Person:William Vassall (1)

Text References

1. ↑ NEHGR 109:94.
2. ↑ Sanders, Joanne McRee. Barbados Records: Wills and Administrations. (Marceline, Missouri: Walsworth Publishing Co., 1979-1981).

   Barbadoes. William Vassall, now resident of this Island, Esq., 31 July 1655, proved 12 June 1657. Son in law Nicholas Ware and his wife Anna, my daughter. My two other daughters, Margaret and Mary Vassall. All now here with me. My estate in this Island, New England, or any other part or place in the world. To my daughters, Judith, wife of Resolved White, Frances, the wife of James Adams, Anna, the wife of Nicholas Ware, and Margaret and Mary Vassall, the other two thirds, to be equally divided among them, to each a fifth. My son John not being now in the island, my son in law Nicholas Ware to act and manage for him and he and his wife, child and family, to remain, abide and dwell on my plantation until my said executor’s arrival, or an order from him concerning same.
   
   The Testator made his mark in the presence of Humphrey Davenport, Humphrey Kent and Lion Hill. The will was proved by John Vassall, sole executor.

3. ↑ ^3.0 3.1 Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995).

   ORIGIN: London MIGRATION: 1630 FIRST RESIDENCE: Boston
   REMOVES: Scituate 1635, England 1646, Barbados 1648
   BIRTH: Baptized Stepney, Middlesex, 27 August 1592, son of John and Anne (Russell) Vassall [ NEHGR 109:94].
   DEATH: Barbados between 31 July 1655 (date of will) and 12 June 1657 (probate of will).

4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7} William Vassall, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5} Griffin, Paula Porter, and Thomas Stephen Neel. The Ancestors of Daniel White, 1777-1836, and his wife, Sarah Ford, 1778-1847, and Their Descendants. (Evansville, Indiana: Unigraphic, 1979)
   pages 102-6.
6. ↑ ^6.0 6.1 William Vassall, in Find A Grave.
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 7.8} Carpenter, Dorothy. William Vassall and Dissent in Early Massachusetts: Another Look at the Founding of Massachusetts with special emphasis on a forgotten dissenter, William Vassall. (Dorothy S. Carpenter, 2001, 2004).
8. ↑ Hotten, John Camden. The Original Lists of Persons of Quality (1874): Emigrants; Religious Exiles; Political Rebels; Serving Men Sold for a Term of years; Apprentices; Children Stolen; Maidens Pressed; and others who went from Great Britain to the American Plantations 1600- 1700. with their ages, the localities where they formerly lived in the mother country, the names of the ships in which they embarked, and other interesting particulars. (London, England: Chatto and Windus, 1874)
   pages 93-94.
9. ↑ Calder, Charles Maclear. John Vassall and his Descendants: By One of Them. (Hertford: Stephen Austin and Sons, LTD., Printers, 1921)
   pages 7-8.

   WILLIAM VASSALL, of Rayleigh, Massachusetts, Scituate, and Barbados, born and bapt. at Stepney, Aug. 27, 1592, m. June 9, 1613, Anne, the dau. of George King, of Cold Norton, co. Essex yeoman, license dated June 9, and had issue: Anne, born Sept. 6, and d. Sept. 22, 1614, at Cold Norton; Judith; Frances; Samuel and Mary (twins), born June 22, 1624; Samuel, d. at Rayleigh Nov. 10, 1624, and Mary, d. young; William, d. young; John; Anne; Margaret; and Mary. William Vassall was the first of his name who went to New England; he was an assistant in the Massachusetts Bay Co., and one of the original patentees of New England lands. At a formal meeting of the Governor and Company held in July, 1629, he, with others, was appointed "to go over ", which he did, but returned to England, after a short stay, in the ship Lyon. On July 17-20, 1635, he embarked in the Blessing, Jo. Lecester master, with his wife, five daughters, and one son, for New England. Upon his arrival in that country it would seem that he settled, first in Roxbury, for the church registry of that town has the following entry, made by the Rev. John Eliot in his account of the church members: "Mrs. Anna Vassaile—the wife of Mr. William Vassaile—her husband five children to this land, Judith, Frances, John, Margaret, Mary " (this is an error, as there were six children, Judith, Frances, John, Ann, Margaret, and Mary; the latter was 1 year old, as appears in the list of the passengers of the Blessing on that voyage). How long he remained at Roxbury is not known. In Nov. 1636 he was connected with the church at Scituate, in Plymouth, in which town Deane says he erected a house in 1635 on land laid out to him by order of the Court, and which he called West Newland. He took the oath of fidelity at Scituate, Feb. 1, 1638. In December, 1639, a licence was granted to him " to make an oyster bed in North River " before his house. In 1642 he was chosen one of a council of war, aggressions having been threatened by the Narragansetts, and in 1643 his name appeared on the militia roll. In 1644-5 he was prominently concerned in, the division of the church at Scituate, and the settlement of Mr. Witherell, over the disaffected portion, against the advice and protestations of the churches at Plymouth and Marshfield. The separation of the churches arose partially from the views held by its pastor, the Rev. Charles Chauncy, upon the ordinance of baptism, with whom Mr. Vassall had early disputed on doctrinal points. (For an interesting discussion on the subject see Deane's Scituate.) In 1646 he sailed for England in the Supply, in aid of a petition for the redress of wrongs in the Government, and never returned, but in 1648 removed to Barbados, and d. in 1655, aged 63 years. His will is dated at Barbados July 31, 1655, and he describes himself as "now resident in this Island", and it was proved June 12, 1657 (246 Ruthen). In it he states: My son-in-law Nicholas Ware and his wife. Anna, my daur. My daughter Margaret Vassall and my daughter Mary Vassall. My son Jno. My daurs. Judith, wife of Resolved White, Frances the wife of James Adams, Anna the wife of Nicholas Ware. My estate and effects to be equally divided between them. My son John sole Executor." On May 8, 1656, Capt. Joshua Hubbard, of Higham, was appointed attorney for the sale of the Scituate estate, by virtue of two writings, one signed by Resolved White and James Adams, Feb. 18, 1656, and the other by Margaret and Mary Vassall, March 3, 1655-6. The estate was conveyed by Joshua Hubbard to John Cushen and Mathyas Briggs, for the sum of £120, and consisted of about 120 acres, with house and barn. The deed was signed by Joshua Hubbard, Resolved White, and Judith, his wife, and James Adams, July 18, 1657.

10. ↑ In England in March 1629, William Vassall was recorded in the Charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company as an Assistant to the Governor. He was a signatory to both the Massachusetts Bay Charter and the Cambridge Agreement in 1629. The Cambridge Agreement was to move the entire government of Massachusetts from England to the New World.
    
    At an October 1629 meeting if the Company, William Vassall, with others, was appointed to travel out to New England. Per page 256 of The Mayflower Quarterly of September 2010, William Vassall sailed on the Lyon to New England in 1630 and returned on the Lyon to England about one month later. There is some confusion in the article as it states that Vassall traveled in company with Governor John Winthrop, who was just assuming his post. Other sources state that Winthrop did not travel on the Lyon but was on the Arbella, flagship of what became known as The Winthrop Fleet - eleven ships bringing over 700 persons. This was the beginning of what came to be known as the historic event called The Great Migration - thousands of English settlers coming to New England in the early-mid-1630s.
    
    Regarding William Vassall's first trip to New England, research indicates that if he did travel on the Lyon to New England, he may have arrived in February 1630 as per the Letter from Deputy Governor Thomas Dudley to Lady Bridget, Countess of Lincoln, March 1631: in this letter the Lyon is noted several times, once for its arrival date from Bristol of February 5, 1630 and another for being in-port in Salem on July 7, 1630. Additionally, some sources state that his family came with him on this first trip, but this cannot be confirmed.

The Winthrop Fleet (1630)

The Winthrop Fleet brought over 700 colonists to establish a new colony at Massachusetts Bay. The fleet consisted of eleven ships: the Arbella flagship with Capt Peter Milburne, the Ambrose, the Charles, the Mayflower, the Jewel, the Hopewell, The Success, the Trial, the Whale, the Talbot and the William and Francis.   Sailed: April and May 1630 from Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, England   Arrived: June and July 1630 at Salem, Massachusetts   Previous Settlers: The Higginson Fleet (1629)   Passengers: Winthrop wrote to his wife just before they set sail that there were seven hundred passengers. Six months after their arrival, Thomas Dudley wrote to Bridget Fiennes, Countess of Lincoln and mother of Lady Arbella and Charles Fiennes, that over two hundred passengers had died between their landing April 30 and the following December, 1630.   Selected leaders and prominent settlers: Gov. John Winthrop - Richard Saltonstall - Isaac Johnson - Gov. Thomas Dudley - Gov. William Coddington - William Pynchon - William Vassall - John Revell - Robert Seely - Edward Convers - Gov. Simon Bradstreet - John Underhill - William Phelps   Resources: The Winthrop Society - The Winthrop Fleet (Wikipedia) - Anderson's Winthrop Fleet