Eleventh Generation

2028. Thomas BLISS was born about 1596 in Preston Parva, Daventry, Northampton, England. He died after 8 June 1647 at the age of 51 in Rehoboth, Bristol Co., MA. He was buried in old Cemetery, Seekonk, now Rumsford, RI. He emigrated with his brother, George, in 1636 upon the death of his father. He moved to Braintree, then to Hartford, CT, then back to Weymouth, MA, then to Rehoboth in 1643 as one of the original proprietors with Rev. Newman on land purchased from Massasoit. At the time of his death, he owned 47 acres in Rehoboth.

Thomas Bliss, married to Dorothy Wheatley (first wife), is mentioned in Early Rehoboth (Richard Lebaron Bowen, 1948) on page 128 as being from Daventry. He made his will at Rehoboth on 7 October 1647 and entreated his friends Richard Wright and Stephen Payne to be overseers. The will was proved at Plymouth 8June 1649. He left an estate of 117 pounds (see Plymouth County Wills, Vol. 1, pp. 67, 81). Thomas Bliss was a surveyor of highways for the town of Rehoboth in 1646 (p. 142).

There is confusion about the origins of Thomas Bliss and Dorothy Wheatlie. Boyer in Ancestral Lines, Third Edition, mentions three possible parentages for Thomas Bliss and calls the Dorothy Wheatleigh connection a forgery by a British genealogist who was trying to find a royal connection for a client. Martha Bliss was the daughter of Jonathan Bliss, not Thomas Bliss, and married Nathaniel Toogood and Benjamin Carpenter. Mary, the other possible candidate, married Nathaniel Harmon. Torrey's New England marriages gives the marriage of Nicholas Ide and Mary Bliss as Rehoboth. Anyway, this is a mess to look into when I have appropriate documentation.

Little Compton Families suggests "Genealogy of The Bliss Family" by John Homer Bliss, Boston 1881. Thomas Bliss is said to have come from Belstone Parish in England to this country. Dorothy WHEATLEIGH and Thomas BLISS were married on 22 November 1614 at Holy Cross Church in Daventry, Northamptonshire, England.⁴²⁵

2029. Dorothy WHEATLEIGH was born on 22 August 1591 in Maiden Newton, Dorset, England. She died before 1645 at the age of 54. There is controversy over whether Dorothy was the daughter of John Wheatlie or his brother Frank and whether Frank's wife was Mary Fiennes of the D'Acre family. See Carl Boyer's Ancestral Lines, p. 93.

Children were:

785	i.	Martha BLISS.
1014	ii.	Jonathan BLISS.
	iii.	Nathaniel BLISS was born (date unknown). Not mentioned in his father's will in 1647.
	iv.	Elizabeth BLISS was born before 19 September 1615 in England. She died in 1676 at the age of 61.
	v.	Mary BLISS was born before 16 March 1616 in England.