Little Totnes has been a digression from the main theme of this thread, but for the record, as far as I can tell this was a district containing farmland just south of the town, and some fields there were owned in some capacity by a member of the Wise family. There was also the title 'Lord f the Manor' of Little Totnes, which seems to have had n income stream referred to as 'manorial dues'. I think that this had been in the Savery family since around 1570.
John Wise (1750-1807), the recorder of Totnes, had a sister named Mary, who married a Christopher Savery, and it is not unlikely that he or his father had purchased the right to those dues.
Back on Emmota/Willmett:
I note that the pedigrees published by Burke, Colby and Vivian all explicitly state that that John Wise, whose mother was Alice Harris, was the second son. The 1918 book written by Jennings Wise claims this John was the eldest son, (presumably because by then someone had noticed the age problem). I find it totally implausible that the elder son would move to Totnes and become the leading merchant in town, leaving his younger brother to inherit the family estates.
I also note that Christopher Wise (the elder) appointed as one of the executors of his Will written in July 1628 "my good friende and cossen Thomas Prestwood", who was also one of the witnesses. This Thomas Prestwood had been a merchant based in Totnes since about 1600 (see
https://www.historyofparliamentonlin...omas-1570-1655 ).
He was mayor of Totnes in 1628 and 1643, MP in 1628-19 as well, but then took the wrong side in the Civil War. It seems that his eldest daughter, Frisweda, married Samuel Wise and his second daughter Susanna married John the son of William Wise, and from who all the subsequent generations of the Wise family in Totnes were descended.
This makes it all the more unbelievable that there were two unrelated wealthy men named William Wise, and two Samuels in Totnes at the same time.