Deacon Ralph Wheelock

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1682, of Windham, Windham, Connecticut
• Alternate birth: 12 Feb 1682, Mendon, Worcester, Massachusetts

Notes:

Deacon of Windham church in 1729. Ralph and Ruth Wheelock's son Eleazar Wheelock (1711-1779) was the founder of Dartmouth College.

Deacon married Ruth Huntington on 8 Jan 1708 in Norwich, New London, Connecticut. Ruth (daughter of Deacon Christopher Huntington and Sarah Adgate) was born on 28 Nov 1682 in Norwich, New London, Connecticut; died on 1 Sep 1725 in Windham, Windham, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Abigail Wheelock was born on 3 Mar 1717 in Windham, Windham, Connecticut; died on 8 Jan 1803 in Suffield, Hartford, Connecticut.

Eleazer married Elizabeth Fuller on 17 Apr 1678 in Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts. Elizabeth (daughter of Robert Fuller and Sarah Bowen) was born about 1652 in Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts; died on 11 Jan 1689 in Mendon, Worcester, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

A founder of Dedham and the founder of Medfield.

"On 1 February 1644 a Dedham town meeting voted for the first free (public) school in Massachusetts, to be supported by town taxes. Ralph Wheelock was the first teacher at this school, and hence the first tax-supported public school teacher in the colonies. Three years later, in 1647, the General Court decreed that every town with 50 or more families must build a school supported by public taxes." [Wikipedia]

"RALPH WHEELOCK, A.M., b. Shropshire, England, 1600; Clare Hall, Cambridge, A.B., 1626/7; A.M., 1631; ordained deacon by the Bishop of Peterborough, Sept. 20, 1629; came to New England, 1637; resided first at Watertown and Dedham; a founder of the First Church in Dedham, 1638; Deputy to the General Court, 1639, 1640, from Dedham; preached at Dedham and Medfield; admitted freeman, 1638; founder of Medfield, 1650; Rep. General Court from Medfield, 1653, 1663, 1664, 1666, and 1667; appointed, Sept. 27, 1642, by the General Court, Clerk of the writs, and one of the commissioners to end small causes, in Dedham; authorized to 'solemnize marriages,' Oct. 1645; great-grand-father of Rev. Eleazer Wheelock, D.D., founder and first president of Dartmouth College who was the father of Rev. John Wheelock, D.D., the second president of Dartmouth College ; d. Medfield, Jan 11, 1683/4, a. 84." [The Colonial Clergy and the Colonial Churches of New England by Frederick Lewis Weis. Lancaster, Massachusetts, 1936.]

Note that no proof has been found that he was born in Shropshire, and that the records of Cambridge University show him beginning his studies there in 1623, which suggests he was more likely born about 1605.

Ralph married Rebecca Clarke on 17 May 1630 in Wramplingham, Norfolk, England. Rebecca (daughter of Thomas Clarke and Mary Canne) was born before 26 Aug 1610; was christened on 26 Aug 1610 in Banham, Norfolk, England; died on 1 Jan 1681 in Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

First in Salem about 1639, then in Rehoboth 1643, where he was one of the original proprietors. He was a bricklayer.

The extensive DNA tests of multiple direct-male-line descendants of early New England Fullers chronicled in Pamela Paschke and Raymond T. Wing's article "The Fuller Family of Redenhall, Norfolk, England: Initial Report on the Fuller Big Y DNA Project" (Mayflower Descendant 70:101, 2022) show that while Dr. Matthew Fuller (~1605-1678) cannot have been a son or direct descendant of Mayflower passenger Edward Fuller, Dr. Matthew and the Robert Fuller of this entry were clearly relatively closely related, and that all three of these Fullers, along (obviously) with Edward's brother Samuel Fuller (1581-1633), also a Mayflower passenger, probably shared a common ancestor.

Robert married Sarah Bowen about 1643. Sarah (daughter of Richard Bowen) was born about 1622; died on 14 Oct 1676 in Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts; was buried on 14 Oct 1676 in Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1624

Notes:

She died in the attack on Rehoboth during King Philip's War.

Thomas married Mary Canne on 17 Oct 1602 in Banham, Norfolk, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

She may have been the Mary baptized in 1580 in Old Buckenham whose baptismal entry is marked "damaged," probably the daughter of Thomas and Rebecca Plowman alias Canne of the parishes of Old Buckenham and Banham.

She may have been the widow Mary Clarke who died at Dedham in 1642.

Notes:

He and his children were possibly born in Wales. The 1815 armorial tombstone of his great-great-great-grandson Jabez⁶ Bowen (Ephraim⁵, Thomas⁴, Richard³, Thomas², Richard¹) at Swan Point in Providence, Rhode Island, says that Jabez was "the fifth in descent from Richard Bowen, who emigrated from Glamorganshire in South Wales / A.D. 1640". After graduating from Yale, Jabez Bowen was successively a justice of the Rhode Island supreme court, its chief justice in 1781, deputy governor 1778 to 1786, and the first chancellor of Rhode Island College (later Brown University) in 1785.