When Willoughby Wells was born in 1745, in Edgecombe, North Carolina, United States, his father, Thomas Wells, was 40 and his mother, Mary Margaret Barnes, was 23. He married Mary Hackney. They were the parents of at least 5 daughters. He died on 26 October 1835, in Sumter, South Carolina, United States, at the age of 90, and was buried in Sumter, South Carolina, United States.