Our eighth great grandfather, William Phelps, the Colonist, had two wives with children. (1) Mary (surname unknown), buried in England in 1626, and (2) Anne Dover, our 8th great grandmother, who probably accompanied him and children from both marriages to Dorchester, Massachusetts, a town later subsumed as a neighborhood of Boston. They left Plymouth, England aboard the ship, "Mary and John", on the 20th of March, 1630 and arrived in Natasket, MA (now Hull).
The names and birthdates of William's children correspond to the records later found in the American colony. The marriage to Mary Phelps, born in Crewkerne, England is estimated to have been between 1615–1618, as their first child William was baptized at Crewkerne on September 9, 1618. Mary and William had four children, all baptized before 1625 at Crewkerne: William, Samuel, an unnamed infant who died young, and Nathaniel. Mary was buried at Crewkerne on August 13, 1626.
William's marriage to Ann Dover was three months after Mary's death, William married Ann Dover at Crewkerne, on November 14, 1626. They had four children in England: Cornelius, Joseph and Mary (twins), and another child named Mary. Researchers can not find further records of Cornelius or either of the two girls named Mary, and presume they all died young. After arriving in the Colonies, Ann and William had three more children: Sarah, Timothy, and a third Mary. Records in the Colonies have been found for the children named Joseph, Sarah, Timothy and the last Mary, corresponding to records from the International Genealogical Index in Somerset listing the names of William Phelps' children from both wives. The child named Timothy is our ancestor, who was born in 1639 in Windsor, Hartford, CT.
Mistress Phelps was the first on the list of women members of the church at Dorchester who came with Mr. Warham to Windsor. She died in Windsor in 1689.
WILLIAM PHELPS
BORN: 28 Feb 1599 in Crewkerne, Somerset, England
MARRIED: 14 Nov 1626 in Crewkerne
DIED: 14 Jul 1672 in Dorchester, Massachusetts
ANN DOVER
BORN: 1610 in Crewkerne, Somerset, England
DIED: 30 Aug 1689 in Windsor, Hartford, CT
SOURCES: "The Great Migration" by Anderson; Researcher, Brian T. Phelps
