Tombstone Tuesday ~ Rev. Thomas Weld and wife Elizabeth, Rev. Nathaniel Prentice, early ministers at Nashua, New Hampshire

This tombstone was photographed at the Old Dunstable Burying Ground in Nashua, New Hampshire

REV.

THOMAS WELD

BORN JUNE, 1653;

SETTLED AS

THE FIRST MINISTER

OF THE CHURCH IN 

DUNSTABLE, DEC 1685

PROBABLY MASSACRED

BY THE INDIANS

WHILE DEFENDING THE

SETTLEMENT

JUNE 7, 1702

AEt. 49

REV.

NATH'L PRENTICE

BORN DEC. 1698

SETTLED AS THE

SECOND MINISTER OF

DUNSTABLE 1720

DIED FEB. 25, 1737

AEt. 39

ELIZABETH

WIFE OF

THOMAS WELD

DIED JULY 29,  1687

AEt. 31

The Old Dunstable Burial Ground is located on the Daniel Webster Highway, not far from the Massachusetts border.  The proximity to Massachusetts makes this part of the tax free city of Nashua a busy shopping area.  This impressive tombstone is in the southwest corner of the cemetery, away from the busy traffic and shopping malls on Daniel Webster Highway.  It was erected by the city more than 250 years after the death of Rev. Thomas Weld, the first minister at Dunstable, which became the city of Nashua.

According to the book The History of Nashua, page 176 “That portion of the above inscription which refers to the Rev. Mr. Weld’s being massacred by the Indians is legendary, and probably mythical, as there was no Indian War waging in 1702, nor for several years before or after that date.  It should be corrected.”    The next paragraph also reads: “Mrs. Elizabeth Weld was a daughter of Hon. Edward Tyng.  Her mother’s native place was Dunstable, England, and our Dunstable received its name in compliment to her.”

Rev. Thomas Weld is my 2nd cousin 11 generations removed.  We are both descendants of Edmund Weld (1559 - 1608), a cloth merchant of Sudbury, Suffolk, England.  Edmund's son Joseph Weld (1598 - 1646) was my 11th great grandfather and a settler at Roxbury, Massachusetts.  Joseph's brother, Rev, Thomas Weld (1595 - 1660) was a minister in Roxbury.  His grandson is the Rev. Thomas Weld who became the first minister of the first church at Dunstable.  This congregation still exists as the First Church of Nashua.

Rev. Thomas Weld was born 12 June 1653 in Roxbury, and died 9 June 1702 in Dunstable.  He was married twice, first to Elizabeth Wilson on 9 November 1681.  She was the daughter of John Wilson and Sarah Hooker (daughter of Rev. Thomas Hooker of Hartford, Connecticut).  His second wife was Mary Savage, the daughter of Habijah Savage and Hannah Tyng.  You can see that the book The History of Nashua was wrong about the wife buried here in Nashua with Rev. Weld.

The inscription about the Indian massacre is certainly wrong.  A diary by John Marshall of Dunstable has an entry for 1702 "Mem. on the 11th day of June last, Mr. Thomas Weld, the pastor of the Church of Dunstable was buryed he was an eminent preacher of the word of god, a man well beloued and much Lamented by them that knew him.  His death is justly to be accounted a great Loss to the pouince in genrall and to the poor town of dunstable in particuler." 

I previously blogged about Rev. Thomas Weld at this link:
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/12/first-church-of-nashua.html   

A PDF from the Nashua Public Library of The History of Nashua,  1897, epitaphs from the Old Dunstable Burying Ground are on pages 175 – 183. 

http://www.nashualibrary.org/parker/p2bios-cemeteries.pdf 

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Tombstone Tuesday ~  Rev. Thomas Weld and wife Elizabeth, Rev. Nathaniel Prentice, early ministers at Nashua, New Hampshire", Nutfield Genealogy, posted March 21, 2017, (http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/03/tombstone-tuesday-rev-thomas-weld-and.html: accessed [access date]). 

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Oliver Fletcher, Esquire, died 1771, Chelmsford, Massachusetts

This tombstone was photographed at the Forefather's Burial Ground in Chelmsford, Massachusetts

Memento Mori

Oliver Fletcher Esqr

departed this Life

Novr 30 1771

In the 63d year of his Age

and his remains

are here interred

This tombstone was interesting because of the three dimensional skull carved above the epitaph.  Last week I photographed the tombstone of Lt. Benoni Perham in the same cemetery for the same reason.  However, these were the only two tombstones with three dimensional carvings like this.  The others are all traditional, two dimensional carvings.  According to Find A Grave, this tombstone was made by carver William Park.  Park was a Scottish stonecarver who was famous in Middlesex County for first carving death's heads, which evolved into carving cherubs as time passed. 

side view of the skull's head detail

Oliver Fletcher, son of William Fletcher and his wife, Mary, was born 10 September 1708 in Chelmsford, and died 30 November 1771 in Chelmsford.  He married my 2nd cousin, nine generations removed, Grace Weld, in Roxbury on 13 November 1766.  She was the daughter of Joseph Weld and Elizabeth Chamberlain. Her grandfather was Joseph Weld (1650 - 1712), my 9th great grand uncle, son of John Weld (1623 - 1691) and Margaret Bowen, my 10th great grandparents. 

Oliver Fletcher was a lawyer and school teacher in Chelmsford.  He graduated Harvard College in 1735.  He held many town positions (town clerk, selectman, assessor) and acted as legal counsel for individuals in court at Cambridge or Concord (he signed documents, wills, depositions, etc.). 

His obituary appeared in the Boston Gazette Monday, 9 December 1771:

"Died at Chelmsford the first Instant, Oliver Fletcher, Esq;  He had his education at Harvard College: took his Degrees in 1735 & 1738, has been many years a Justice of the Peace for the County of Middlesex and Quorum Unus:  He was Councellor in the Law, and, for some years a Member of the House of Representatives, in all which he sustained a good Character and Reputation.  He has left a sorrowful Wife & a young Daughter; and his Death is lamented by his Friends and Acquaintances, and is a publick Loss." 

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Tombstone Tuesday ~  Oliver Fletcher, Esquire, died 1771, Chelmsford, Massachusetts", Nutfield Genealogy, posted September 27, 2016,  (http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/09/tombstone-tuesday-oliver-fletcher.html: accessed [access date]).

Surname Saturday ~ WELD of Roxbury, Massachusetts

Harvard University's Weld Boathouse,
donated by George Walker Weld (1840 - 1905)

WELD

The first Weld in New England was Captain Joseph Weld.  He was a protestant, and his family in England was Roman Catholic. He came in June 1632 on board the William & Francis with his wife Elizabeth; daughter Elizabeth, age 10; Mary, age 8, Hannah, age 6, and Thomas his brother.  He left his son John, who came to Massachusetts later.  He was a freeman in 1636 and settled in Roxbury, where he became a property owner, proprietor, and captain of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company (Winthrop was Colonel and Thomas Dudley was the Lieutenant Colonel).

Joseph Weld was supposed to be the richest man in Massachusetts and one of the first donors to Harvard College.  He owned an estate in West Roxbury that is now owned by Harvard. Today at Harvard University there are many buildings donated by and named after the Weld family, including the famous Victorian era Weld boathouse on the Charles River that is the subject of many picturesque postcards of Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts.

There are many sources for information on the Weld family. One is the book History of the Weld Family from 1632 to 1878, by Charlotte Fowler Weld,   and Descendants of Edmund Weld of Sudbury, England by William Addsion Weld, 1992.  A look at the New England Historic Genealogical Society online catalog will give you two pages of WELD compiled genealogies, and manuscripts such as The Family of Weld Who Came to the Town of Roxbury in Massachusetts Bay, New England in the Year 1632 for Conscience Sake, by William Weld Gordon.

There is a lengthy sketch of Joseph Weld, b. 1599, in The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England 1634 - 1635, Volume VII, pages 280 – 288, and a sketch of his brother Thomas Weld b. 1595, in Volume III, pages 1961-1963. The Roxbury records are a good source for information on the early generations of Welds.

There is an article in the NEHGS Register, Volume 47, pages 543- 459 about the Bowen family.  In the second generation in Massachusetts, John Weld married Margaret Bowen, daughter of Griffith Bowen of Wales.  They are my 10^th great grandparents.

My Weld genealogy:

Generation 1:  Thomas Weld and Alice Unknown

Generation 2:  Thomas Weld, born about 1532 in Sudbury, Suffolk, England, died 8 April 1597 in Sudsbury; married Margaret Unknown.  She died 13 July 1593 in Sudbury.

Generation 3: Edmund Weld, born about 1559 in Sudbury, died 1608 in Sudbury; married on 12 April 1585 at St. Peter’s Church in Sudbury to Amy Brewster.

Generation 4:  Joseph Weld, baptized 7 April 1599 in Terling, Essex, England, died 7 October 1646 in Roxbury, Suffolk County, Massachusetts; married first  on 11 October 1620 in Sudbury to Elizabeth Wise. She died in October 1638 in Roxbury.  Eight children.  He married second to Barbara Clapp, widow of Anthony Stoddard on 20 April 1639 and had four more children.

Generation 5.  John Weld, son of Joseph Weld and Elizabeth Wise, baptized on 28 October 1623 in Terling, died 20 September 1691 in Roxbury; married on 24 December 1647 in Roxbury to Margaret Bowen, daughter of Griffith Bowen and Margaret Fleming.  She was born 2 April 1629 in Gower, Glamorgan Wales, and died 1 September 1692 in Roxbury. Nine children.

Generation 6:  Elizabeth Weld, born 14 November 1655 in Roxbury, and died in 1725; married on 28 August 1672 in Roxbury to Samuel Gore, son of John Gore and Rhoda Unknown.  He was born about 1647 in Roxbury, died 27 May 1756 in Norwich, Connecticut.

Generation 7: Samuel Gore m. Hannah Draper

Generation 8: Moses Gore m. Desire Burris

Generation 9: Desire Gore m. Thomas Ratchford

Generation 10: Elizabeth Ratchford m. David Lyons
Generation 11: Thomas Ratchford Lyons m. Ann Skinner
Generation 12: Isabella Lyons m. Rev. Ingraham Ebenezer Bill
Generation 13: Caleb Rand Bill m. Ann Margaret Bollman
Generation 14: Isabella Lyons Bill m. Albert Munroe Wilkinson
Generation 15: Donald Munroe Wilkinson m. Bertha Louise Roberts (my grandparents)

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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Surname Saturday ~ Gore of Roxbury, Massachusetts

GORE

After several Surname Saturdays with brick wall ancestors, or ancestors with little information to tell, the Gore family has too much information to fit into a blog post!  I’ll try to summarize this lineage as best as I can…

The immigrant ancestor in this line was John Gore, born about 1606 in England, educated at Queen’s College in Oxford, and graduated on 24 January 1627/8.  He has English origins going back generations, and was from a wealthy family.  When John came to Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1638 he brought his entire family with him.  In 1644 he sent letters back to England to act as executor of his father’s will and estate.   He had 188 acres of land in Roxbury by 1643, and was a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company in 1638.  He was town clerk for many years, and so was his son, John Gore, junior.  When I look at the early records of Roxbury, Massachusetts, I am reading my ancestor’s handwriting.

John Gore had ten children, and I descend from his son, Samuel.   He was a carpenter and selectman in Roxbury, and married Elizabeth Weld, the granddaughter of Captain Joseph Weld (1599 – 1646), one of the founders of Roxbury.  Joseph Weld was supposed to be the richest men in Massachusetts, and one of the first donors to Harvard College.  The Welds were financially well off for many, many generations in Massachusetts.

John Gore’s inventory of his estate showed over 812 pounds of real estate and buildings.  His will names all his living children.   The widow Rhoda Gore, was left 188 acres, out of the 4,000 acres left to the children.  During the second and third of her four marriages, she was still negotiating for some of that land, and there were several letters of administration filed as late as 1693, after her death.

There are many sources for information on the Gore family.  I would suggest that the first place to read up on this family is the book Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634 -1635, Volume III, pages 114 – 120, by Richard Charles Anderson, NEHGS, 2009 for a sketch of the first generation.   The article “The Gore Family of Roxbury: New Evidence and Suspected Connections” in the NEHGS Register 1994, Volume 148, pages 61 – 65 show some of the English origins of the Gore family.

There are many compiled genealogies of various lineages descended of John Gore.  I have used The John Gore Family by Mary Walton Ferris, 1943, and A Brief Genealogy of the Gore Family: especially in the line of Gov. Christopher Gore by William H. Whitmore, Boston, 1875. 

Despite what many New England Gore descendants believe, Vice President Al Gore is NOT a descendant of John Gore of Roxbury, Massachusetts.

My Gore genealogy:

Generation 1: John Gore, son of Richard Gore and Elizabeth, born about 1606 in England, died 2 June 1657 in Roxbury, Massachusetts; married before 1632 in England to Rhoda Unknown.  Ten children.

Generation 2: Samuel Gore:  born about 1647 in Roxbury, died 26 July 1692 in Roxbury; married on 28 August 1672 in Roxbury to Elizabeth Weld, the daughter of John Weld and Margaret Bowen.  She was born 14 November 1655 in Roxbury, and died in 1725. Seven children.

Generation 3: Samuel Gore, born 20 October 1681 in Roxbury, died 27 May 1756 in Norwich, Connecticut; married before 1704 to Hannah Draper, daughter of Moses Draper and Hannah Chandler.  She was born 8 April 1686 in Roxbury, died 11 July 1741 in Norwich. Nine children.

Generation 4: Moses Gore, born 23 September 1709 in Roxbury, died in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia;  married on 27 May 1740 in Preston Connecticut to Desire Burris, daughter of John Burrows and Lydia Hubbard. Eight children.

Generation 5: Desire Gore, born 20 September 1740 Groton, Connecticut and died 11 April 1813 in Horton, Kings County, Nova Scotia; married on 1 December 1760 in Groton to Thomas Ratchford.  He ws born 19 June 1741 in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, died 27 December 1813 in Horton.

Generation 6: Elizabeth Ratchford m. David Lyons

Generation 7: Thomas Ratchford Lyons m. Ann Skinner

Generation 8: Isabella Lyons m. Rev. Ingraham Ebenezer Bill

Generation 9: Caleb Rand Bill m. Ann Margaret Bollman

Generation 10: Isabella Lyons Bill m. Albert Munroe Wilkinson

Generation 11: Donald Munroe Wilkinson m. Bertha Louise Roberts (my grandparents)

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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Harvard's Weld Boathouse

The Weld boathouse is now the home of the Radcliffe rowing team at Harvard University.  It was originally the first men's boathouse at Harvard, back when Harvard was only a men's school.  The Weld is located on Memorial Drive on the corner of the Larz Anderson Bridge, and it was built in 1906 with funds bequeathed by George Walker Weld (1840 - 1905), an alumni.  There were originally two boathouses here on this spot, the first one dating from 1899.

The Larz Anderson bridge was built by Weld's neice, Isabel Weld Perkins (1876 - 1948), in memory of her husband in 1913.  Isabel's mother became the richest woman in America when she was only five years old! Their ancestor, William Fletcher Weld (1800 - 1881) was a famous Boston shipping magnate who left millions to his descendants.  John Weld (1623 - 1691), the first Weld in America, was William Fletcher Weld's 3rd great grandfather, and my 10th great grandfather. 

My daughter rowed here in the summers when she was in high school.  She would participate in a week long rowing seminar and board at the Divinity School.  She loved rowing on the Charles River so much that she went to Simmons College and was on the varsity crew starting her Freshman year. She rowed in several Head of the Charles regattas.  The Weld boathouse is on the half way point of the Head of the Charles.

This is my daughter during her junior year of high school, rowing at the Weld boat house summer program.  The brick Weeks Footbridge (for pedestrians) is at a tricky bend in the river.  Student rowers in Boston  practice this bend every day, and have an advantage over away crews rowing the Head of the Charles regatta and sprints.

The Weld Boathouse  http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~weldbh/home.html

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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Wedding Serendipity

Our family tree is growing a new branch!  Last month our daughter was engaged to be married, and she jumped right into wedding planning.  She has always dreamed of being married in a historical house with some family connection.  Fortunately for her, there are many houses in our area that were lived in by ancestors and their close kin.  She was on line researching houses, and on the phone with many of them that made her “short list”.

My daughter’s first choice was the Fairbanks house, which was built by her 11x great grandfather, Jonathan Fairbanks (abt 1594 – 1668), in Dedham, Massachusetts.  It was built between 1637 and 1641.  She loved the fairytale look of the crooked roof line, and the history.  However, the house and grounds were too small for a big wedding.  It has hosted small weddings in the past.  There were no kitchen facilities for a caterer.  Disappointed, she moved on down the list.

The Mayflower House, Plymouth, MA

Next was the Mayflower House in Plymouth, which is used by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants as their headquarters.  If you have used the library, you have been there.  It has a lovely rose garden in the back, where I have attended garden parties for the Mayflower Society’s Trienniel Congresses every three years.  This garden was too small for a reception tent, but would be perfect for a wedding ceremony.  My daughter decided to move on down the list…

The 2000 Felton Family Reunion, Peabody, MA

The Felton Houses in Peabody, Massachusetts were built by her 10x great grandfather, Nathaniel Felton (abt 1615 – 1705).  The Nathaniel Felton, Sr. house was built about 1650, and later divided in half to build the Nathaniel, Jr. house next door.  Both houses have large additions and gardens.  There is a barn across the street used for functions, and our family is familiar with this from the Felton Family Association reunions held every summer in the barn.  There is room for a tent near some beautiful orchards.  My daughter was not in love with the site (perhaps it was too familiar to her from the family reunions?) so we moved on down the list.

The Francis Wyman House, Burlington, MA

The Wyman house, built in Burlington, Massachusetts in 1666 by her 10x great grandfather, Francis Wyman (1617 – 1699), is lovely, but has no bathrooms, kitchen or proper place for a party.  There are plans to erect a barn on the grounds in the near future, especially for functions and rentals.  Too bad, because my daughter lives right in Burlington and that would have been handy! 

The next house was the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, Massachusetts, which is inside a lovely carriage house that looks like a Loire castle.   The manor house that used to be behind it was destroyed years ago to form a town park.  Many weddings are held on the great lawn, with the “castle” in the background.  It was a bit too formal, too expensive, and not really owned by an ancestor, just a close cousin since Larz Anderson married Isabel Weld Perkins, and we have both Perkins and Weld ancestors.  Next…

The Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts sounded perfect.  I've passed by this old house many times and have seen weddings and functions going on in the yard.  It was built by Reverend William Emerson in 1770, who was Ralph Waldo Emerson's grandfather, and is my 1st cousin 7 generations removed.  Our Emerson ancestors lived for a long time in Concord.   The Old Manse is a very romantic house because Nathaniel Hawthorne lived here for a short time and etched love poems to his wife on the window panes.  It is also located right next door to the Concord Minuteman statue and the Old North Bridge for some delightful wedding photos, but would make her wedding right in the middle of lots of tourists and gawking.  The Old Manse didn't quite fit my daughter's plans either. 

I could tell that my daughter was becoming a bit frustrated in her search, since there were so many choices, and none were perfect.  She confessed that she always like the Pierce House in Lincoln, Massachusetts.  She used to pass it every day when she worked nearby at the DeCordova Museum.  It was beautiful, historical, and who cared if it didn’t belong to a member of the family tree.  We all went to visit it and she loved it so much that we put down a deposit for a day next spring.  My husband took a photo of the portrait of John H. Pierce that was in the hallway.  I asked the caretaker if he was descended of the Pierce’s of Watertown, Massachusetts (a wild guess!).  He told me that he didn’t know the family genealogy, but he knew that his real name was Hoar, and he changed it to Pierce.

Here we are at the Pierce  House

Undaunted, when I got home I took a look at my Pierce family tree on the computer.  I found an article about John Howard Pierce online, and how his father, Abijah Pierce Hoar, had changed the surname.  Abijah’s mother was Susanna Pierce.  I found her already listed in my database as a 5^th cousin, 6 generations removed.  This was a rather distant kinship, but fun to tell my daughter about the connection.  However, before I called her I looked at John Howard Pierce’s wife’s name, Mary Elizabeth Wheeler.   She had six common ancestors with us (Coolidge, Hubbard, Heyward, two Munroe lines, and Stone).  Now, that was interesting! 

We’ll have to put a family tree under that portrait of John. H. Pierce on the wedding day!

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For more information, check this list.  One of these historic Massachusetts houses could be perfect for your next function or wedding!:

The Fairbanks House, Dedham, MA http://www.fairbankshouse.org/index.html

The Mayflower House, Plymouth, MA http://www.themayflowersociety.com/museum

The Nathaniel Felton, Sr. and Jr. Houses, Peabody, MA http://www.peabodyhistorical.org/properties.asp

The Francis Wyman House, Burlington, MA http://www.wyman.org/francis-wyman-house

The Larz Anderson Estate, Brookline, MA http://larzanderson.org/
The Old Manse http://www.thetrustees.org/places-to-visit/greater-boston/old-manse.html 

The Pierce House, Lincoln, MA http://www.piercehouse.com/

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Wedding Serendipity", Nutfield Genealogy, posted April 9, 2012, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/04/wedding-serendipity.html: accessed [access date]). 

First Church of Nashua

When we first moved to Londonderry, I was surprised to find there was no Congregational church. Nearly every town in Massachusetts has one! Almost every New Hampshire town has one, too, but since Nutfield was founded by the Presbyterians, the churches remained Presbyterian for a long time. The First Church in Derry changed to Congregational in the 1800s, and I tried a few services there. My husband was working in Nashua, and he said several co-workers attended the First Church in Nashua. We tried it out, and since we knew one or two people, it became our on again/off again church.

My husband is Catholic, and there were two Catholic parishes in Londonderry, so it was easier to attend mass then to travel all the way to Nashua. However, we still occasionally attend services in Nashua, and I love the ministers and their sermons. One day I was reading the church flyer and the history of the church surprised me. It was founded by Reverend Thomas Weld of Roxbury. I knew that was the name of one of my ancestors, so after church I hurried to my files to see what information I could find.

The church flyer said that Thomas Weld was ordained the day the First Church of Nashua was gathered, on 16 December 1685. The current building dates from 1894, and is the tenth building to house the First Church congregation. I found this Thomas Weld in my notes, as the 2x great grandson of my ancestor Thomas Weld (1595-1660). Reverend Thomas 5 Weld (Thomas 4, Thomas 3, Edmund 3, Thomas 1) removed from Roxbury (outside of Boston) to Dunstable, Massachusetts in 1683. It was a settlement near the Merrimack River that is now Nashua, New Hampshire. It was considered a real pioneer town on the border of the unknown frontier in those days.

According to the cousin calculator on Family Tree Maker, Reverend Thomas Weld is my second cousin eleven generations removed. I descend from Edmund Weld (1559 – 1608) and his wife Amy Brewster through their son, Joseph Weld (1598 – 1646) and his wife Elizabeth Shatswell. Reverend Thomas Weld of Dunstable descends from Joseph’s brother, Reverend Thomas Weld (1595-1660) . It was a long line of Reverend Thomas Welds. Now you know why I had to go look him up in the notes!

The Weld Lineage.

Generation 1. Thomas Weld, born about 1532 in Sudbury, Suffolk, England and died on 8 April 1597 in Sudbury; married Margaret Unknown who died 13 July 1593 in Sudbury.

Generation 2. Edmond Weld, born about 1559 and died about 1608 in Sudbury, Suffolk, England; married on 12 April 1585 in Sudbury to Amy Brewster.

Generation 3. Reverend Thomas Weld, born about 1595 in England, baptized in Sudbury, Suffolk, England on 13 July 1595, died on 23 March 1660/1 in London, England; married first to Margaret Unknown; married second to Judith Unknown, buried on 4 May 1646 in Gateshead, Durham; married third to Margaret Unknown.

Generation 4. Reverend Thomas Weld, born about 1626 in Terling, Essex, England and died on 17 January in Roxbury, Massachusetts; married on 4 June 1650 in Roxbury to Dorothy Whiting, born about 1628 in England and died 31 July 1694 in Roxbury, daughter of Samuel Whiting.

Generation 5. Reverend Thomas Weld, born 12 June 1653 in Roxbury and died on 9 June 1702 in Dunstable, Massachusetts (now Nashua, New Hampshire); married on 9 November 1681 to Elizabeth Wilson, born in September 1656 in Medfield, Massachusetts and died 19 July 1687, daughter of John Wilson and Sarah Hooker (daughter of famous founder of Hartford, Connecticut, Reverend Thomas Hooker).

For more information:

The American Genealogist Volume 55, page 145 for the Weld Genealogy

The First Church of Nashua website at http://www.firstchurchnashua.org/

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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo