent and highly respected citizen. On October 19, 1630, he applied as freeman. On November 9th he was on the jury for the trial of Walter Palmer for the murder of Austin Brotchus -- the first trial by jury in New England! He became Constable fo Dorchester on September 27, 1631, and on March 4, 1634, was appointed by the general court to go with a committee to arrange the boundary between Boston and Dorchester. On May 5, 1635, he was a member of the general court for Dorchester. From then on he has many mentions in both Massachusetts and Connecticut.
    
    Windsor, Conn.
    
    During this time the Dutch in New Amsterdam, having explored the Connecticut River to (now) Enfield Falls and wishing to have more settlers along the river to reinforce their settlements, sent an embassage to Plymouth. Soon each questioned the other's rights to be there and each reinforced their lines. In 1634 plans were made by the English to occupy the valley. In 1635 William Phelps was on a commission appointed to govern Connecticut as a separate colony. He signed the agreement with Mr. Prince of Plymouth for the Windsor lands, 7 miles west of the river, paying the Indians 2 coats, 40 shilllings in wampum for a third coat and 15 extra shillings. Later, not being able to prove full payment, he honestly bought it over again (1665) for 4 trucking coats or "whatever will satisfy."
    
    William Phelps moved with his children to Windsor early in 1636. He had first built on the south side of a rivulet there with his brother George a little closer into the settlement. William's lot measured six rods wide, but "being drowned very deep in a flood of 1638" he removed to higher ground. When he moved to higher ground he described his new location as "bounded at one point 40 rods from my dwelling house where it is bounded South by a little brook that falls into the river (Farmington)." Samuel Phelps and John Bartlett witnessed the deed there. This was his meadow lot out on the Poquonock Road just before one comes to Stoughton House, the old stone fort.
    
    William continued his responsible place in Windsor. As a member of the general court in 1637 he declared war against the Pequots. He was a magistrate from 1638 to 1642 and from 1658 to 1662 and foreman of the first grand jury in 1643. He was frequently mentioned as on the petit jury and in 1641 was appointed with a Mr. Welles of Hartford on a committee on lying! It is said that he was an excellent, pious upright man in his public and private life and truly a pillar of Church and State. By the time he had grown elderly and had a son of his name, he became known as "Ould Mr. Phelps" and as such the old church record enters his death on July 14, 1672, after a 42-year residence in New England of which 36 were spent in Windsor. He was buried on the 15th day of July. No probate has been found for William Phelps; he had probably distributed his property among his children before his death.
    
    

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