Ambrose Wyllys

Family/Spouse: Amy Coles. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Hester Chambers. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1591, of Fenny Compton, Warwickshire, England

Notes:

Member of the Massachusetts general court, 1634; one of the framers of the Connecticut constitution, 1639; assistant governor of Connecticut, 1639-40; deputy governor of Connecticut, 1641; governor of Connecticut, 1642. His name is on the Founders Monument in Hartford, Connecticut.

From Timothy Lester Jacobs at the Founders of Hartford site:

George Wyllys was the wealthiest, and one of the most powerful and influential men in the early Connecticut Colony. Son and heir of Richard Wyllys, Lord of Fenny Compton, Warwickshire, England, he sent in 1636 his steward, Hartford Founder William Gibbons, with 20 men, servants and workers, to purchase and prepare his estate, erect a dwelling house and have everything in readiness for him and his family. This estate, at seven acres and three roods, was one of the largest in Hartford, and was the site of the famous Charter Oak. (When Sir Edmund Andros attempted to seize the Connecticut Colony in 1687, Capt. Joseph Wadsworth, son of William Wadsworth, Hartford Founder, hid the Charter for the Colony in this tree.)

George Wyllys left Fenny Compton for Hartford soon after 6 April 1638, when he conveyed his lands in Old Stratford, Wellcombe, and Bishopston to Richard Smarte. He left the manor in Fenny Compton to the care of his son George, who remained in England and became Lord of the Manor at Fenny Compton.

In the Hartford land inventory of February 1639/40 he held: the seven acre, three rood parcel with dwelling house, other outhouses, and yards, gardens or orchards mentioned above; one hundred-ten acres and two roods lying partly in the South Meadow, partly in the Swamp and partly in the Oxpasture; twenty five acres, one rood and twenty perches lying in Hockanum; another nine acres, two roods and thirty perches also in Hockanum; three acres and two roods of swamp by the Great River; another four acres of swamp by the Great River; five acres of meadow again in Hockanum; another twelve acres in the swamp in Hockanum; and five acres in the South Meadow. On 25 September 1668 he also acquired six hundred acres of upland on the east side of the Great River.

He was chosen magistrate in 1639, 1640, 1643 and 1644; was Deputy Governor in 1641; and became Governor of the Connecticut Colony in 1642. He was also Commissioner of the United Colonies.

Family/Spouse: Mary Smith. Mary (daughter of Francis Smith and Alice) died after 9 Mar 1645. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Bridget Yonge. Bridget died before 11 Mar 1629; was buried on 11 Mar 1629 in Fenny Compton, Warwickshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

From the Samuel Wyllys Papers site (citation details below):

Samuel was chosen magistrate of the General Court in 1654 and reelected each year. After Connecticut received its charter in 1662 he was elected as an Assistant and continued in that office until 1685. He often served as moderator when the Governor or Deputy Governor were not present. Financial distress from sugar plantations in Antigua led him to resign from the General Court in 1685. However, he returned to his position as Assistant from 1689 through 1692 and again in 1698.

Between 1658 and 1670 he sat on courts that tried witchcraft cases and as an Assistant in 1693 he was one of three judges that granted a stay to Mercy Disborough who was later acquitted. When Connecticut's charter arrived in Boston in September 1662, Wyllys was one of the men that brought it to Hartford. He served as a commissioner to the United Colonies of New England in 1661, 1662, 1664, and 1667. In 1676, during King Philip's War, he was authorized along with Major John Winthrop and Thomas Stanton to negotiate for a peace between the English and the Indians.

According to tradition, when Joseph Wadsworth took action to prevent the surrender of the Charter to Sir Edmond Andros in early November 1687, he took it to Samuel Wyllys's home. At the suggestion of Wylly's wife, Wadsworth hid the Charter in a hollow of an oak tree and then put the dog kennel at the foot of the tree. The tree has come to be known as the Charter Oak.

Family/Spouse: Ruth Haynes. Ruth (daughter of John Haynes, Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; Governor of Connecticut and Mabel Harlakenden) was born about 1636; died before 28 Nov 1688. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 9 Jan 1699, Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts

Notes:

A "gateway ancestor," through her mother, but not (yet) a direct ancestor of any of the root persons in this database.

Amy married John Pynchon on 6 Nov 1645 in Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut. John (son of William Pynchon and Anne Andrew) was born about 1620; died on 17 Jan 1703 in Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]