Ann (Dover) Phelps (1601 - 1689)

Born 1601 in Crewkerne, Somerset, England

Wife of William Phelps — married 14 Nov 1626 in Crewkerne, Somerset, England

Descendants

Died 30 Aug 1689 at about age 88 in Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Bonnie Nilsen [send private message], Puritan Great Migration Project WikiTree [send private message], and Dorothy Phelps [send private message]

Anne (Dover) Phelps migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Biography

A QUICK SUMMARY: Anne DOVER married William Phelps on 14 Nov 1630 in Crewkerne, Somerset Co, England. I have a copy of their marriage record at Crewkerne Parish: "William Phelps and Anne Dover were married the xiv th day of November 1626."^[1][2][3] Submitted by Dorothy Phelps, Tuesday, March 18, 2014.

NOTE 1: William PHELPS married two wives. His first wife was Mary unk. She died in England. She had 4 kids with Wm. William then remarried to Anne Dover and had 7 more children.

NOTE 2: Many have confused the two or conflated the two. Anna Dover was Ann or Anne and never Mary. Certainly not Mary Anne Dover! Not Mary Anne or Anne Mary, etc. This has been repeated through numerous sources, including submitted/shared trees, so often that it's become almost a myth. This needs to be dispelled. Submitted by Dorothy Phelps, Tuesday, March 18, 2014.

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Anne was born about 1600. Anne Dover married William Phelps on 14 Nov 1626. She had 7 children with him. She died Windsor 30 August 1689. [“Mrs. An Phelps died” CT VR 57] GMB 3:1445 Submitted by Dorothy Phelps, Tuesday, March 18, 2014.

Please check her husband William Phelps' Bio/Sources for more info.

Vital records were found in Crewkerne Parish. It has several birth/baptism, marriage, and death dates for various members of this family. (I have most of these records from Crewkerne Parish, Crewkerne, Somerset Co., England. This info can also be found in Great Migrations. Series).

• William PHELPS, father
• Mary Phelps, first wife - they had 4 children:
  • William PHELPS, son
  • Samuel PHELPS, son
  • Infant PHELPS, died young
  • Nathaniel PHELPS, son

• Anne DOVER Phelps, 2nd wife - they had 7 children:
  • Cornelius PHELPS, son, died young
  • Mary PHELPS, b. 1628 died young
  • Joseph PHELPS, b. 1629, twin son
  • Mary PHELPS, b. 1629, twin daughter, died young.
  • Sarah PHELPS, daughter
  • Timothy PHELPS, son
  • Mary PHELPS, daughter

All the surviving ones migrated to New England: William, 2nd wife Anne, and his kids: William, Samuel, Nathaniel, Joseph. The last 3 - Sarah, Timothy, & Mary were born in New England. Submitted by Dorothy Phelps, Tuesday, March 18, 2014.

Errors and Myths Keep Getting Perpetuated

This link to the Phelps website helps explain and clears up the confusion and myths that have been perpetuated since Phelps & Servin published the two volumes in 1899.

Oliver Seymour Phelps and his son-in-law, Andrew T. Servin, authors of The Phelps Family in America2, erred in concluding that William Phelps and a brother, George Phelps, both emigrated from Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England in 1630, to the New World.[1] Their identification of the origin of William Phelps of Dorchester, Massachusetts was based solely on an estimate of his birth date, derived from his known age of 72 at death on July 14, 1672. Oliver Phelps located a William Phelps who was baptized in Tewkesbury on August 19, 1599, and thus identified him as the original immigrant. He also believed that George Phelps of Windsor, Connecticut, was William’s brother, despite the fact that they could not locate any records for a George Phelps in Tewkesbury.[1] Recent genetic research has shown no biological relationship between the descendants of William and George Phelps.[2]

More recent expert research has identified William Phelps of Crewkerne, Somersetshire, England as the probable immigrant.[3] He had two wives: (1) Mary (surname unknown), buried in England in 1626, and (2) Anne Dover, who probably accompanied him and children from both marriages to Dorchester, Massachusetts, a town later subsumed as a neighborhood of Boston. The names and birthdates of his children correspond to the records later found in the American colony.

William Phelps of Crewkerne, England is estimated to have married his first wife Mary sometime 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.[4][5]:62 Mary was buried at Crewkerne on August 13, 1626.[6]

This above article was written by Margaret Phelps Swanson, a renowned Phelps genealogist in New England.^[4][5]

Quick Points on Anne Dover

Name

Anne Dover, 2nd wife of William Phelps^{[6] [7]}

Birth

Estimated circa 1600, probably of Crewkerne, Somerset, England

Event

1630, Arrival on the Mary and John, Dorchester, Suffolk Co., Massachusetts, USA ^{[8] [9] [10]}

Marriage

14 Nov 1626 Crewkerne, Somerset, England^{[11] [12] [13]}

Death

30 Aug 1689 Windsor, Hartford Co., Connecticut (NOTE: 27 NOV 1675 is incorrect) ^{[14] [15] [13] [16]}

Sources

1. ↑ Crewkerne Parish Records
2. ↑ Connecticut Vital Records 57
3. ↑ GMB 3:1445
4. ↑ [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Phelps_(colonist) ]
5. ↑ Phelps Family History website Submitted by Dorothy Phelps, Tuesday, March 18, 2014.
6. ↑ Crewkerne Parish marriage record
7. ↑ William Phelps in GMB, Vol III, P-W, pg. 1444-1446.
8. ↑ "Settlers" Pre-1634 Planters of Massachusetts Bay Colony (Link via Wayback Machine, capture date 14 Dec 2016.)
9. ↑ William Phelps in GMB, Vol III, P-W, pg. 1444-1446.
10. ↑ Phelps Family History website
11. ↑ Crewkerne Parish marriage record
12. ↑ William Phelps in GMB, Vol III, P-W, pg. 1444-1446.
13. ↑ ^{13.0 13.1} Phelps Entries in The Great Migration Begins
14. ↑ William Phelps in GMB, Vol III, P-W, pg. 1444-1446.
15. ↑ Connecticut Vital Records 57
16. ↑ Four American Ancestries" (http://books.google.com/books?id=zAV98m0cyl4C&q=186#v=snippet&q=286&f=false

• Crewkerne Parish Records, Crewkerne, Somserset Co., England.
• The Great Migration Begins. Robert Charles Anderson, Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society. 1995. 3: 1444-1446. (also abbreviated as GMB 3:1445).
• The English Origin of William Phelps of Dorchester, Mass., and Windsor, Conn. with Notes on His Marriages,, Myrtle Steven Hyde, F.A.S.G. TAG 65:161-166.
• Connecticut Vital Records: Births, Marriages and Deaths Returned from Hartford, Windsor and Fairfield and Entered in the Early Land Records of the Colony of Connecticut..., ed.Edwin Stanley Welles, (Hartford 1898)] (abbreviated as [CT VR 57])
• Four American Ancestries, by White and Griggs, pg. 286 on Anne Dover's death date.
• Phelps Family History website
• William Phelps, wikipedia, written by the author who created the Phelps Family History website, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Phelps_(colonist)
• Grant Matthew Grant Record, 1639-1681 in Some Early Records and Documents of and Relating to the town of Windsor, Connecticut, 1639-1703 (Hartford 1930)
• Loomis Rec Copy of Windsor Vital Records prepared by Town Clerk and included in the Barbour Index.
• The Phelps Family of America and Their English Ancestors, Judge Oliver Seymour Phelps and Andrew T. Servin, Vol 1 and 2. NOTE: While it contains valuable information, it does contain many errors and omissions. Therefore, this 2-volume book cannot be taken as gospel. The records must be verified by primary sources such as birth, death, and marriage records, land records, probates/wills and such.
• Look at her husband William Phelps's page for more info.