Nielsen Hayden genealogy
William Wentworth
![Male](img/tng_male.gif)
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Name William Wentworth [1, 2, 3] Birth 15 Mar 1616 Alford, Lincolnshire, England [4, 5, 6, 7]
Baptism 15 Mar 1616 Alford, Lincolnshire, England [2, 5, 6, 7, 8]
Gender Male Death 15 Mar 1697 Dover, Strafford, New Hampshire [2, 5, 6, 7, 8]
Person ID I4863 Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of TNH Last Modified 25 Dec 2023
Father William Wentworth, b. Bef 8 Jun 1584, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England d. Aft 16 Mar 1642 (Age > 58 years)
Mother Susanna Carter d. Aft 1641 Marriage 28 Nov 1614 Alford, Lincolnshire, England [2, 5, 6, 7, 8]
Family ID F1027 Group Sheet | Family Chart
Family Elizabeth Knight, b. Abt 1626 d. Aft 1678 (Age ~ 53 years) Marriage Abt 1644 [7] Children + 1. Ezekiel Wentworth, b. Abt 1649, Dover, Strafford, New Hampshire d. Between 30 Oct 1711 and 6 May 1712 (Age ~ 62 years)
Family ID F4915 Group Sheet | Family Chart Last Modified 19 Sep 2015
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Photos Elder William Wentworth's signature
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Notes - He arrived in New England sometime in the 1630s. He is one of TNH's four "gateway ancestors," albeit one about whom the scholarly consensus has been very much in flux. That the William Wentworth of New England was the man baptized in Alford seems almost certain. That the man baptized in Alford had many gentry and aristocratic ancestors seems indisputable. That he had a provable "royal ancestry" was long at issue, but several recent articles in The American Genealogist would appear to have finally sorted matters:
Terry J. Booth, Paul C. Reed, and Nathaniel Lane Taylor, "The English Ancestry of William Wentworth of New Hampshire: Male-Line Ancestry for Five Generations." The American Genealogist 90:161, Jul 2018, and 90:263, Oct 2018.
Cumulatively, these articles establish that the immigrant Wentworth's extensive medieval ancestry includes such crowned heads as King John of England; Alfonso IX of León and Galicia; Jeane de Briene, the Crusader "king" of Jerusalem; and (despite previous descents having been disproved) William "The Lion" of Scotland.
Terry J. Booth, Paul C. Reed, and Nathaniel Lane Taylor, "Margaret de Brewse, First Wife of Sir Thomas Hawley (d. 1419-20) of Girsby, Lincolnshire." The American Genealogist 91:195, Jan/Apr 2020, published March 2021; 91:286, Jul/Oct 2020, published December 2022.
Terry J. Booth, "The Sothill, Fauconberge, and Greystoke Ancestry of William1 Wentworth of New Hampshire." The American Genealogist 92:81, Jul/Oct 2021, published December 2022; 92:217, Jan/Apr 2022, published June 2023.
"William Wentworth (1616-1697) was a follower of John Wheelwright, and an early settler of New Hampshire. Coming from Alford in Lincolnshire, he likely came to New England with Wheelwright in 1636, but no records are found of him in Boston. When Wheelwright was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his role in the Antinomian Controversy, he established the settlement of Exeter, New Hampshire, and Wentworth followed him there and then to Wells, Maine. After Wheelwright left Wells for Hampton, New Hampshire, Wentworth went to Dover, New Hampshire, and this is where he lived the remainder of his life. He was the proprietor of a sawmill, and held several town offices, but is most noted for being an elder in his Dover church for nearly 40 years. He had 11 children with two wives, and has numerous descendants, including many of great prominence." [Wikipedia]
He was a signer of the Exeter Combination.
His near descendants included his grandson John Wentworth, Lieutenant Governor of New Hampshire 1717-1730, and New Hampshire governors Benning Wentworth (governor 1741-1767) and Sir John Wentworth (governor 1767-1775); also John Wentworth, Speaker of the New Hampshire House 1771-1778.
A book-length biographical study of him is William Wentworth, Puritan Preacher by Susan Ostberg; Lincoln, Nebraska: iUniverse, 2006.
- He arrived in New England sometime in the 1630s. He is one of TNH's four "gateway ancestors," albeit one about whom the scholarly consensus has been very much in flux. That the William Wentworth of New England was the man baptized in Alford seems almost certain. That the man baptized in Alford had many gentry and aristocratic ancestors seems indisputable. That he had a provable "royal ancestry" was long at issue, but several recent articles in The American Genealogist would appear to have finally sorted matters:
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Sources - [S162] The Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants to the American Colonies or the United States, With a 2008 Addendum, Coda, and Final Addition by Gary Boyd Roberts. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2008.
- [S2667] Terry J. Booth, Paul C. Reed, and Nathaniel Lane Taylor, "The English Ancestry of William Wentworth of New Hampshire: Male-Line Ancestry for Five Generations." The American Genealogist 90:161, Jul 2018, and 90:263, Oct 2018.
- [S5266] Terry J. Booth, Paul C. Reed, and Nathaniel Lane Taylor, "Margaret de Brewse, First Wife of Sir Thomas Hawley (d. 1419-20) of Girsby, Lincolnshire." The American Genealogist 91:195, Jan/Apr 2020, published March 2021; 91:286, Jul/Oct 2020, published December 2022.
- [S119] Ancestors and Descendants of Andrew Lee and Clarinda Knapp Allen by Gerald R. Fuller. Esther Fuller Dial, ed. The Andrew Lee Allen Family Organization, 1952.
- [S170] The Wentworth Genealogy, English and American by John Wentworth. Boston: Little, Brown, 1878.
- [S159] Joseph Lemuel Chester, "A Genealogical Memoir of the Wentworth Family of England, From its Saxon Origin in the Eleventh Century to the Emigration of One of its Representatives to New England About the Year 1636." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 22:120, April 1868.
- [S662] The New England Ancestry of Alice Everett Johnson, 1899-1986: Memoirs, and Bollenbach Genealogy by W. M. Bollenbach, Jr. Baltimore: Gateway Press, 2003.
- [S418] The English Ancestry of Anne Marbury Hutchinson and Katherine Marbury Scott, by Meredith B. Colket. Philadelphia: Magee Press, 1936.
- [S162] The Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants to the American Colonies or the United States, With a 2008 Addendum, Coda, and Final Addition by Gary Boyd Roberts. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2008.