Rev. Ralph Wheelock

- 1684

• Name	Ralph Wheelock  [1]
  Prefix	Rev.
  Gender	Male
  Death	11 Jan 1684	Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts   [2, 3]
  Person ID	I23201	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of DDB
  Last Modified	22 Nov 2020

  
  

  Family	Rebecca Clarke,   b. Bef 26 Aug 1610   d. 1 Jan 1681, Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts (Age > 70 years)
  Marriage	17 May 1630	Wramplingham, Norfolk, England   [3]
  Children	+ 1. Capt. Eleazer Wheelock,   b. 3 May 1654, Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts d. 24 Mar 1731, Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts (Age 76 years)
  Family ID	F13960	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	27 Jan 2019

  
  

• 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.

  
  

• Sources

  [S4089] Richard Bowen (1594?-1675), of Rehoboth, Massachusetts, and His Descendants, volume 1, by William B. Saxbe, Jr. Hope, Rhode Island: Rhode Island Genealogical Society, 2011. [S2929] Vital Records of Medfield, Massachusetts to the Year 1850. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1903. [S3018] Christopher Gleason Clark, "The English Ancestry of Joseph Clarke (1613-1683) of Dedham and Medfield, Massachusetts." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 152:3, Jan 1998.