Moses Wheeler

Moses Wheeler, immigrant ancestor, was born in England, very likely in the county of Kent, in 1598. The Wheeler family had lived here for over four hundred years. He sailed from London in 1638, and settled in the New Haven colony. He was among the first to receive an allotment in that colony. Here he married Miriam Hawley, sister of Joseph Hawley, one of the first settlers in the colony, and a very prominent man.

He was expelled from the colony in 1648 because of a slight infringement of one of the Blue Laws, for which the colony was noted. According to tradition he had been away for several months, and returned on a Sunday. Forgetting the "Blue Laws" in his joy at his return, he kissed his wife and children, and was expelled by the authorities when they learned of it. He then joined the little settlement of Stratford, and purchased here a home from the Indians on the shore, near what is now known as Sandy Hollow. He afterwards bought a large piece of land in the upper part of the town, extending from the river to some distance above the site of the present New York, New Haven & Hartford railroad.

He was a ship carpenter, and kept a farm for himself. He was given permission by the general court to keep a ferry at Stratford, which he already had established. Seventeen years after its establishment, the town leased the ferry to him with thirty or forty acres of upland adjoining it, for twenty-one years, without tax or rate except sixpence per annum. The inhabitants were "to be ferried over for one half penny per person and two pence for horse or beast." The town agreed to pay for any improvements he had made if he should leave it at the expiration of his lease. His son's will, proved January 23, 1724-25, shows that he received the ferry from his father Moses, and left it to his own son Elnathan, so it remained in the family at least over one hundred years.

He disposed of most of his land to his sons ten years before his death. He owned much land, and was one of the most prominent men of the town. He was a strong, powerful man, of whom the Indians are said to have stood in mortal terror.

He returned to England in 1665, at the time of the "Great Plague," and so did not remain long, but returned again to Stratford. He died January 15, 1698, the first white man of one hundred years who had lived in New England. He is buried in the old Congregational church at Stratford. A rough stone, cut from the rocks at his homestead, marks his grave, with the inscription: "Moses Wheeler, Aged 100, Dyed Jan. 15th. 1698."

His will was proved February 19, 1698, and after disposing of his real and personal property generally, it says: "I give to my daughter Miriam two pewter dishes, to my son Moses, his wife, ye pewter platter, and to my daughter Mary, a bras kitle houlding ten to twelve gallons, the Abridgement of the Marter Booke, and Mr. Brooks His Devices of Satan, and to Elizabeth ye wife of my son Samuel, ye great kitle, and to Mr. Israel Chauncey twenty shillings in silver."

Jane, a sister of Moses Wheeler, also came over to America with him, and married Rev. Adam Blakeman, the first clergyman of the Church in England in Stratford. [See his Wikipedia article] She was two years younger than her brother, having been born in 1600. She died in 1674. [She married] [Elizabeth Wheeler, Moses' daughter, married] (second) Jacob Walker, son of Robert Walker, and brother of Rev. Zachariah Walker, pastor of the Congregational church in Stratford.

The Rev. Adam Blakeman was rector of the [Stanford] church from 1639 to 1665. One of his sons married Elizabeth, daughter of Moses Wheeler.

Children [of Moses Wheeler and Elizabeth Hawley]:

1. Elizabeth, married (first) Samuel Blakeman, and (second) Jacob Walker ; she was grandmother of General David Wooster.
2. Miriam, married James Blakeman, and was the mother ancestor of all those named Blakeman or Blackman in the towns of Huntington, Monroe and Newtown.
3. Samuel, left no children.
4. Moses, Jr., ancestor of many people, mentioned below [in the book, not here].
5. Mary, married (first) Samuel Fairchild, and (second) Benjamin Beach.
6. Joanna, died in 1694, unmarried.

Notes

1. In recognition of the prominence of Moses Wheeler in Stratford, Connecticut, and the fact that he ran the first ferry across the Housatonic River, the Interstate 95 bridge across the Housatonic between Stratford and Milford is named the Moses Wheeler Bridge. The bridge was built in the late 1950s, and a replacement bridge (of the same name) was completed in 2016. The Town of Stratford has an informative web page describing the bridge dedication in 1962
2. Confusingly, Moses Wheeler had a daughter named Elizabeth who married a Samuel (Blakeman), and a son named Samuel who married an Elizabeth (Harris). Moses' will has a bequest "to Elizabeth ye wife of my son Samuel, ye great kitle". Although the biography discusses the Blakeman family immediately after the quote from Moses' will, and does not ever identify Elizabeth Harris Wheeler, Moses was referring to Elizabeth Harris Wheeler and Samuel Wheeler, not to Elizabeth Wheeler Blakeman and Samuel Blakeman.
3. Near the end of the biography, the author confuses Jane Wheeler Blakeman with her daughter-in-law (and niece), Elizabeth Wheeler Blakeman. It was Elizabeth, not Jane, who married Jacob Walker - after Samuel Blakeman died. That error in this biography has been propagated to numerous online family trees and published ancestries, many of which list both Elizabeth and Jane as wives of Jacob Walker.
4. Elizabeth Wheeler Blakeman Walker lived almost as long as her father, Moses. She died in at age 94 in 1735, having outlived two husbands.
5. This 107-year-old biography identifies Adam Blakeman's wife as Jane Wheeler, sister of Moses Wheeler. That is the popular view today, but I have not seen documentation that proves the relationship between Moses and Jane. Some researchers believe that Jane may have been the sister of Miriam Hawley, and thus Moses wheeler's sister-in-law. Nonetheless, because of the popularity of the view that Mrs. Blakeman was Jane Wheeler, I do identify her as Jane Wheeler.
6. It is not clear whether Jane was the first and only wife of Rev Adam Blakeman. It is quite clear, however, that his widow was named Jane, since contemporaneous documentation identifies her as "Jane" or "Mrs. Jane Blakeman".
7. If Jane was Moses' sister, and the wife who bore Adam Blakeman's children, then her son, Samuel Blakeman, married his first cousin, Elizabeth Wheeler. (The practice was not at all unusual at the time.)
8. At the time of Adam Blakeman's ministry, Stratford, Connecticut was a would-be Utopian colony of the Church of England, where the leader of the church was also the town executive and chief judicial official. Unfortunately, no records of his administration appear to have survived. But there are conteporaneous accounts that say that he was well regarded by his community. (See his Wikipedia article)
9. Moses Wheeler, Miriam Hawley, Jane Wheeler, and Adam Blakeman are my 10th great-grandparents. Elizabeth Wheeler and Samuel Blakeman are my 9th great-grandparents.
10. Abigail Blakeman, the daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth, married Hezekiah Dickinson, the son of prominent immigrant Nathaniel Dickinson. (See his Wikipedia article).
11. Abigail and Hezekiah Dickinson had six children, including my direct ancestor, Adam Dickinson, who is sometimes presumed to have died young, because he left New England, and ultimately died in Virginia. Two of their other children, Jonathan and Moses Dickinson, were distinctly influential clergymen. A number of their sermons and writings are still available. Jonathan was the first president of Princeton College (which was founded as The College of New Jersey).

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