1026–1027.  Thomas Wells was born probably in Evesham, Worcestershire, England, in—say—1600, and died in Evesham, Worcestershire, England, about February, 1636/7. He was buried in All Saints Parish, Evesham, Worcestershire, England. Frances Albright was born in England and died in Wethersfield, Connecticut, on March 1, 1678. They were married in All Saints Parish on Thursday, October 13, 1625. She took the name Frances Wells. They had four children:

i. Thomas Wells was born probably in Evesham about 1628, and died in Hadley, Massachusetts, about October, 1676. He married Mary Beardsley, daughter of William and Mary (Harvey) Beardsley, in about 1651.
Per Ruth White Mesarch [Oct. 2001], they had 16 children: Sarah, John, Jonathan, John, Samuel, Mary, Noah, Hannah, Ebenezer, Daniel, Ephriam, Joshua, Fannie, George, Frank, and Edwy.
ii. Mary Wells [#513]: She was baptized in St. Lawrence Parish, Evesham, Worcestershire, England, on July 15, 1630, and died in Hartford, Connecticut, on July 3, 1700.
iii. Sarah Wells was baptized in St. Lawrence Parish on July 15, 1630, and died in Evesham in June, 1636. She was buried at All Saints Parish.
iv. John Wells was baptized in All Saints Parish on February 20, 1635/6. He married Sarah Curtis.

Her second marriage was to Thomas Coleman. He was born in England. They had one child:

i. Deborah Coleman: She was most likely a daughter of Frances as she is mentioned in Frances's will. However, no birth records have been found so she could be a daughter from her father's first marriage.

Nothing has been found of Thomas Wells before his marriage. His father (who was not Governor Thomas Welles) was still living in February 1636/7 as he was included as a beneficiary of Thomas's will; however his name was not given and no likely candidate has been found in searches of the burial and probate records of Evesham.

The identity of Frances Albret/Albright's parents or her residence before marriage has not been found, but she had brothers named John Albright and Richard Albright. Richard lived at Alderminster, Worcestershire (now Warwickshire); his marriage to Ann Kelbie on June 7, 1631, is recorded there. Two children of this marriage were christened there, and Richard died there (inventory, March 6, 1638/3). Richard 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.

Nearly all of the information about Thomas Wells comes from his will, dated "February 9, 1637" [originally thought to have been 1637/8 but probably 1636/7], in which he nominated his wife as executrix without giving her name. It is certain 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 house, and was a weaver. He apparently 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 (his daughter Sarah had already died): eldest son Thomas, daughter Mary, and son John. He even left a contingency bequest "if my wife be with child." The christening of three children (Mary, Sarah, and John), and the burial of daughter Sarah, are recorded in the records and/or transcripts 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 Evesham.

In addition to the bequests already mentioned, Thomas Wells left two shillings to each of the following individuals (some of whose family relationship, if any, has not been 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 February 13, 1636/37, a Thomas Wells was buried in the parish of All Saints. Initially it was thought this burial date seemed to indicate that this individual could not have been the Thomas Wells who wrote his will February 9, 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 had no probate date attached to it. The date 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 1700s, lists the will under 1637 with no other indication of whether it was 1636/7 or 1637/8.

No further listing of any of these Wells has been found in Evesham records. Efforts to equate the widow Frances Wells's family in England with the one in New England yielded only circumstantial evidence to support the contention until the inventory of Richard Albright's estate was located in which are named "Thomas Coalman's children". Among other things, this shows that Frances (Albright) Wells married Thomas Coalman before March, 1638/9 (date of the inventory of her brother's estate), or about two years after 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 October 3, 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 wch 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. There is no record of the birth of a Deborah to Thomas and Frances Coleman.

This web page originally read as follows. However, it appears that virtually all of it was wrong, including the existence of Hugh Welles/Wells. A very convincing description of the parents of these children is given in a web site maintained by Olin Wells. That is the source of the information presented above. The previous text:

Hugh Welles was born in Colchester, Essex, England, in 1590, and died in Wethersfield, Connecticut, about 1645. Frances Belcher was born in Colchester in about 1598, and died in Wethersfield on March 1, 1678. He is the son of Thomas Welles. She is the daughter of Dabridgecourt and Elizabeth (Fisher) Belcher.

Her second marriage was to Thomas Coleman. They had no children.

Hugh Welles came from county Essex, England, in about 1635 and settled in Wethersfield. He was one of the founders of Hartford. His brother, Rev. & Hon. Thomas Welles, was a governor of Connecticut; he died in Hartford on January 14, 1660, at age 62.

After Hugh's death, Frances married Thomas Coleman and moved to Hadley about 1660. When she died, she bequeathed her property to the family of her son, Thomas Wells (deceased), to her son, John Welles, of Hatfield (and his children), and to her daughter, Mary Gilbert. Frances appointed her grandson, Jonathan Gilbert, the executor of her will.
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