I am becoming slightly obsessed with piecing together this family, a mixture of hat makers, lawyers and bankers, who appear to move between London and Cheltenham, and help run the 'Gloucestershire Society in London'.
When Joseph, a Cheltenham hat maker. and Jane Wells died in 1770 and 1771 they named four of their children in a will (Sarah, Samuel, John and Elizabeth) along with Joseph's brother Samuel, a writing master who died in 1783. The wills also mention Edward Martin Wells (most of whose ancestors are wealthy priests) and Benjamin Wells, gent, of Staple Inn Buildings, although the exact relationship to these two (if any) is not stated.
In 1774 a Nathaniel Wells, son a
Joseph Wells, late of Cheltenham, hat maker, became apprentice in London to a silver drawer, with the costs posibly being paid by a charity (the Gloucestershire Society in London mentioned above, as it was founded in 1767 expressly for that purpose, and had certainly paid for the apprenticeship of a William Wells, s John, late a hatmaker of Cheltenahm in 1768). Is this the same Joseph and, if so, why wasn't Nathaniel mentioned in his mother's will? (Nathaniel was in the livery in 1796; I have found few references to him but it is a name that occurs in the family later).
In 1746, a Joseph Wells, 26,
hatter, married a Jane
Barnes, 22 in St Botolph's, Aldgate. There were at least seven children baptised to a Joseph and Jane Wells in London over the next twelve years including a Joseph and Jane on the same day in 1755 at St Benet, Paul Wharf. These children may come from several families and, apart from the co-incidence of the dates and occupation, there is little to connect the Joseph and Jane Wells in London with the Cheltenham pair, except that the Joseph born in 1755 fits fairly nicely with a Joseph Wells (c1757-1824) who later went on to become the guardian to a Benjamin
Barnes Wells when Benjamin's mother died in 1801 (his father, John, having committed suicide in 1798) and who is known to have connections with Cheltenham.
Meanwhile the only births in Cheltenham that might fit Joseph and Jane are a John (1760) son of Joseph Wells, and Mary (1755-69) and Diana (1768-1769), daughters of Joseph W
ills. John is therefore the only one of the four mentioned in the will (apart from possibly a London Elizabeth) whose baptisms have been found.
The main branch of the London Wells, including one who became secretary of the GSinL for thirty years) can be shown to descend from siblings Joseph (c1753-1815), Ezra (c1756-1830), Benjamin (1759-1820), Sarah (?-1829) and Samuel (alive 1829), all of whose wills mentions some of the siblings, although Ezra only sneaks in once. Sarah's will also features a Joseph Nathaniel Wells, a nephew in the law, whose census entries consistently show his birthplace as Southwark, but whose father is not named.
Ultimately I want to find a connection - if there is one - between these people and the John Wells, father of Benjamin Barnes Wells, who committed suicide in 1798 (he died a shoemaker but his firm signature when he married suggests an educated hand) but the above has become an interesting diversion even if it turns out to be an unrelated family. The main clue I have about John is that he had a nephew called Samuel, alive in 1801, son to an unnamed brother of John. There is more about John here:
http://64regencyancestors.com/index.php?title=The_Wells_familyApologies for the length but I would particularly like to find any references to:
- the baptisms of Sarah, Samuel, Elizabeth and Nathaniel;
- the death/will of Samuel mentioned in para 6;
- anything that connects (or otherwise) the London Joseph and Jane with the Cheltenham ones;
- the baptism of Joseph Nathaniel in Southwark in about 1789/90.
Richard
