Wells, Dudley

From: An Island Refuge- Loyalists and Disbanded Troops on The Island of Saint John, The Abegweit Branch of UELAC, 1983

  • DUDLEY WELLS, a single disbanded soldier of the 37th Regiment, arrived from Shelburne on July 26, 1784, with the party destined to settle in the Bedeque Bay area. His grant of 200 acres was situated on Lot 26. One hundred acres were on the south bank of the Bedeque or Dunk River in what is now known as Lower Bedeque, and one hundred more were on the division line of half of Lot 26, which is in the present day Freetown area.
  • We do not know when he married Rebecca Morgan, daughter of Doctor Josiah Morgan of Beverly, Massachusetts, but when he made his will on September 2, 1810, he left her all his property, land and stock with no mention of children. The will was probated on November 7, 1810 on the oath of Jonathan Stowe. Six years later on May 10, 1816 Rebecca Wells “being very sick and weak in body” made her will leaving Nathaniel Wells, son of Thomas Wells, the sum of fifty pounds and twenty pounds to her sister, Mathiah, to be raised and levied out of her estate. Her widowed sister, Hannah Standley, was willed all lands, household goods, debts and moveable estate. She appointed her friends, Isaac Bradshaw and Major Hooper, as her executors. Nathaniel Brundige, Joshua Brundige and Jane Silliker witnessed the signing of the will.