Notes:
Benjamin settled in Voluntown. His marriage to Amy was performed by Rev. Levi Hart. He served, 1777-81, as private from Voluntown, Conn., where he died.
Notes:
Joseph Weld arrived in America in June 1632, debarking at Boston from the "William & Francis". He was accompanied by his wife Elizabeth, and children Elizabeth, Mary, Hannah and Thomas; his eldest child John did not come until 1638. He settled at Roxbury and became a householder and proprietor of the town; he was a man of high reputation, very conspicuous in the early history of the colony, and reputed to have been the wealthiest merchant of his day in New England. He kept a store on Roxbury Street, and lived opposite his brother the Rev. Thomas Weld.. (R. Comm. Rep. XXXIV: 158-9) Between the Denison estate and that of Elder Heath, beginning at Vernon Street, was the homestead of Capt. Joseph Weld, containing two acres of Garden and orchard. His widow married Anthony Stoddard, who took over the homstead of Weld.
Joseph Weld was made a freeman 3 March 1636 and he was deputy to the General Court 1636-44, selectman of Roxbury prior to 1643, and representative 1635-45; he was very prominent in military matters. He became a member and was chosen first ensign of the Artillery Company of Boston at its organization in 1638, the first Monday in June. His name stands third on the original roll. (R. of Ancient & Honorable Artillery Co. of Boston Vol. I) Joseph was the first Captain of the Roxbury Military Company in 1636, it was included in the regiment of which Winthrop was Colonel and Thomas Dudley Lieutenant Colonel.
The descendants of Joseph Weld, for distinguished service rendered by him to the Colony, received as a gift the beautiful estate in West Roxbury, now known as the Bussey Farm, the property of Harvard College. The grant was made in 1660, but they did not enjoy the use of the land until 1708, it remained in the Weld family for generations before it passed to others; Benjamin bought it in 1806 and bequeathed the property, containing some three hundred acres, to Harvard College at his death.
From the will of Joseph Weld, he appears to have been one of the earliest donors to that College in Cambridge. The estate lay between Centre and South Streets, Saw Mill Brook crossed it, and emptied into Stony River near Forest Hills station, Bussey Street divides the estate in two nearly equal parts. Weld's Hill a very conspicuous eminence on this estate, was selected by Washington as a rallying point for the patriot army to fall back upon in case of disaster, and its occupation would have effectually protected the road to Dedham, the depot of the army supplies. A letter from Gen. Burgoyne to Lord Rochford: -- "Look, my Lord, upon the country near Boston; it is all fortification. Driven from one hill, you will see the enemy continually retrenched upon the next, and every step we move must be the slow step of a siege. Could we at last penetrate ten miles perhaps we should not obtain a single sheep or an ounce of flour by our laborious progress, for they remove every article of provisions as they go."
Notes:
Edmund's birth year has also been reported as 1567. He was a very prosperous cloth merchant in Sudbury, England, where weavers had been introduced by Edward III. He invested savings from his business in lands, as his will shows. His home was located two doors from the "White Hart" as shown by the will of William Buxton the Elder, apothecary, dated 14 Jan 1611. (There was still a "White Hart" in Sudbury on Cross Street in 1930.) He was prominent in the councils of the Borough, of which we find him a Baliff on Sept. 5, 1597.
(From: "Calender of the Muniments of the Borough of Sudbury, printed in Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archealogy, Vol 13)
The will of Edmond Welde of Sudbury, Suffolk, mercer, made 5 Dec. 1605, proved 3 May 1608, to wit:
I give and bequeath unto Amye my right well beloved wife my mansion house wherein I do now inhabit and dwell, in the parish of St. Peter in Sudbury, to hold for life; and after her decease I give the moiety[?] and one part thereof (i. e.) the shop, the chamber over it, the warehouse &c. to Daniel Welde my eldest son; the other part of the messuage[?], being the West side thereof, I give to Welde my second son. To the said Daniel fifty pounds at five and twenty years of age and to John forty pounds at five and twenty years of age. To Edmund my third son my tenements and houses which I purchased of Mr. John Howe, in the parish of St. Gregory, to have and to hold after he shall be of the full age of four and twenty years. To Thomas my fourth son a piece of arable land of six acres in Great Cornard called Church Croftes, at four and twenty. To Benjamin my fifth son a piece of arable land of five acres which I purchased of Peter Greene gent., being parcel of the manor of Neale's, lying in a field near the clay pits in the Parish of St. Peter in Sudbury, abutting upon the way leading from Sudbury towards Great Waldingfield, to have and to hold at his age of four and twenty. I give to Joseph my sixth son my piece of meadow in Cornerd and Sudbury containing two acres and three roods which was some time Richard Eden's gent. and abutteth upon the high way leading from Sudbury towards Corneard right against a certain lane called Cats Lane. To James my seventh son my messuage or tenement with a croft of land belonging of one acre and half in North Lopham Norfolk which I purchased of John Lovick. To my eldest daughter Mary Welde fifty pounds at two and twenty. To my youngest daughter Elizabeth my two tenements which I purchased of John Drewe, in Balington Essex, and an acre land called Stumpcrosse in Cornard. Amye my wife to be sole executrix and my brother John Dereslye to be supervisor. William Howe and Robert Buckstone witnesses."
(From: Water's Gen. Glean. in England II: 1076)
Notes:
Samuel was educated at Trinity College Cambridge, BA 1613, MA 1618. He was Vivar of Haverhill, 1624-1632 but he was a Puritan and he was excommunicated and driven out of his position and his living by what Savage calls the "driveling malevolence of Archbishop Laud". Thomas sought religious freedom in the new world, arriving America at Boston 5 Jun 1632 on the "William & Francis". He bacame Minister of the First Church of Roxbury, 1632-1641, and he had a prominent roll in the trial of Annie Hutchinson. His grandson ended the feud by his marriage to Annie Hutchinson's great-granddaughter.
Notes:
The Weld genealogy does not agree with the Faxon genealogy on Joseph's ancestry; Faxon gives, Lt. Joseph, John, John, Rev. Thomas.
Notes:
The Weld genealogy does not agree with the Faxon genealogy on Joseph's ancestry; Faxon gives, Lt. Joseph, John, John, Rev. Thomas.
Notes:
The descendancy of Thomas Dudley comes entirely from the files of LDS Church. Thomas himself is also found in the LDS Church files but he is attached to the ancestry the Thomas Dudley who was Governor of Massachusetts Colony, which is utterly wrong. Our Thomas, the Thomas whose wife was surnamed "White", IS in the LDS files; he is just there with the wrong parents and the wrong birth, death and marriage dates. More on this is written in the note for his son, David.