William Bassett

Other Events:

• AFN: 9J3V-Q3

Notes:

(Research):MARRIAGES: Confusion over whether he and the William shown in the AF as his father were one and the same. Following taken from "Leyden Documents Relating to the Pilgrim Fathers", Netherlands America Institute, Leyden, E.J. Brill Ltd, 1920. (Only references to William Bassett in this document.) Notes: see D00013
Pg. VI, Marriage intention: 19 March 1611 William Basset, hodman, Sandwich, England, widower of Cecily Light (Sisle Lecht, as recorded by the Dutch magistrate), accompanied by Roger Wilson and William Brewster, with Mary Butler, accompanied by Ann Fuller and Rose Lisle (Mary died in April before completion of the "banns").
Pg. VIII, Marriage intention: 26 July 1611. Marriage 13 Aug 1611
William Basset, Englishman, widower of Cicely Light (Sisle Lecht), accompanied by Roger Wilson and Edward Southworth, with Margaret Oldham (Holdum, Holtham) (Margriete Oldum - Dutch record), accompanied by Wybra Pontus and Elisabeth Neal (she appears to have married William Buckram of Ipswich, widower of Judith, 17 Dec 1611).
Records of the "Fortune", which arrived in Plymouth, MA in 1621, show William Bassett with one other family member, presumably his wife. In the 1627 Division of Cattle, he is shown with wife Elizabeth and children William and Elysabeth. No other William Bassett came from Leyden to Plymouth. From the above, it appears William of Leyden was a close acquaintance of William Brewster (born 15??) and Roger Wilson (born about 1584), both of whom came to Plymouth. William Bassett continues to have close relations with Brewster, Wilson and Miles Standish in Plymouth. See: "Ancestry of Two Great Grandmothers, Esther (Root) Poole, Lois (Sprague) Mears", compiled by Winifred Lovering Holman, S.B., 1938, copy at the NEHGS, pg. 203-210 - D0007
"One Bassett Family in America" by Buell B. Bassette, 1926, copy at the NEHGS, pp. 1-8 - D00012 references the Leyden records and the will of William Bassett of Plymouth and dismisses the argument for one William Bassett. Rationale is: "but this would require that he be born as early as 1590 and make him 77 at the time of making will, whereas the language of the will does not indicate one so old. Moreover, it is quite unusual for one to have married twice and have both wives die within ten years without heirs."

The argument that they are one and the same includes the following:
1. Only one William Bassett appears in the Leyden records and he appears to be a close acquaintance of William Brewster and Roger Wilson, both of whom go to Plymouth. Only one William Bassett goes to Plymouth.
2. Those accompanying the marriage intentions were likely of similar age. A number of them marry close to the same time (see Leyden records). Roger Wilson and William Brewster were born in the 1580's. William Bassett of Leyden is likely close in age. 1590 is reasonable.
3. The statement in the will "If God had lengthened out my life It might have bine that thou mightest have bine more Comfortably provided for" seems to be more a sentimental expression than the worries of a young husband unable to leave his wife adequately provided for. William was a substantial land holder and had a significant library, hardly leaving his wife in poverty. Also, this statement seems no more unusual for a 77 year old than for a 67
year old (as Bassette assumes), given the life expectancy of the times.
4. Given the apparent high mortality in the group, it is not unreasonable for both wives to have died. Cecily could have died soon after marriage; Margaret Oldham could have been unable to bear children or had children who died in infancy and could have died before the departure for Plymouth.
5. One IGI record gives the name of Elizabeth, wife of William of Plymouth, as Elizabeth Neil, although the only Elizabeth Neal in Leyden accompanied Margaret Oldham at her marriage to William Bassett and in December marries William Buckham. Another gives it as Elizabeth Tilden. It is not unusual for a man to marry his deceased wife's widowed sister, in this case Mary Tilden.

"From The Great Migration Begins", online database

WILLIAM BASSETT

ORIGIN: Unknown
MIGRATION: 1621 on Fortune
FIRST RESIDENCE: Plymouth
REMOVES: Duxbury by 1637 [ PCR 1:63], Bridgewater by 1656
OCCUPATION: Blacksmith (the first five lines of the inventory included blacksmith's tools, including a pair of bellows, an anvil, a vice, tongs and hammers and coal shovels, and "all the rest of the smith shop" items).
FREEMAN: In "1633" Plymouth list of freemen, among those admitted before 1 January 1632/3 [ PCR 1:3]; also in list of 7 March 1636/7 [ PCR 1:52]. In Duxbury portion of list of 1639 [ PCR 8:174]. In Bridgewater portion of list which has been dated in 1658 [ PCR 8:202].
EDUCATION: Inventory included more than twenty books listed by title, mostly theological, valued at ?9 18s.
OFFICES: Plymouth coroner's jury, 2 March 1635/6 [ PCR 1:39]; committee to admit newcomers to Duxbury, 7 May 1638 [ PCR 1:84]; Plymouth grand jury, 5 June 1638, 6 June 1654 [ PCR 1:87, 3:49]; Plymouth petit jury, 7 March 1636/7, 2 January 1637/8, 6 March 1637/8, 4 June 1639, 3 September 1639 [ PCR 7:5, 7, 8, 12, 13]; Duxbury deputy to Plymouth court, 2 June 1640, 6 June 1643, 29 August 1643, 5 March 1643/4, 7 June 1648 [ PCR 1:154, 2:57, 60, 68, 123]; committee to lay out land, 3 September 1638, 7 January 1638/9, 4 February 1638/9, 4 March 1638/9, 31 August 1640, 5 October 1640 [ PCR 1:95, 109, 112, 115, 161, 163]; committee on bounds between Duxbury and Marshfield, 2 March 1640/1 [ PCR 2:9, 42]; council of war for Duxbury, 27 September 1642 [ PCR 2:46]; Duxbury constable, 3 June 1652 [ PCR 3:8]; committee to lay out highways [ PCR 3:61, 62]. In Duxbury portion of 1643 list of men able to bear arms [ PCR 8:190].
ESTATE: In the 1623 Plymouth land division "William Bassite" received two acres as a passenger on the Fortune in 1621 [ PCR 12:5]. In the 1627 Plymouth division of cattle, the sixth company included William Basset, Elizabeth Basset, William Basset Jr. and Elizabeth Basset Jr. [ PCR 12:11].
Assessed ?1 7s. in the Plymouth tax lists of 25 March 1633 and 27 March 1634 [ PCR 1:10, 27].
On 1 July 1633, 14 March 1635/6 and 20 March 1636/7 William Bassett was ordered to "mow at the end of his own ground" [ PCR 1:14, 40, 56].
On 23 June 1637 William Bassett of Duxbury released to Mr. Ralph Partridge "so much of the lot of his lands lying in Ducksborrow aforesaid as is now enclosed by the said Mr. Partridg" [ PCR 12:18-19], and again on 7 November 1637 a similar agreement was reached regarding land released to William Leverich and Ralph Partridge [ PCR 12:25].
On 6 April 1640 Plymouth Colony granted to "William Basset of Duxburrow" one hundred acres of upland with "meadow convenient" [ PCR 1:144, 146].
On 3 June 1652 William Bassett of Duxbury gave to "his son-in-law Leiftenant Perigrine White" forty acres of upland with the meadow adjoining [ MD 1:96, citing PCLR 2:1:5]. On 16 June 1656 "William Bassett Senior of Duxburrow now living at Bridgewater" made a deed of gift of his Marshfield lands to his "two sons there living viz: Perigrine White and Nathaniell Bassett" [ MD 10:25-27, citing PCLR 2:1:177-78].
William Bassett and Mr. [John] Howland jointly held one share as Dartmouth purchasers, 7 March 1652 [ MD 4:187, citing PCLR 2:1:107].
On 8 November 1666 William Bassett, blacksmith, of Bridgewater sold to John Sprague of Duxbury, husbandman, for ?40 four lots of upland containing fourscore acres and five acres of meadow, with dwelling house, cowhouse, stable, barn, outhouse, orchard and garden; William Bassett acknowledged the deed on 7 November 1666, and on 5 November 1666 "Mary Bassett the wife of William Bassett Sr. ... of Bridgewater" consented to the sale [ PCLR 3:66, with dates in the unlikely order as given].
On 3 April 1667 William Bassett Senior made a nuncupative will, bequeathing the movables to his wife, and the house and land to her during her life, after which it was to go to his son William's son, and bequeath~ing his tools to his son Joseph, and "being demanded about his books which he formerly took care about, answered he could not now do it" [ MD 16:162, citing PCPR 2:2:37]. His inventory was taken 12 May 1667 and totalled ?123 2s. 6d. (which included no land, but did include his blacksmith's tools and more than twenty books) [ PCPR 2:2:37-38]. On 5 June 1667 letters of administration were granted to William Bassett Jr. on the estate of William Bassett Sr. deceased [ PCR 4:155].
On 2 June 1669 "William Bassett of Sandwich ... the eldest son and heir of William Bassett sometimes inhabitant of ... Bridgewater ... now deceased" confirmed to "Joseph Bassett of Bridgewater my youngest brother" land in Bridgewater granted him by his father in his lifetime but not legally confirmed [ PCLR 3:140].
BIRTH: By about 1600, assuming that Elizabeth was his first wife.
DEATH: Bridgewater between 3 April 1667 (date of will) and 12 May 1667 (date of inventory). (The claim that William Bassett died on 4 April 1667 derives from a peculiar misreading of the probate documents, in which the date of probate is taken as 5 April rather than 5 June, and the assumption is made that the death must have occurred between the third and the fifth.)
MARRIAGE: (1) By 1623 (and probably by 1621) Elizabeth _____, probably also a passenger on the Fortune in 1621; she appears in no record after 1627, and may have died soon after the birth of the last child about 1634, or she may have lived until just before William Bassett married his second wife.
(2) After 1651 and before 12 December 1664 Mary (Tilden) Lapham, daughter of Nathaniel Tilden, widow of Thomas Lapham [see TIMOTHY HATHERLEY]; she was living at Bridgewater as late as 28 March 1690 [ Bassett Gen 6, citing BridTR 1:320].
CHILDREN:
i WILLIAM, b. Plymouth about 1624; m. by about 1652 Mary Rainsford, daughter of EDWARD RAINSFORD [ NEHGR 139:299].

ii ELIZABETH, b. Plymouth about 1626; m. Sandwich 8 November 1648 Thomas Burgess [ PCR 8:6], from whom she was divorced on 10 June 1661 [ PCR 3:221].

iii SARAH, b. Plymouth say 1628; m. by 6 March 1648/9 Peregrine White, son of WILLIAM WHITE [ PCR 2:183; MF 1:101-03].

iv NATHANIEL, b. say 1630; m. about 1661 Dorcas Joyce, daughter of John Joyce [ TAG 43:3-5].

v JOSEPH, b. say 1632; m. (1) by about 1660 Mary _____ (said to be his stepsister Mary Lapham, daughter of Thomas Lapham [see NEHGR 115:85]); m. (2) Hingham 16 October 1677 Martha Hobart [ NEHGR 121:200].

vi RUTH, b. say 1634; m. (1) by 1655 John Sprague, son of FRANCIS SPRAGUE [ TAG 41:178-81, citing PCR 6:109 for evidence of marriage]; she m. (2) _____ Thomas [ TAG 41:179; Robert S. Wakefield suggests that this was John Thomas of Marshfield, who died before 12 January 1691/2, and whose first wife had died 2 January 1682/3].

COMMENTS: In 1611 a William Bassett, formerly of Sandwich in England, widower of Cecily Light, was twice betrothed at Leiden in Holland. His first bride-to-be died, but he succeeded the second time. Some have held that this was the man who came to Plymouth, but this seems unlikely given the ten-year gap before the arrival in Plymouth in 1621, and the lack of evidence for children of the Plymouth man born before that date, assuming that he had been married at least twice before. It is also possible that the William Bassett of Leiden in 1611 was the father of the immigrant to Plymouth in 1621, but there is no evidence directly favoring this hypothesis. (See discussion in Stratton 242-43.)
If the two-acre grant to William Bassett in 1623 was for William and his wife Elizabeth, then the first child would not have been born until 1624, three years after William's arrival in Plymouth. It is possible (though not likely) that the marriage took place in Plymouth, and Elizabeth came on the Fortune as a single woman.
Savage has misread the 1627 Plymouth cattle division, somehow including daughter Sarah Bassett in this list, when in fact only two children, William and Elizabeth, were included. Sarah must have been born soon after 1627, however, to have married by the end of 1648.
Pope claims that William Bassett resided at Sandwich in 1650, but this would be the son of the same name.
Munsey-Hopkins (p. 67) lists a "probable" seventh child, a daughter Jane who married a Thomas Gilbert. This must be a simple error in which "Rossiter" was misread for "Bassett," as there was a Thomas Gilbert of Taunton who married Jane Rossiter.
Various secondary sources claim that William Bassett volunteered for service in the Pequot War, and in the index to the first volume of published Plymouth Colony records he is listed for the page on which such volunteers appear, but he does not actually appear in the list [ PCR 1:61]; a number of the index entries for William Bassett actually seem to be for William Paddy.
On 6 March 1648/9 William Bassett was fined 5s. "for not mending of guns in seasonable time," and on 9 June 1653 he was fined 10s. "for neglecting to publish and make known an order directed to him from the council of war, prohibiting provisions for being transported out of the colony" [ PCR 2:137, 3:36]. On 9 August 1655 and 10 June 1661 the colony treasurer received payment of fines by William Bassett [ PCR 3:93, 8:104].

(2) wife Mrs. Mary (Tilden) Lasham. He came in 1621 in the ship Fortune, which was the second ship to arrive at Plymouth., NEHGR Vol 62, p.315

Mag. of Am. Geneal. No. 25, various issues of Hartford Times.; Bassett Geneal.

William married Elizabeth Abt 1621, Plymouth (of), , Massachusetts, United States. Elizabeth was born Abt 1603; died Bef 1667, Plymouth, , Massachusetts, United States. [Group Sheet]

1. William Bassett was born Abt 1624, Plymouth, , Massachusetts, United States; died 29 Aug 1684, New Haven, New Haven, Connecticut, United States.
2. Elizabeth Bassett was born Abt 1626, Bridgewater, , Massachusetts, United States; died 1670.
3. Sarah Bassett was born Abt 1628, Plymouth, , Massachusetts, United States; died 20 Jan 1712, Marshfield, Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States.
4. Nathaniel Bassett was born Abt 1630, Plymouth, , Massachusetts, United States; died 16 Jan 1710, Yarmouth, Barnstable, Massachusetts, United States.
5. Joseph Basset was born Abt 1632, Plymouth, , Massachusetts, United States; died 1712.
6. Ruth Bassett was born Abt 1634, Plymouth, , Massachusetts, United States; died Between 1694 and 1700, Duxbury, Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States.
7. Jane Bassett was born 1635, Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States; died Yes, date unknown.

William married Elizabeth Neil 1621, Stepney, Middlesex, England. Elizabeth was born Abt 1600, , , England; died Bef 1650, Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States. [Group Sheet]

William married Mary Tilden Aft 1648, , , England. Mary was christened 20 May 1610, Tenterden, Kent, England; died Aft 1667. [Group Sheet]