| William Bassett Sr. migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See Great Migration Begins, by R. C. Anderson, Vol. 1, p. 127) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm |
Contents |
The William Basset of this profile is often confused/conflated with a William Bassett who was twice betrothed in Leiden, Holland in 1611. Many works have conflated the data on these two men, including Stratton, Dexter, and Wikipedia. Please see the CONFLATION WARNING, below.
The biography below follows Robert Charles Anderson's Great Migration Begins, which represents the most recent and comprehensive research of early New England colonists. Therefore, it was used as a guide to connecting William's wives and his children, and as support for differentiating him from the William Bassett found in Leiden in 1611.
The origins and the parents of William Bassett are unknown.[1][2] His year of birth is estimated at about 1600, based on the estimated year of his first marriage (and assuming that Elizabeth was his first wife).[1] No birth record has been found for him in England, where he was probably born. Additionally, no DNA evidence has been found to link the Bassetts of Plymouth to the Bassetts of Kent, England.[2]
William arrived in Plymouth Colony as a passenger on the Fortune,[1] which arrived in November 1621 with 36 passengers.[3] William first resided in Plymouth.[1]
As a passenger of the Fortune, William received land in the 1623 Plymouth land division. William "Bassite" received two acres that "lye beyond the first brook to the wood westward".[4] As William received two acres, it is likely that he was married by that year. Some believe that William's wife, Elizabeth, traveled aboard the Fortune with him.
William was listed as one of the "Purchasers":[5] a group of 53 Plymouth Colony planters, together with five London men who, in about 1626, acquired the interests of the "Adventurers" (the original investors in the colony). In 1986, Eugene Aubrey Stratton wrote, "the list of Purchasers continued to be an important one for, in general, these people were privileged above others in future land grants in the colony."[6] For more information, see: The 1626 Adventurers and Purchasers.
William appears in the 1627 division of cattle with his wife, Elizabeth, son William Jr., and daughter Elizabeth Jr. in the 6th company of John Shaw, which included thirteen people.[7] Note that Savage mistakenly includes their daughter Sarah in the list.
William was included on the 1633 Plymouth list of freemen, as one of the men admitted before 1 January 1632/3,[8] and appears on the list of freemen dated 7 March 1636/7.[9]
William was assessed tax in the Plymouth Colony tax lists dated 25 March 1633[10] and 27 March 1634;[11] he also served on the Plymouth coroner's jury on 2 March 1635/6.[12]
William did NOT serve in the Pequot War (he was listed as serving in the index of Plymouth Colony Records, but he does not appear in the list of those who served).[1][13]
William removed to Duxbury by 1637, when he was noted as owning land there.[14] On 7 May 1638, he was on a committee to admit newcomers to Duxbury[15] and appears in the Duxbury portion of the 1639 list of freemen.[16]
On 6 April 1640, Plymouth Colony granted 100 acres of land to William.[17] He appears in the Duxbury portion of the 1643 list of men able to bear arms[18] and may have been a member of Captain Standish's militia company that year.
In Duxbury, William served the town in various roles as follows: Duxbury deputy to Plymouth court, 2 June 1640, 6 June 1643, 29 August 1643, 5 March 1643/4, and 7 June 1648;[19] member of committees to lay out land, 3 September 1638, 7 January 1638/9, 4 February 1638/9, 4 March 1638/9, 31 August 1640, and 5 October 1640;[20] member of committee on bounds between Duxbury and Marshfield, 2 March 1640/1;[21] member of council of war for Duxbury, 27 September 1642;[22] and Duxbury constable, 3 June 1652.[23]
Pope claims that William resided at Sandwich, Massachusetts in 1650, but it was his son, William Bassett Jr., who removed to Sandwich.
On 3 June 1652, William Bassett Sr. of Duxbury gave his son-in-law Lt. Peregrine White 40 acres of land on which he "now liveth", along with meadow land.[24] Also in 1652, William was said to be one of the original purchasers of Dartmouth.[25]
Some believe the following fines imposed on William indicate that he worked as a gunsmith or "armorer":
These fines were eventually paid to the colony treasurer on 9 August 1655[28] and 10 June 1661.[29]
On 20 October 1645, a plantation was granted to Duxbury by Plymouth Colony as compensation for the loss of territory they had sustained in the setting off a part of Marshfield from Duxbury in 1640. That year, William was one of 54 citizens who were granted rights to these lands, which was to become the town of Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Each of the 54 men were proprietors who held one share. The actual purchase of these lands did not happen until March 1649/50 and settlement started after that date.[30]
William had removed to Bridgewater by 1656, as a deed dated 16 June 1656 calls him "Willam Bassett Senior of Duxburrow now liveing att Bridgwater". In that deed, William gifted all his lands lying on the south river "unto my two sonnes there liveing viz Perigrine White and Nathaniell Basset". These lands were located in Marshfield and were surveyed and divided by Richard Garrett.[31]
William was named in the Bridgewater portion of the 1658 freemen list.[32]
Land at "Pochade neck neare unto Namassakett" was granted by the Plymouth Colony court to "William Bassett, 6 Lott is bounded with two walnut trees marked".[33] The entry for this grant is undated in the records, but falls in the pages dated 1664.[34]
William called himself a blacksmith in a deed dated November 1666, in which he sold lands to his son-in-law John Sprague of Duxbury. His wife, Mary, consented to the sale.[35] Further evidence that William was a blacksmith is found in his estate's inventory, which 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".[1]
It is thought that William married twice. He was married first to Elizabeth (last name at birth unknown). No record of a Plymouth Colony or England marriage is found for the couple. There is no proof that William or Elizabeth were ever residents of Leiden, or that they were married there. There is also no evidence that Elizabeth's last name was Tilden.
Anderson believes they probably married in England by 1621, and that Elizabeth was likely a passenger on the Fortune. It is also Anderson's opinion that, if the 1623 land grant to William was for William and Elizabeth, then their son would not have been born until 1624. He also states that "it is possible (though not likely) that the marriage took place in Plymouth, and Elizabeth came on the Fortune as a single woman".[1]
William and Elizabeth had the following children:
Some older genealogies incorrectly add another daughter of this couple; however, William and Elizabeth did NOT have a daughter named Jane.
Elizabeth does not appear in any colony records after the 1627 cattle division. Her date of death is not known: she could have died after the birth of her last child in about 1634, or she may have lived until shortly before William remarried (before 1664).[1]
William remarried to Mary (Tilden) Lapham, daughter of Nathaniel Tilden and widow of Thomas Lapham. They were married some time after 1651 and before 12 December 1664,[1] when Mary is called "the wife of Willam Bassett" in the will of Mary's step-father, Timothy Hatherly of Scituate.[37] Mary was living at Bridgewater as late as 28 March 1690,[1] when she appears in a land record "imprimis sixe acors of lands wheare Widdow Bassett now liveth on the North side of the river."[30]
William died in Bridgewater between 3 April 1667 (will date) and 12 May 1667 (inventory date).[38][39]
William gave his verbal will on the third day of the second month (April) 1667. He stated that his wife was to have his house and grounds until she died or remarried, then the property was to go to his son William's son; his chattels and moveable estate were to go to his wife, and his tools were to be given to his son Joseph. When asked about the disposition of his books, William answered that "hee could not now doe it". The witnesses to William's will were William Brett and John Carey, and the will was presented to the court on 5 June 1667 under their oaths.[38] Letters of administration were granted to his son, William Jr., the same day.[40]
The inventory of William's estate, made on 12 May 1667 by William Brett and John Willis, was affirmed under oath by William's widow, Mary, on 25 May 1667. The inventory, which included a detailed list of books, was presented to the court on 5 June 1667, when the testimony on William's will was given.[38] The inventory totaled £123 2s. 6d., and did not include any land.[1]
On 2 June 1669, William Bassett Jr. deeded land in Bridgewater to his brother, Joseph. The land had been granted to Joseph by his father during his father's lifetime, but hadn't been legally confirmed.[41]
A clue to William's origins may lie in Banks' The English Ancestry and Homes of the Pilgrim Fathers, which states that this William was the son of William Bassett of Bethnal Green, London. Banks also attributes a baptism at Stepney on 24 October 1600,[42] for which a corresponding record was found on FamilySearch.[43] There is not yet enough evidence to confirm this is the baptism record for the William of this profile, but it could be possible.
Do not confuse or merge this profile with William Bassett-18, of Sandwich, Kent and Leiden, Holland.
In the "Comments" section of William Bassett's profile in Great Migration Begins, Anderson compares the William of this profile to William Bassett, formerly of Sandwich, widower of Cecily Light, who was twice betrothed at Leiden in 1611. Anderson says of the William of Leiden:
Additionally, the William of this profile worked as a blacksmith and the William of Leiden is referred to as a "master mason".
Do not confuse this William Bassett with two other New England immigrants named William Bassett:
The two profiles above are often confused/confated with William's son, William, who was also born about 1624, but William Jr. was born in Plymouth Colony.
See the note below and this 2013 G2G discussion topic for more on the three William Bassetts who immigrated to New England.
In a comparison of the DNA of five early Bassett immigrants, Jeffrey Bassett writes: "Many Bassetts in the United States can trace their ancestry to one of five early Bassett immigrants who arrived in New England during the seventeenth century. Little is known of the origins of these five early New England families. The immigrants were:[2]
A DNA study has shown that William(#4) and John(#3), both of Connecticut, share a common ancestor; however, the results from descendants of William(#1) of Plymouth, William(#2) of Lynn, and Thomas(#5) of Fairfield have shown no connections to each other.[2]
Of the five New England Bassett immigrants, four have descendants with DNA matches to Bassetts with known roots in England. The immigrant without such a link is William(#1) of Plymouth.[2]
Have you taken a DNA test? If so, login to add it. If not, see our friends at Ancestry DNA.
William is 23 degrees from Herbert Adair, 17 degrees from Richard Adams, 15 degrees from Mel Blanc, 22 degrees from Dick Bruna, 20 degrees from Bunny DeBarge, 29 degrees from Peter Dinklage, 19 degrees from Sam Edwards, 15 degrees from Ginnifer Goodwin, 19 degrees from Marty Krofft, 12 degrees from Junius Matthews, 14 degrees from Rachel Mellon and 18 degrees from Harold Warstler on our single family tree. Login to find your connection.
B > Bassett > William Bassett Sr.
Categories: Fortune, sailed 1621 | Puritan Great Migration
Incidentally, our closest set of "ancient"-tested remains is in a sample from Suddern Farm, Hampshire (CTS3655>Z16539). BY3364 is also descended from CTS3655 (CTS3655>L627>BY3364).
edited by Robert Moore II
"I am a descendant of William Bassett of the Fortune. The November, we are planning an event "Bassett400" celebrating their arrival. But my question is regarding DNA. There's a note on this page about Bassett DNA and I wanted to make you aware (but I'm sure you are aware?) of the Bassett Family Association and their DNA project. There are about 18,000 subscribers to the Bassett Family Newsletter and the website can be found at www.bassettbranches.org. I mention this to introduce other William Bassett descendants who may have interest and any patrilineal descendants who may be willing to share any Y-DNA results to help grow the "Family Tree!""
I downloaded some info from Ancestry.com from the New England, The Great Migration and The Great Migration Begins, 1620-1635 Great Migration Begins, Vol 1, A-F Is this a good source?
Yes it does look like William Bassett was a popular name and father and son had the same name.
Any resources in Europe to assist with the investigation?
I don't want to mess up any of the detailed research here. I want to share the information from the book I have.
Please reach out to me and I'm happy to share what is in my book.
That's very generous of you, and we always appreciate the help. The book is also available online at Archive.org, which makes it easily searchable for anything not in the index. What I would suggest is start with your own lineage, (assuming you're connected to William Bassett) and work up the line adding source information to each of the profiles from you to him, as many of the "younger" people (those born later) may not be well developed and in need of further work. On William's profile, if you find information in the book that disagrees with this profile, it would be best to present it here in the comments and we can evaluate it for possible changes. Anywhere you find discrepancies, you'd want to see if there is any more recently published work that will support the differences, such as in the Great Migration, and journal articles such as TAG and the NEHGR or other peer-reviewed articles. There were enough William Bassetts to cause some confusion, as you can see in the Merging and Disproven sections at the top. Hope this helps, and welcome!
His first wife was Elizabeth _____. There is no proof that she was a TILDEN.
His second wife was Mary (Tilden) Lapham, dau of nathaniel, widow of Thomas.
He had no other known wives.