| Note |
- Thomas Wells married Frances Albret in the Parish of All Saints, Evesham, County Worcester 13 October 1625. Nothing has been found of Thomas before his marriage. We know his father was still living in February 1636/7 as he was included as a beneficiary of Thomas' will, however his name was not stated, and no likely candidate was found in a search of burial and probate records of Evesham. We have not been able to determine the identity of Frances Albret/Albright's parents or her place of residence before marriage, but she had brothers named John Albright and Richard Albright, and we have a residence of the latter. Richard Albright lived at Alderminster -- the marriage of Richard to Ann Kelbie on 7 June 1631 is recorded there, two children of this marriage are christened there, and Richard died there (inventory, 6 March 1638/3). Richard Albright left bequests in his estate to his three children, and his 'brothers' John Albright and Griffen Low. Richard and several of these same individuals were also named in the will of Thomas Wells. Alderminster is located about 10 miles east of Evesham in County Warwick. Nearly all of our information about Thomas Wells comes from his will, dated 9 February 1637 [originally thought to have been1637/8 but probably 1636/7], in which he nominated his wife as executrix, but again he failed to give a name. We can assume with a high degree of certainty that this is the same Thomas Wells who married Frances Albret/Albright because he left bequests in his will to his brothers[-in-law], John Albright and Richard Albright. In 1636 Thomas was a resident of Evesham, owned his own house and by occupation was a weaver. At the time this may have meant that he was a weaver of straw hats. In addition to the house, he apparently owned the land upon which he raised hogs with the help of a laborer, for in his will he bequeathed 'to my man Charles Whitell a shire hog worth eight shillings and two hatchets which he doth work with. Thomas left bequests to each of his living children: 'eldest son Thomas [Wells], daughter Mary [Wells], son John [Wells] and he even left a contingency bequest 'if my wife be with child.' The christening of three children, and the burial of one daughter, of Thomas Wells are recorded in the records and/or transcript of the two parishes of Evesham: All Saints and St. Lawerence. The churches for these two parishes are located immediately adjacent to each other in the center of the town of Evesham.15 Jul 1630 - Mary [Wells] d/o Thomas Wells, christened, St. Lawrence (transcript) 10 Feb 1632/3 - Sara [Wells] d/o Tho. Weles, christened, St. Lawrence 20 Feb 1635/6 - John [Wells] s/o Thomas Welles, christened, Al l Saints126 Jun 1636 - Sarah [Wells] d/o Thomas Wells [Wills?], buried, All Saints. Although some researchers have come up with some additional and/or conflicting information, rechecks have shown those to be in error and we will not even mention them here. The above information has been double checked independently and verified in the indicated records. Note also that the notations '[Wells]' have been added by the editor for clarity. The order of naming the children in Thomas' will are the same as the recorded christenings; son Thomas' baptism has not been found in parish records or transcripts, and Sarah died before the will was written. In addition to the bequests already mentioned, Thomas Wells left two shillings to each of the following individuals (the family relationship, if any, of some is yet to be determined): Joseph Clifford and John Welles, godsons; John Albright and Catherine Albright, children of Richard Albright; Ann Albright and Jone Tege, daughters of John Albright; John Loe and Sara Loe, children of Griffen Loe (Richard called him brother[-in-law] Low); Joel Pathit; and Sara Orduay -- Edward Orduay,William Lampit and Thomas Hardy were witnesses to the will. On 13 February 1636/37, a Thomas Wells was buried in the parish of All Saints, Evesham. Initially it was thought this burial date seemed to indicate that this individual could not have been the Thomas Wells who wrote his will 9 February 1637/8, his father (name unknown), or his son, since all were still living at this 'later' date. Further checking of the will has shown that it was a nuncupative will and has no probate date attached to it. The superscription on the front of the will is merely '1637'. There is no probate act book for this period and the index in which it appears, apparently written in the 18th century, lists the will under1637 with no other indication of whether it was 1636/7 or1637/8. In short, this may have been the same Thomas Wells with some sort of date error in the will, but we may never know for certain. No further listing of any of these Wells has been found in Evesham records. Efforts to equate the widow Frances Wells' family in England with the one in New England yielded only circumstantial evidence to support the contention until the inventory of Richard Albright was located in which are named 'Thomas Coalman's children'. Among other things, this shows that Frances (Albright) Wells married Thomas Coalman before March1638/9 (date of the inventory of her brother's estate) or within two years of the death of her husband Thomas Wells and not in Connecticut as had previously been presumed. Additional research by Douglas Richardson published in 'The New England Historical and Genealogical Register' Vol. CXLVI, January 1992 also revealed that in 'Aspinwall's Notarial Records' (a volume relating to the early history of Boston) a reference dated 03 Oct 1646 showed that Thomas Coleman gave a power of attorney '...unto Captain Robert Harding of Boston 'to aske &c all writeinges touching his house in Esstum [sic. surely Evesham] in the County of Worcestershire which are in the hands of John Albright or any other, & to said house do lett or sell &make seale & Deliver deeds or writeings of the same, & to receive the rent for the time past due; also to receive the Remainder of a Legacie in the hands of John Norton of Cotherstock Esqr granted by the will of John Coleman of Cotherstock.' This would seem to prove conclusively that the wife of Thomas Wells of Evesham was indeed Frances Albright. Many of the genealogies of this family identify the wife of 'Hugh' to have been Frances Belcher. Yet, no proof has been offered to properly link the name Belcher with Frances Coleman except that it was the name of a man married by one of her granddaughters. Many attempts to detail the Belcher line have been made, but never has one proven that anyone by this name ever married a Wells in the proper period. The will of Frances Coleman appears to prove (circumstantially again) that the Deborah (or sometimes Deboro) mentioned in the will was indeed Deborah Coleman as she is the only child who is not identified by last name in the will. Each of the Wells children is mentioned specifically as 'Wells' on each occurrence. Deborah appears several times only by her first name clearly indicating that there would be no confusion to the reader that the child was Deborah Coleman not Wells. Obviously this does not prove that she was a natural daughter of Frances, as she could possibly have been a very young child by Coleman's first wife whom Frances raised and felt was her child more so than the other Coleman children. We have, in fact, not seen any record of the birth of this Deborah Coleman to Thomas and Frances Coleman. There are still many questions regarding this family. We welcome information from anyone who can provide conclusive proof of any of the material alluded to here. There is one interesting bequest in the will of Frances Coleman wherein she leaves to heron John Welles 'my grate Bible'. If anyone knows of the existence today of this bible or a copy of the family information that it contained originally, we would certainly love to see it and share it with the many descendants of this family.
References: 1 = Parish Records and Bishop's Transcripts of All Saints, Evesham.
2 = Will of Thomas Welles, Weaver of Evesham
3 = W.P.W. Phillimore & W.F. Carter, Worcester Parish Registers, Marriages, Vol. 1 (London, 1901).
4 = LDS Parish Print Out, Alderminister, Worcester, England (1611-1700)
5 = Will and Inventory of Richard Albright
6 = Parish Records of St. Lawrence, Evesham
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Abt 1595 - 1637 (42 years)
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