quitted it on promise of pardon. Edward made Welles write to his son telling him to give up Warwick's cause, and then took him down to Lincolnshire. Angry at the obstinacy of the son, he beheaded Lord Welles and Dymock at Huntingdon. His son then risked a battle near Stamford, but was defeated, taken, and executed on 19 March 1470. His confession is printed in ‘Excerpta Historica’ (pp. 382, &c.). Both father and son were attainted in the parliament of 1475, but the attainders were reversed in the first parliament of Henry VII. Richard Welles left a daughter Joane, who married, first, Richard Piggot of London, and, secondly, before 1470, Sir Richard Hastings. Hastings, in consequence, was afterwards summoned to parliament as Baron Welles, 15 Nov. 1482; he died in 1503, and his widow in 1505, both without issue, and the barony of Welles fell into abeyance between the descendants of Lionel Welles's four daughters. Sir Robert Welles had married Elizabeth, daughter of John Bourchier, lord Berners. She died a year after his execution, and was buried by his side in Doncaster church. Her will is printed in ‘Testamenta Vetusta.’
John Welles, first Viscount Welles (d. 1499), son of Lionel, sixth baron, by his second wife, was a Lancastrian, but he is mentioned as a watcher at Edward IV's funeral. He was at the coronation of Richard III, but opposed him at once, and after the insurrection of Buckingham fled to Brittany. He took part in the Bosworth campaign, and was created Viscount Welles by summons to parliament on 1 Sept. 1487. Doubtless as a safe man of the second rank he was allowed to marry, before December 1487, Cecily, daughter of Edward IV, who had been promised to the king of Scotland. He was elected K.G. before 29 Sept. 1488, and died on 9 Feb. 1498–9; he was buried in Westminster Abbey. By his wife Cecily he had two daughters, Elizabeth and Anne, both of whom died young; the viscounty of Welles thus became extinct.
[Excerpta Historica, pp. 282, &c.; Rot. Parl. v. 182, &c., vi. 144, 246, &c.; Wars of English in France (Rolls Ser.), ii. 776, 778; Cal. Pat. Rolls, Edw. IV, pp. 113, &c.; Cooper's Life of the Lady Margaret, p. 6; Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, i. 96, &c., ii. 3, &c.; Beaucourt's Hist. de Charles VII, vi. 47; Gilbert's Viceroys of Ireland, p. 334; Camden Miscellany, vol. i.; Warkworth's Chron. (Camd. Soc.), pp. 8, 52, 59; Polydore Vergil (Camd. Soc. transl.), pp. 126, 127; Testamenta Vetusta, p. 310; Ramsay's Lancaster and York, i. 415, ii. 185, &c.; G. E. C[okayne]'s Peerage; Burke's Extinct and Dormant Peerage.]
WELLES, THOMAS (1598–1660), governor of Connecticut, born in 1598, belonged to the branch of the family of Welles settled in Northamptonshire. In 1634 he was living at Rothwell in that county. On 3 Nov. 1634 he was admonished by the court of Star-chamber to answer in full articles against him and several others, among whom was William Fox, the ancestor of George Fox, charging him with holding puritan tenets. His property was confiscated, and on 16 April 1635 their cause was appointed to be finally sentenced; but Welles evaded punishment by proceeding to New England in the capacity of secretary to William Fiennes, first viscount Saye and Sele [q. v.], a great protector of nonconformists (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1634–5 passim, 1635 p. 179). Early in 1636 Lord Saye and Sele arrived with his secretary at the fort at the mouth of the Connecticut, afterwards called Saybrook. Displeased with his reception and discouraged by the difficulties of colonisation, he speedily returned to England, leaving Welles, who was unwilling to face the Star-chamber. Welles joined a party of emigrants from Newtown (now Cambridge) in Massachusetts, among whom were Thomas Hooker and Samuel Stone [q. v.], in founding a new settlement on the north bank of the Connecticut, which they at first called Newtown, after their former residence, but afterwards, on 21 Feb. 1636–7, renamed Hartford, after Stone's birthplace. In 1637 Welles was chosen one of the magistrates of the town, an office which he held every year until his death. The colony of Connecticut was organised on an independent footing on 1 May 1637, and in 1639 Welles was chosen the first treasurer under the new constitution, a post which he held till 1651, when, finding the duties burdensome, he was relieved of it at his own request. From 1640 to 1648 he filled the office of secretary, and in 1649 was one of the commissioners of the united colonies in the first federal council assembled in New England. Welles defended the policy of the colony in placing a small duty on exports from the Connecticut river for the support of Saybrook, and successfully used his influence to avoid war with the Dutch in Delaware Bay. On 1 March 1653–4 John Haynes, the deputy governor, died, and as the governor, Edward Hopkins [q. v.], was absent in England, Welles was chosen head of the colony, with the title of moderator of the general court. In May 1654 he was elected deputy governor. In the same year he was again appointed a commissioner to the assembly of the united colonies, but was prevented by his other duties from serving.
