William and Elizabeth Bassett

The Reverend James Keith Parsonage, built in Bridgewater, MA in 1662. It would have been a substantial part of the town where William (and possibly Elizabeth) Bassett lived. Photograph by John Phelan, wikicommons.

I'm continuing my series of ancestors who are documented in Robert Charles Anderson's The Great Migration Begins. 

There was more than one William Bassett in the Massachusetts colony during the Great Migration. This particular William Bassett was probably born around 1600, based on his marriage age. He and his first wife, Elizabeth, came to the colony in 1621 on the Fortune. While they originally lived in Plymouth, they moved to Duxbury by 1637 and Bridgewater by 1656. William was a blacksmith and a freeman before 1632/3. He must have been educator for his estate included more than twenty books, mostly about theology. 

William served in a number of committees and offices, including on juries and as a constable for Duxbury. He was listed as one of the men allowed to bear arms in 1643. He had an estate of at least 100 acres, and the final inventory of his estate valued more than 123 pounds without the land. More than 9 pounds of that was books, and a substantial amount more were his blacksmiths tools. 

Like, apparently, all inhabitants of the Massachusetts colony, William had occasional run-ins with the law. In his case, he was fined in 1648 for "not mending of guns in seasonable time" and in 1653 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."

It is unclear when Elizabeth died. She is not mentioned in any documentation after 1627, but William did not remarry until after 1651. Sometime between 1651 and December 12, 1664, he married Mary Tilden Lapham, daughter of Nathaniel Tilden and widow of Thomas Lapham. They did not have children.

William gave an oral will on April 3, 1667, and presumably died soon after.

We are descendants of William and Elizabeth's second son, Nathaniel, born around 1630. He married Dorcas Joyce, the daughter of John Joyce. 

            - William Bassett -- Elizabeth (unknown)
                 - Nathaniel Bassett -- Dorcas Joyce
                     - Hannah Bassett -- Joseph Covell
                         - Sarah Covell -- William Nickerson
                             - Mercy Nickerson -- Heman Kenney
                                  - Isaac Kenney -- Sarah Godfrey
                                      - Mehitable Kenney -- Israel Doane
                                          - Olive Doane -- Simeon Bartlett Kinney
                                             - Thomas Kinney -- Mary Houghton Kinney
                                                 - Julia Kinney Hancock -- Ernest Hancock


References:

Anderson, Robert Charles 1995 The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633. New England Historic Genealogical Society.