Rebecca Sanford

Rebecca's birth date is estimated from the date of her marriage. Her name is spelled "Wiekle" in the marriage record. This is probably a variant of Wakelee, and cannot be read as Whelpley, although older accounts such as Todd's History of Redding and Schenck's History of Fairfield used Whelpley in print. Parke and Jacobus hypothesized that she might be a daughter of Henry Wakelee of Fairfield by an unknown first marriage, but that she was certainly not the daughter of Richard Wakelee. Henry and Richard were probably sons of James Wakelee, an early Hartford resident. If Rebecca was the daughter of James, she was probably 20 to 25 years younger than Henry and Richard, possibly the child of an intermediate wife. Circumstantial evidence to support Rebecca being the daughter of James Wakelee is the fact that Ezekiel's uncle Andrew Sanford was close friends with James Wakelee -- close enough that their rowdy parties at night on the village green got them both indicted for witchcraft in 1662. Rebecca died between late 1683, when she administered her husband's estate, and 2 November 1697 when the children agreed to distribution.