| Notes |
- Note: Baptism: 19 NOV 1648 Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts
Pioneers of Massachusetts, pg 490: Wheeler, Thomas: Miller,yeoman, Salem, worked on the bridge in 1646; propr. 1647. Rem.to Lynn. He deposed in 1653, age about 50 years. With wife Mary sold land in Lynn; she was adm. chh. 1 (9) 1648. Children Isaac and Zipporah baptized 19 (9) 1648.
THE WHEELER FAMILY IN AMERICA,THE DESCENDANTS OF THOMAS WHEELER,STONINGTON, CONN., pages 289 through 349, by Inez E.Coolby-Brayton, 1934. Located in the DAR Library, Washington,DC.
The following from the HISTORY OF STONINGTON, CONN., by Judge Richard Anson Wheeler is, perhaps, the best experssion of allthat is known of his life.
"Thomas Wheeler, the ancestor of the Wheeler family of Stonington, Conn., and region round about, was doubtless of English origin, but the place of his birth, and nationality are not certainly known, nor has the time of his migration to this country been ascertained, so as to associate him with any of the passengers of the early emigrant ships. The first knowledge that we have of him in this country is when he appears as a residentof the town of Lynn, Mass., in 1635, when and where he wa selected constable, and held other official positions later on. In 1642 he was admitted in the privilege of a freeman of the commonwealth of Mass., purchasing large tracts of land there, including a mill site, upon which he built and operated a sawand grist mill. During his residence in Lynn he married Mary____, a young lady of his acquaintance, whose family name is unknown, but our family traditions represent her as a woman of pleasing and attractive accomplishments, and in every way worthy of her liege loard; she graced her domestic duties with cheerfujl loveliness, filling his home with light and love. They were married in 1645, and became the parents of three children.
What induced our ancestor, Thomas Wheeler, to leave Lynn, Mass.,and sell out his business and real estate there, and take up hisa bode in the town of Stonington in 1667, is not fully understood, but whatever motive actuated him in coming this way it is plainly evident that he intended to make Stonington his final home. He was an intimate friend of Rev. James Noyes, who came to Stonington the same year that he did, and it has been supposed that the friendship between them was the cause of his coming. But that as it may, there were men of his name that lived in the English home of the Noyes family, and crossed the ocean about the same year that he did. Thomas Wheeler was made freeman in the Connecticut Colony in the year 1669, and was nominated and elected one of the Stonington representatives to the Connecticut General Court in the year 1673. The next year his name appears among the immorial nine who organized the First Congregational Church of Stonington, June 3, 1674, and his wife,Mary Wheeler, was one of the partakers with the church in their first communion service. Soon after Thomas Wheeler and his wife came to Stonington to live, he and his son Isaac built them a residence in North Stonington, where Col. James F. Brown now resides, where they lived and died. Thomas Wheeler left a will, which was lost by being burned when the infamous Arnold burned the city of New London, Sept. 6, 1781. The existence of his willis proved by his descendants referring in it in later instruments conveying the real estate that belonged to him and given to them in his will. They are both buried in the old Whitehall burial place, situated on the east bank of the Mystic river. He died March 6, 1686, age 84 years, consequently he was born 1602.
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1603 - 1686 (82 years)