Ralph Keeler

   Ancestral File Number: 8J40-39.

  General Notes:

"The identity of Ralph's first wife, the mother of his children, is unknown and Selleck commented that the discovery, 'if ever made ....will be an interesting disclosure.' In his unpublished "History of Wilton, G. Evans Hubbard said Ralph's wife "seems to have been a daughter of Stephen Beckwith who was also a purchaser of Norwalk". He did not say how he reached his conclusions. this Stephen Beckwith had no sons, but may have had daughters. Ralph's second wife was SARAH WHELPLEY, widow of Henry Whelpley. Sarah, whose maiden name is unknown, was married to Edward Treadwell of Huntington, L. I., when he died in 1660 ("Descendants of Edward Treadwell,". New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, 42:177). She then married Henry Whelpley of Fairfield, Conn., who was dead by 6 June 1662. Sarah then married Ralph and after his death in 1672 she married Thomas Skidmore of Fairfield, who died in 1684. Sarah died 14 days later. The Keeler-Wood genealogy (Frost, Josephine C., "Ancestors of Evelyn Wood Keeler", privately printed, 1939) overlooks the fact that Whelpley married the widow of John Whitlock "before" he married the widow of Edward Treadwell (Jacobus, Donald Lines, "History and Genealogy of Families of Old Fairfield" I:684) and assumes that it is Whitlock's widow who later married Ralph Keeler. This leads the author to the faulty conclusion that it was not Sarah Whelpley who was married to Ralph Keeler at the time of his death.

Notes !(Ref. Boughton' "Rockwell and Keeler Genealogy") In reference to the early history of Ralph Keeler, who was one of the first settlers of Norwalk, Conn., (the writer refers to the mention of him in the Whitney Genealogy, which is regarded as one of the best authorities on the events of those times), it says (p.79) Ralph Keeler was born in England about 1613 and owned a lot in Hartford, Conn., to which he went about 1639. His first wife not known, second wife married after 1651, was Sarah, Widow of Henry Whelpley, of Norwalk, Conn. The following was copied by the compiler of this work from the Fairfield Probate Court records from the will of Ralph Keeler, Sr., which is filed there. Will dated 20 Aug 1672 and probated the same year, thus proving his death to have occurred in the latter part of that year. He begins by saying he is about 59 years old. First, he bequeaths one third of his estate to his wife, Sarah; Second, to his sons John Keeler and Ralph Keeler, Jr., Samuel Keeler, Jonah Keeler, and Rebecca and Elizabeth Keeler, the remainder of his estate, to be apportioned as afterwards designated. Ralph Keeler (from whom as ancester is traced all of the Keelers embraced in this work) came from Hartford, Conn, where in 1639 the public records show that he was one of its early Puritan settlers and sold out his estate there and moved to Norwalk, as an informant says, 1651/52, where the first mention of him is in a list of those to whom grants of land were made as settlers by the town authorities. Hall's history of Norwalk says that the public records of that act bears no date, but that it is accepted that said grants were made in 1652, which was about two years after commencement of the settlement of Norwalk, Conn. He is next mentioned 18 Dec 1653 as the contractor to whom the town awarded the contract to cut the timber and build a house for Mr. Hanford the pastor of the church there at that time, said house to be 16x26 ft. He is next mentioned in a list of estates in Norwalk, in which his was valued at 150 Pounds, dated 1655. At a town meeting held at Norwalk September, 1688, he contracted to build forty rods of fence. On 20 Feb 1672 an enrollment of the children: Three were mentioned as Keelers. On 16 Dec 1684 it was agreed to aportion home lots to the inhabitants, three acres to hundred, to be drawn for, in which Ralph Keeler, Jr., received two and John Keeler three. On 3 Jan 1687 another valuation of estates was made, in which Ralph Keeler, Jr., is recorded at 170 Pounds 10s and John Keeler 100 Pounds; Samuel Keeler 103 Pounds 10s. 16 Jan 1694 Ralph Keeler, Jr., was named one of a town Committee to procure a minister and dispenser of the Gospel in Norwalk. 25 Oct 1697 Ralph, Jr., and Samuel Keeler and John Whitney were appointed to erect a support to the gallery in the meeting house--the above the last mention on public records at Norwalk of Ralph Keeler as given in Hall's History of Norwalk.

I.B. Barbour, "Families of Early Hartford, Conn.," 1977 states that he was a chimney viewer 1645, one of the signers of the agreement for planting Norwalk June 1650 and there 1652; freeman 1668: died 1672 between Aug 20 & Sept. 10.

Ralph married Daughter of Stephen Beckwith in Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut. (Daughter of Stephen Beckwith was born about 1617 in Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut and died in 1684.)