The VASSALL Family of Ratcliffe, Stepney, Middlesex, England, Cockseyhurst, Eastwood, Essex, England and Roxbury, Suffolk, MA, Scituate, Plymouth, MA and Barbadoes | Send comments and corrections to anneb0704@yahoo.co.uk |
JOHN VASSALL (d. 1625)
of Stepney and Eastwood
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WILLIAM VASSALL (1592
- 1655) of Eastwood, Roxbury, Scituate and Barbadoes m. Anne Russell (d.
1593)
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FRANCES VASSALL (b.
abt 1623) m. James Adams
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JOHN VASSALL (d. 1625) of Stepney and Eastwood
Parents: He is said -- without evidence -- to be the son of John Vassall from Rinant by Cany in Normandy. [Ref]
John Vassall died on 13 Sep 1625 of the plague. [Ref] He was buried on 18 Sep 1625 in the Stepney church. [Ref] He married first Anne Hewes on 25 Sep 1569 [Ref] in St. Dunstan's, Stepney. [Ref] He married second Anne Russell of Ratcliffe, Stepney on 4 Sep 1580 [Ref] In St. Dunstan's. [Ref] She was buried on 5 May 1593. [Ref][Ref] He married third Judith (Borough) Scott on 27 Mar 1594 [Ref] in St. Dunstan's [Ref]. Judith was the daughter of Stephen and Joan (Overeye) Borough and the widow of Thomas Scott of Colchester and London. [Ref][Ref] She died in Jan 1638/9. [Ref]
John was an alderman of London. [Ref] He fitted two ships, the Samuel and the Little Tobey, at his own expense and commanded them in the opposition of the Spanish Armada in 1588. [Ref][Ref][Ref]
John Vassell, mariner, of Ratcliffe in Stepney, made his will on 29 Apr 1625. [Ref] It was proved on 16 Sep 1625. [Ref] He mentioned his wife Judith; his sons Samuel, William, Stephen and Thomas; his daughter Ann Jones; his daughter Rachel, the wife of Peter Andrews; his daughter Mary, the wife of Edward West; his daughter Elizabeth, the wife of Henry Church; his daughter Judith, relict of John Freeborne; his son-in-law John Jones. [Ref]
Children of John Vassall and Anne Russell:
Children of John Vassall and Judith Borough:
WILLIAM VASSALL (1592 - 1655) of Eastwood, Roxbury, Scituate and Barbadoes
Parents: John Vassall and Anne Russell
William Vassall was born on 27 Aug 1592 in Eastwood. [Ref] He died on 13 Jul 1655 in Barbadoes, age 65. [Ref] He married Ann King [Ref] after 9 Jun 1613 (license, London). [Ref]
William was an assistant in the Massachusetts Bay company and one of the original patentees of land in New England. [Ref] On 15 Oct 1629 the company appointed him to go to New England; he went and returned on the Lyon after a brief stay. [Ref]
William and Ann Vassall, both age 42, and what appear to be their children, Judith (16), Frances (12), John (10), Ann (6), Margaret (2) and Mary (1), are on a 1635 [?] list of passengers to be transported to New England on the Blessing. [Ref]
He settled first in Roxbury and then moved to Scituate. [Ref] Mr. Vassall had a house in Scituate by Oct 1636, but after the end of Sep 1634. [Ref] "Mr Vassal" joined the church at Scituate on 28 Nov 1636. [Ref] He took the oath of fidelity in Scituate on 1 Feb 1638. [Ref] On Dec 1639 he received a license to make an oyster bed in the North River in front of his house. [Ref] Mr. William Vassall is in the Scituate section of the 1643 list of those between 16 and 60 able to bear arms in Plymouth Colony. [Ref]
In 1642, when the Narragansetts became a threat, he was chosen to be a member of the Council of War. [Ref]
The First Church of Scituate had a falling out with its minister Rev. John Lothrop over which mode of baptism -- immersion or sprinkling -- was appropriate. Rev. Lathrop left Scituate for Barnstable, taking half of the congregation with him. Those who remained voted -- barely -- to replace Rev. Lathrop with the brilliant Rev. Chauncey of Plymouth, who later became President of Harvard. Rev. Chauncey preferred to immerse infants into frigid water; Mr. William Vassall was opposed. William and his supporters met separately; both Chauncey and William claiming that their group was the First Church and the others the separatists. Chauncy, who was apparently rather hot tempered made a lurid account of William's behaviour to the neighbouring churches and complained that he was in fear of his life. The Plymouth elders asked for reconciliation; the Massachusetts Bay Colony supported the right of William's group to form their own church. They did so, appointing William Witherall of Duxbury, who in his nearly 40-year ministry performed over 600 "sprinkling" baptisms. [R. M. Fewkes' provides an interesting and amusing account of the episode on the First Parish of Norwell website.]
In 1646 William returned to England on the Supply to assist with a petition to redress the wrongs of the government. [Ref] He never returned to New England. [Ref] In 1648 he went to Barbadoes and died there. [Ref]
His will was written on 13 Jul 1655 in Barbadoes. [Ref] He left one third of his estate to his son John, and the rest to his daughters Judith, Frances, Ann, Margaret and Mary. [Ref] He mentions his son-in-law Nicholas Ware, the husband of his daughter Anna and he refers to Judith and Frances as the wives of Resolved White and James Adams, respectively. [Ref] One of the documents associated with the sale of his estate was signed by Resolved White and James Adams. [Ref]
Children of William Vassall and Ann King:
FRANCES VASSALL (b. abt 1623)
Parents: William Vassall and Ann King.
Frances Vassall was born about 1623. She married James Adams on 16 Jun 1646 in Scituate. [Ref says 16 Jul 1640][Ref]
After her husband died, Frances had 150 acres of land about eight miles north of Lancaster laid out for her by the Massachusetts General Court on 7 May 1773. [Ref]
References
Church Records
Otis, Amos, trans., "Scituate and Barnstable Church Records," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 9, 1855, 279-287; 10,1856, 37-43, 345-351.
Court Records
Court Records, Laws and 17th Century Texts, Plymouth Colony Archive Project, http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/users/deetz.
English Origins of American Colonists
Waters, Henry, "Genealogical Gleanings in England," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 51, 1897, 249-290.
Family Genealogies
Allen, Francis Olcott, "Vassall," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 51, 1897, 152.
C.B.E., "Family of John Adams of Plymouth," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 33, 1879, 410-413.
Calder, Charles M.,"Alderman John Vassall and his Descendants," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 109, 19555, 91.
Harris, Edward Doubleday, "The Vassalls of New England," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 17, 1863, 56.
T. C. A., "A Home of the Olden Time," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 25, 1871, 37-52.
Public Records
Editors, "Founders of New England," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 14, 1860, 297 - 346.
Hayward, Elijah, "Plymouth Colony Records," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 9, 1855, 313-318.
Shurtleff, Nathaniel B., "List of Those Able to Bear Arms in the Colony of New Plymouth 1643," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 4, 1850, 255-259.
Vital Records
W. H. W., "Early Marriages and Births in Scituate, Mass. Prior to 1700," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 18, 1864, 285-287.; 19, 1865, 219-221.