More Information About James
Wells (I)
On July 1, 1671 JAMES WELLS (I) became a landowner:
"In consideration that Richard Mascall of the county of Ann Arundell hat due unto
him one hundred acres of Land...whose right title and interest in and to the same the
afsd. Richard hat assigned sold and made over said province of Maryland, Planter...Doe
hereby Grant unto him the sd. JAMES WELLS all of that parcell of Land (Mascall's Haven)
lying in the said County on the South Side of Patapsco River". - Maryland State
Land Office, Libr. 16, Folio 216-217.
The Maryland Hall of Records, Libr. 7C, Folio 44-45 shows an inventory of goods and
chattels of the Estate of JAMES WELLS, deceased...22nd February 1681/82. This inventory
bears the seals and names of Jno Thomas and Christopher Gist. In the "Maryland
Historical Magazine", Vol 18, page 17 appears"
"November Court 1738 - Sundry persons, among them Cornelius Howard, William Gist,
Joshua Howard, Thomas Gist, Nathaniel Gist, Edmund Howard, James Wells, and Christopher
Gist certify that they are well contented with Mr. Murray's turning the Indian Road."
(Editor's (Orin Wells') note: "Again circumstantial association, but
strong. Some 57 years later, these could be either the sons or the grandsons of the first
two gentlemen, if related at all.)
John Thomas is linked again to the Wells family when in 1692
a young JAMES WELLS is included in the List of Taxables taken of the North Side of
Patapsco Hundred, Baltimore County, Maryland at the household of John Thomas. In 1694
JAMES WELLS was taxed in the household of Daniell Welch. The reason for this change may be
the following:
A list of Provincial Court Judgements for the year 1694
includes the settlement of the case. JAMES WELLS agt. John Thomas in which is written,
"Know ye that I the said John Thomas for in consideration that JAMES WELLS ...Do
Acquitt release and forever discharge me...from Learning Him to...read and write which I
the said John Thomas do owne to stand obliged to do have Given granted and Sold...unto the
said JAMES WELLS that Tract or Parcel of Land called "Wells Lot"...(Maryland
Hall of Records - Libr. R.M. #H.S. folio 460-461.)
(Here Nadine Arnold speculates in the article that perhaps the obligation that John
Thomas had to teach JAMES WELLS to read and write may have come about through the possible
marriage to the widow of JAMES WELLS, I. He apparently failed at the effort. She suggests
another possible explanation was that perhaps John was the brother of the boy's mother.)
JAMES WELLS b: before 1640, England - Two possibilities
for the origin of James I have been suggested.
Either that he was from Somerset County, England, or that he may have been the son of
THOMAS WELLS of St. Olaves Church, City of York. (Son JAMES WELLS baptized 16 July 1629).
Both are unsubstantiated and there are certainly many more locations in England where men
named JAMES born at the same time period can be found." Orin Wells /Editor -
"Wells Chronicles" Vol. 1 No. 2 - December 1988
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