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Historical records matching John Wells
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About John Wells
John Wells
- Son of John Wells and Mary Norton
- Birth/ Christening Record: November 12, 1660 at Saint Mary, Reading, Berkshire, England
- John Wells was a Quaker and emigrated to Pennsylvania in the 1680s.
- Death: July 28, 1736 (75) in Oxford, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, Colonial America
Wondering: How closely related to: Henry Edmund Wells ... both from Berkshire (!)
Biography
John Wells, Jr., was a native of Berkshire, England. The Wells family had been independent farmers there for centuries before his birth on November 18, 1660, in its main town, Reading. His father owned lands at Bradfield and Reading, Berkshire. His mother was Mary Norton, of a neighboring yeoman family. John and Mary married in Reading, England, on July 28, 1681.
Both families were affiliated with the English Society of Friends, more commonly known as Quakers. This Protestant group were known for their abstinence from liquor, swearing, bearing arms and disavowal of clerical hierarchy. They were persecuted in England and many of its American colonies. However, King Charles II awarded early Quaker follower, William Penn, son of Admiral Sir William Penn, to whom the King owed a lot of money, the proprietorship of a colony named Pennsylvania, in 1681. By 1682, Penn had invited English, Welsh or Irish Quakers to join him in a tolerant society around the new city of Philadelphia ("city of brotherly love").
The Wells and Norton families were among the first Quakers to land at New Castle (Philadelphia's early port). They settled first in Abington, Montgomery Co., then moved to Upper Dublin and from there to Solebury Township, Bucks county, where John Wells, a successful carpenter, bought 500 acres land in 1717, near what is now the town of New Hope, Pennsylvania. Already the father of several children, John Wells also took in his young niece (his wife's brother's daughter), Rebecca Norton - after her parents apparently died when she was still a baby (b. 1691). They were neighbor Quakers and also early Pennsylvania settlers. Rebecca's brother, John Norton, was a school teacher in Bucks County, PA.
John was well known for his hard work and Christian charity. One day, according to family tradition, he met a young weaver named William Kitchen (aka Kitchin) who was despondent because he could not find work locally. John is said to have told him: If thou wilt stay with me, thou shalt never want. William accepted, moved in and eventually married John's niece Rebecca, by this time known as Rebecca Wells. In 1721 William Kitchen & wife Rebecca bought a strip of river-front and built the first house in what would become New Hope, Penna., named because of his "new hope" for humanity, founded on John's kindness.[1]
In 1719, the Pennsylvania Assembly passed an act granting John Wells the exclusive right to operate a ferry across the Delaware River on the Lower York Road thoroughfare to New Jersey & New York City. The lease was renewed every 7 years until after John's death in 1736. In 1734, John Wells was also granted a license to run a tavern at the Ferry crossing in New Hope, one of the area's earliest, now the site of New Hope's famed "Logan Inn."
John did not have a very long time operating this tavern, however; in 1735 he took ill and left Solebury Twp., for suburban Philadelphia (Oxford Twp - no longer exists), taken in by his son Samuel, who lived there. He died there in January 1736.
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John Wells's Timeline
| 1660 |
November 12, 1660
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Reading, Berkshire, England (United Kingdom)
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November 12, 1660
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Reading, Berkshire, England
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| 1668 |
November 29, 1668
Age 8
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St Olave Church, Surry,England
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| 1682 |
August 10, 1682
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Newbury & Oare, Berkshire, England
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| 1687 |
November 29, 1687
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Of Abington, Montgomery, Pennsylvania
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| 1689 |
January 18, 1689
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Of Abington, Montgomery, Pennsylvania
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| 1691 |
December 26, 1691
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Soleberg, Bucks County, PA, United States
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| 1693 |
1693
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Of Abington, Montgomery, Pennsylvania
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| 1695 |
1695
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Of Abington, Montgomery, Pennsylvania
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