Welles, Thomas, 1692 - 1767

Thomas Welles was the son of Samuel Welles and Ruth Rice of Glastonbury, Connecticut, and the husband of Martha Pitkin, the daughter of William Pitkin and Elizabeth Stanley.  A shipbuilder by trade, Welles served as the town clerk of Glastonbury, Connecticut, deputy to the Connecticut General Assembly (1725-51), speaker of the Assembly (1746-1751), colonel of the Sixth Connecticut Regiment and member of the colony’s war committee.  During the long-running Mohegan Case, he served on a committee to review the Indian’s complaint.  In 1756, the Connecticut General Assembly appointed Welles with John Chester and Elijah Goodrich a committee to review the status of the Wangunk land on the east side of the Connecticut River.  Society of Colonial Wars, Annual Register of Officers and Members of the Society of Colonial Wars (New York, 1894), 69.