Wickipedia is not to be trusted, as Scoville implies. Proper references are not given, hearsay is presented as fact, and contributors are not even given fake names; far less identified so that they can be held accountable for their statements. It appears to be one of the world's most prolific source of lies and misinformation since 'The Voice of America' shut up shop.

Ignore everything you read there unless it can be verified elsewhere from independent, reliable sources. 1650? Utter nonsense. Just possibly it may be a century younger than that, but there is no real evidence of it prior to the turn of the 18th/19th century. The late Bruce Olson (see his comments above) knew more about that sort of thing than any of us, or any of the anonymous contributors to Wikipedia.