Person:John Vassall (6)

VASSALL FAMILY
William Vassall was a son of John Vassall and Anne Russell. John Vassall had been a Huguenot refugee from Normandy in the time of French religious purges in the 16th century. He had been recognized by Queen Elizabeth I as achieving merit in the war with the Spanish Armada in 1588 by providing two ships which he commanded at his own expense, the Samuel and the Little Toby. A 'Mayflower' (not the Pilgrim ship), of 250 tons out of London, owned by John Vassall and others, was outfitted in 1588 for the Queen, possibly also for Armada service.

As a result of his Armada service, the Queen authorized him to bear arms and use an English family coat of arms in place of his French one, with his name and services commemorated on a memorial erected in 1888 in Portsmouth, England. In 1609 John Vassall was recorded as a shareholder on the Second Charter of The Virginia Company. Anne Russell was John Vassall’s second of three wives and with her had five children, William being the youngest. The Vassal arms can be noted on the National Armada Memorial in Plymouth England.

JOHN VASSALL, the first of the name of whom we have any definite information, was the son of John Vassall, who was sent by his father from Rinant by Cany in Normandy into England on account of the dissensions then prevailing in Normandy, and was the descendant of an ancient French family, tracing back, it is claimed, to the eleventh century of the house of Du Vassall, Barons de Guerden, in Querci, Perigord. He fitted out, at his own expense, two ships, The Samuel and The Little Toby, which he commanded, and with which he served against the Spanish Armada; for this assistance he was rewarded by a grant of Arms by Queen Elizabeth. He was of Ratcliff, Stepney, and of Eastwood, co. Essex, and was a vestryman of Stepney. He was three times m., first at Stepney on September 25, 1569, to Anna Hewes, who evidently d. sine prole. He then m. on Sept. 4, 1580, at Stepney, Anna Russell, of Ratcliff, co. Middlesex, who d. and was bur. there May 5, 1593, having had the following children: Judith, bapt. March 25, 1582, m. John Freeborne, of Prettlewell, co. Essex, yeoman, whose will dated Jan. 27, 1617-18, was proved by his widow Feb. 17, 1617-18 ; she was living April 29, 1625 ; John, bapt. at Stepney, April 1, 1584, bur. there Oct. 3, 1585; Samuel, of whom hereafter; John, born March 24, d. Aug. 30, 1591 ; William, of whom hereafter. On the death of his second wife, John Vassall m. Judith, dau. of Stephen Borough, of Stepney, and of Chatham, co. Kent, by Joan Overye, his wife, at Stepney, March 27, 1594, marriage license dated March 23 ; she d. in Jan., 1638-9. She had m. firstly Thomas Scott, of Colchester, co. Essex, gent., her husband Vassall predeceased her, and was bur. in Stepney Church Sept. 13, 1625; his will was proved Sept. 13, 1625 (P.C.C., 99 Clarke) (see Dictionary of National Biography, vol. lviii, p. 155).