Ancestors

Thomas Richards

Thomas Richards was baptised at Pitminster in Somerset on 15 April 1596, a son of Thomas Richards. He married Welthian, and several of their children, among them Mary, John, Ann, Alice and Hannah, were baptised at Pitminster. Alice was baptised there on 7 April 1629.

He came to New England in 1633 and settled at Dorchester in Massachusetts, where he was chosen a selectman on 8 October 1633. A selectman was one of the handful of men elected to run the town's business between town meetings. He was a merchant. He moved to Weymouth, on the south shore of the bay, and was made a freeman of the colony on 13 May 1640. A freeman had the vote in the colony's elections. He went back to England more than once, about 1640, in 1646 and in 1649.

He made his will at Hull on 17 December 1650 and died soon afterwards, in the house of Thomas Loring, whom the will calls "brother." The will was proved on 28 January following. It names his sons John, James, Samuel, Joseph and Benjamin and his daughters Mary, Ann, Alice and Hannah. His widow Welthian was the mother of all of them. The inventory came to 1,300 pounds 17 shillings 11 pence.

Two of his daughters married into the government of Plymouth Colony. Mary married Thomas Hinckley of Barnstable on 7 December 1641, and Hinckley was later governor. Alice married William Bradford, the governor's son, who became deputy governor.

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Cite: Heirology, "Thomas Richards (b. 1596)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/thomas-richards-1596-004a0e.