William Wardwell

     William Wardwell was baptized on 4 January 1606/7 in Alford, Lincolnshire, England.³ He was the son of John Wardale.² He married first Alice by 1636.³ He married second Elizabeth Crow, widow of Arthur Perry and of John Gillet, 5th 10 mo. 1657 (5 December 1657) at Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts.^4,5,3 He died at Boston between 18 April (date of will) and 25 April 1670 (when his widow renewed the license on the inn).⁶
     
     William Wardwell migrated to New England in 1633, settling first at Boston. His brother Thomas came to New England at or about the same time.³ "Willyam Wardall one of our brother Edmund Quinsey's servants" was admitted to Boston church 9 February 1633/34.^7,8 Thomas was admitted the following November.⁹ Both William and Thomas Wardwell were followers of Anne Hutchinson in the famous Antinomian controversy. They were disarmed in 1637 and went to Exeter, New Hampshire, with Reverend John Wheelwright, being dismissed to the Exeter church on 6 January 1638/39. They were signers of the Exeter combination, an agreement for self government, on 5 June 1639, and they both had grants of land.^7,3 William apparently did not stay long in Exeter, as his children were in succeeding years born and baptized in Boston.³

     By 1649 William and family were in Wells, York County, Maine, where Wheelwright, the Littlefields and several other Exeter families had moved to escape Massachusetts authority. Edmond Littlefield had also signed the Exeter Combination, and his youngest child Francis would soon marry William's oldest child, Meribah.

     In Wells William kept a tavern. His licenses to sell at retail survive in the records of the courts of October 1649 and March 1656/57. In 1653 Massachusetts, taking over the Gorges Province of Maine, caught up with the Wheelwright fugitives, and on 4 July commissioners arrived in Wells to take the submission of the inhabitants. "And whilst the names of the Inhabitants of Wells were Calling Wm Wardwell . . . was Called to come in & Ans^r to his name which he Refused & Contemptuously turned his backe on the Court." They issued a warrant to the Constable and adjourned the court to Mr. Ezekiel Knight's where the constable brought Wardwell, the rest of the inhabitants accompanying him. He was dismissed upon his hardly credible excuse that "his Intent was not to Contem the Court but Rather to endeavor to gett the Rest of the Inhabitants of Wells that had not Appeared to Come in & make theire Appearances." The inhabitants all submetted the next day, 5 July 1653, and they were given the freeman's oath. The court found that Mr. Pormont and Wardwell had been dismissed from their church relation at their own request and they were advised to desist from further disturbance of the place by asserting their pretended church relation.¹⁰ Wardwell was in court 25 October 1653 for casting aspersions on the magistrates of Massachusetts Bay. Stating that "it was not an ordinance of God," he refused to subscribe towards the college (Harvard) in 1654.

     Having "submitted" in a far from courageous manner, Wardwell returned to Boston, where on 5 December 1657, he married widow Elizabeth Gillett. On the day before their wedding they entered into a contract that such estate as she was in possession of before marriage should be at her disposing. Wardwell engaged to bring up Hannah Gillett, daughter of John Gillett and Elizabeth, then about two years old, and to give her £16 on the day of her marriage or the day of his death, in exchange for the Gillett house, then "much decayed & ready to fall," to which Hannah would have in due course succeeded. On 3 November 1663, the court "allowed this covenant," but granted £21 to Hannah and the land to Wardwell and his heirs.¹¹ The house stood on the corner of Hanover and Cross streets.

     Boston granted Wardwell permission "to draw beere" on 29 April 1661, and after his death widow Wardwell was licensed on 25 April 1670. Her license was renewed year after year, the privilege of selling "strong liquor" out of doors being added in 1691 when her daughter Deborah mann shared the business with her.¹² The inventory of the estate of William Wardwell, dated 30 April 1670, was appraised at The inventory dated 30 April 1670, lists property worth £382, less debts of £164, including funeral charges of £4. The furniture in the hall, hall chamber, parlor, parlor chamber, kitchen and cellar was worth £66. He had on hand 330 bushels of malt, 4 lbs. of hops and 5 full hogsheads of beer.¹³

     In his will, dated 18 April 1670 and probated 4 June 1670, "William Wardell of Boston" bequeathed to "my dear wife Elizabeth Wardell the one-half of my now dwelling house in Boston" during her natural life and also all moveables in the house, "out of which she shall pay unto my daughter Rachel Wardell" £25; to "my wife's daughter Hannah Gillet" £21; to "my wife's daughter Deborah" £20; to "my eldest son Uzall Wardell the other half of my now dwelling house," and the whole house to be his at the decease of William's wife, Uzall to pay to "my son Elihu Wardell" £40; to "my daughter Leah, wife to Will[iam] Tower," 10s; to "my daughter," Merribah, wife to Francis Littlefield of Wells," 10s; to "my daughter Mary, wife to Nathaniel Rust," 10s; residue to son Uzall Wardwell, he to be sole executor; "my loving friends James Everill & Will[iam] Bartholomew" to be overseers.^14,15,16