Samuel Wells was born in 1729 in Deerfield, Massachusetts. His parents were John and Sarah (Allen) Wells; Samuel was the eldest of their eight children. This branch of the town's numerous Wells family settled in the Green River section of Deerfield, Massachusetts, that later became the town of Greenfield in 1753. Like his father, Samuel served as an officer in the militia during the colonial wars and as a lieutenant in the American Revolution (1775-1783.) He was also active in town affairs, including serving as a town selectman after Greenfield became a separate township. In 1751, he married Margaret McCrellis of Colrain, Massachusetts. The couple had four children, all of whom survived to adulthood. Samuel Wells died in Greenfield in 1801, aged 72. (George Sheldon, History of Deerfield (Greenfield, MA: PVMA, 1896), Vol. II, p. 359, 363; Frances M. Thompson, History of Greenfield, Shire Town of Franklin County, Massachusetts (Greenfield, MA: T. Morey & Son, 1904), 785-786, 910; David Willard, Willard's History of Greenfield (Greenfield, MA: Kneeland and Eastman,1838), 41.)
An entry in the account book of Daniel Arms, a Deerfield farmer, recorded that on April 16, 1760, Arms charged "Capt. Sam'l Wells" four shillings for "two Days works" by Arms's enslaved man, Titus. (Account book of Daniel and Aaron Arms, PVMA Library, Deerfield, Massachusetts.)
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