Richard PHELPS, Sr ¹

   Ancestral File Number: 91B9-DP. User ID: 18448.

   General Notes:

INTERNET
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Phelps Family Research
M David Phelps
Origin of the Name by Judge Oliver Seymour Phelps and Andrew T. Servin Several versions exist as to the origin of the surname Phelps. One historian asserts that Phelps is a contraction and simplification of Phyllyppes, the name of an ancient English family of Staffordshire, the superfluous letters having been dropped during the reign of Edward VI (1546-1553), Phelips, Phillips, etc. meaning Son of Phillip. It is also stated that the name Philips, or Phillips, was derived from a combination of two Greek words, Philos and Hippos, meaning a lover of horses. A high and reliable authority claims that Phelps is English for Guelph, the name of a historical family of Germany to which Queen Victoria belonged, Guelph being German for Welf, which was the name of a family of princely rank, importance and power in Italy, originally from the northern part and dating back to the 11th century, or thereabouts, becoming Phelps, in England, in the 16th. Century. Another source supplies the information that the name is derived from the Danish word Hvalp,or Swedish Valp, meaning whelp. From the time of Edward 1 (1272-1307), when Phelyp, Phelip, Phelips, Philip, Phelipee and Phelipston were recorded, to Queen Elizabeth's reign (1558-1603), when Phelps was first mentioned in records, court files and state papers, there were many ways used in spelling the name. From 1450 to 1550, Felpe, Felpes, Phelp, Phelpes are found in Massachusetts; Felps, in 1635 and Phelpes in 1636, in Connecticut. Burke says, Phyllyppi was the source. The Montacute, England, family, anciently called Phellyppee, later Phellips, is now, Phelips." However it may be, the Phelps family, with its name definitely established as such since 1560, has many distinguished scions to its credit. In the burying-ground beside the old Tewkesbury Abbey Church, Gloucestershire, England, founded by the Mercian Princes, Dukes Odo and Dodo, two Noble Saxon brothers who flourished at the commencement of the 8th. Century, lie interred some of the Phelps ancestors; others lie in the cemetery of Dursley, in Gloucestershire; in Porlock, Somersetshire; in Staffordshire, and in almost all of the shires of old England. John Phelps, in 1649 was joint-clerk of the Court that tried and condemned to death King Charles I, having such zeal as to sign each record with his full name.To escape the terrible penalty imposed on the regicides for their act, John Phelps became an exile in Vevery, Canton de Vaud, Switzerland, where he died. In the ancient church of St. Martin, in Vevery, a black marble monument, inscribed to the memory of John Phelps, exiled in the cause of human freedom, was erected in 1882 by two American descendants of the same English Phelps family of Tewkesbury. Inscribed on a big bell in St. Paul's Church steeple, London, is the name of Richard Phelps, Whitechapel, London, A.D., 1710.

Coat of Arms: From the office of the Domesday Book, No. 20, Cooper Institute, in 1861—now discontinued—''The American bearings of the family of Phelps are: per pale, or (gold), and argent, (white or silver), a wolf salient azure (blue) with an orle of eight crosses crosslet, fitchie gule(red). Crest, a wolf's head erased (torn off), azure collared or, the collar charged with a martlet sable (black)."

ANCESTRAL FILE
91B9-DP Ver 4.10 Born 1497 Nether Teyne Staffordshire England, Mar Tewkesbury

INTERNATIONAL GENEALOGICAL INDEX
IGI Birth James PHELPS 7504303-40-935292 Father Richard 1520, 8623803-44-1396230 Father Richard PHELPS or PHYLLYPPES 1525, 8612605-42-1396192 Father Richard PHYLLYPPES 1530, 8690806-30-1396332 Father Richard PHELPS Born 1534 Tewkesbury Gloucester England.

   Marriage Information:

Richard married Mary TOMES in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England. (Mary TOMES was born in 1501-1512 in Tewkesbury, Gloucester, England.)