Col. Thomas Wallingford, of Somersworth

Thomas Wallingford, Esq. was one of the most noted men of the town of Somersworth, which was part of the town of Dover until 1754, and one of the wealthiest men in the state of New Hampshire. He moved to the area with his father when only a young child and worked in his father's saw mill, which he later inherited and continued to operate. He lived on the old road from Dover to Salmon Falls, a section of Somersworth/Rollinsford, near the first meeting house at Rollinsford Junction. "His home was located somewhere between the meeting house and the falls on the Salmon Falls River, being the last house on the left as one approaches the falls. He was also a merchant and had a store at Rollinsford Junction near the meeting house." "In these early years when the present town of Rollinsford had parochial powers only, as the parish of Summersworth, the area was part of the town of Dover. So influential was Col. Thomas Wallingford that he was elected a representative for the town of Dover (which then included all of Rollinsford) to the Royal Provincial Assembly continuously from 1739 to 1745. He was also the moderator at the Dover town meetings in 1739, 1745, 1746 and 1748, and he was elected selectman for the town of Dover in 1733, 1739, 1741 to 1746 inclusive, and again in 1748. Colonel Thomas Wallingford was named a Judge of the Superior Court of the Province of New Hampshire in 1748, and held this position until his death, a period of 23 years... He held the rank of Colonel in the Royal Colonial Militia for the Province. His grave is located in the old cemetery off Roberts Road in Rollinsford."(436)

He was an extensive landowner, being one of the original Masonian Proprietors, a group of wealthy seacoast area merchants who purchased claim to ownership of all wastelands within sixty miles of New Hampshire's coast. It was through land sales, township grants and the reservation of much land for their own use that these Masonian Proprietors gained such immense wealth(437). One such piece of land, in Weare, N.H., included what is now known as Mt. Wallingford, named after Thomas.

Like many of the rich families of early New England, the Wallingfords were slaveowners. In the inventory of Thomas's estate four slaves are mentioned -- a woman named Phillis, a girl named Dinah, a man named Richmond and a boy named Cato. Cato is likely the one who served in the Revolutionary War. Phillis died 18 February 1773, but before she died she had been offered to Thomas's son in law Capt. William Pearne, who married the daughter Mary. The girl Dinah was described as "disordered in Mind & body of no value".(438)

Family

He married three times.

He married first, Margaret Clements, about 1717, probably in Dover, New Hampshire.(419) Margaret's father made his will in October 1716 and in it Margaret still have the surname Clements was likely wasn't married yet(420). Allowing for the births of their children at the logical times suggests a year of 1717 for the wedding, or possibly late 1716.(421) Margaret is mentioned as his wife in a deed of 1 October 1719.(422)

Thomas married second, Mary Pray, before 21 July 1730.(426) We know he married before this because his wife's name was Mary in a deed of that date.

Thomas married third, Elizabeth Swett, about 1754.(431) This date is based on the date of birth of their first child in early 1755.

Notes

NEHGR has different 2nd & 3rd wives.

Citations

• 430. Clements Genealogy (1927), p.98-100.
• 431. Ibid., p.98,101
• 436. Rollinsford, NH, History of (1973), p.636-7.
• 437. Jere R. Daniell, Experiment in Republicanism: New Hampshire Politics and the American Revolution, 1741-1794 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Pr., 1970), p.14-5 (hereafter cited as Daniell, Experiment in Republicanism).

Sources

1. The New England Historical & Genealogical Register and Antiquarian Journal, Volume 20 (Google eBook) S.G. Drake, 1866 - Genealogy. Page 335-336. "Wallingford"

Links

• Wallingfords of New England