This portion of the book is freely available under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License provided you give the citation listed above. On the web, a link to this page would be helpful.
Bassett-Edgecomb-Snyder Archives home
William Bassett (c.1765-c.1848) and Ann (?)
Key words: William Bassett, William and Ann Bassett
William Bassett lived in Rhode Island and was said to have married Ann or Anna. He is known to have had the following children1:
William's parents moved to Shaftsbury [Manchester?], Bennington Co., Vermont7 7a and William probably moved with them. Around 1800, the family of Peleg and Lydia Lewis were also living in Saftsbury7b and both the Bassetts and Lewis's moved to Otsego Co., New York soon after 18008. William was married a second time after 1810.9 He was said to have last lived in Lysander, Onondaga Co., NY. He may have died about 1848.
This account was taken from History
of the Edgecomb, Bassitt, and Snyder Families of Allen County, Ohio by
Steven J. Bassett Baskauf, 2007.
This portion of the book is freely
available under a
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License provided you give the citation
listed above. On the web, a link to this page would be helpful.
Comments? Questions? Contact Steve Baskauf
References:
1. Letter from Jeffrey N. Bassett to Steve Baskauf, 6 Apr. 1996
2. Letter from Frank G. Lewis to Charlotte Bassett, 26 Apr 1919 Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4
3. In the letter from Frank G. Lewis (1919), Mr. Lewis relates the following story connecting William (b. 1796) to Samuel (b. 1795): "I cannot tell you how interesting it is to read in your letter the tradition that three Bassetts came directly from England, settled in New York, one was drowned, one went to Michigan or Wisconsin, and the third was your great grandfather who wnet to Ohio. With this I will put some items that are likewise intesting. How dependable they are you can judge as I tell how I picked them up. In the summer of 1915 I visited my mother's youngest brother at West Clarksville, New York, and talked with him particularly to see what I could, by all the questions I could think of, recall of his early days and what he used to hear said. His father, my grandfather Jesse B. Payne, died in 1857. His mother, my grandmother Mary Ann (Bassett) Payne, was a daughter of William Bassett, whose wife was Susannah (Livingston) Bassett. they moved from New York to Allen county, Ohio, about 1856, or the beginning of 1857. In the winter of 1857-1858, after my grandfather Payne died, Grandmother Mary Ann (Bassett) Payne went to Allen county with her younger children, whon of whom was my uncle, Newell Jasper Payne, whom I visited in 1915. He was born in 1848, and so was nearly nine years old at the time the trip was made. He remembered very distinctly how they went to Lima and then went out a few miles to the home of an "uncle," on the way to the home of his grandfather, William Bassett, who then, or at least at the time of the census of 1860, was living in the town of Sugar Creek, Putnam county, his post office being recorded as Vaughnsville (which may very likely appear quite curious to you from the point of view of present geography). Now I am very sure that "uncle" was uncle for his mother and that this "uncle" was a brother of his grandfather William Bassett, in other words, that this "uncle" was your great grandfather Samuel Bassett. Here the tradition you have that a Bassett went to Michigan, or Wisconsin, is interesting, for William Bassett, brother of your great grandfather went on into Michigan, spent the last years of his life at the home of his son Philo C. Bassett, at Ovid, Mich, where the son had gone before 1860; and there William died Mar. 7, 1867. The son Philo C. afterward went to Detroit, died there in 1900, and is buried in Ovid. Descendents of William now live in Michigan."
4. A letter from Charlou Dolan to Lois Bassett 11 Feb 1985 states that a Joab Bassett who married Lucy Robbins lived in Chenango Co., NY and was buried in the "Rhode Island Cemetery" there. This may be a son of William (b. c.1765).
5. In Lewis, 1919, he notes that a Lewis Bassett lived next door to William (b. c.1765) and might have been his son. There is no record of him after than and Mr. Lewis speculates that this might have been the brother who was said to have drowned.
6. Mariah (Bassett) Wood and her husband Harmon Wood were early settlers in northern Bath Township, Allen County, OH. However, the names of her parents have never been determined.
7. Information from Jeffrey N. Bassett.
7a. United States Census, 1800, Town of Manchester, Bennington County, Vermont, p. 197.
7b. United States Census, 1800, Town of Shaftsbury, Bennington County, Vermont, p.171.
8. The family's move to New York soon after 1800 is supported by the confusion about Samuel's birthplace in the census records. Although born in Rhode Island and living in Vermont at an early age, Samuel's birthplace is listed as New York in 1850 and "Mass." in 1860. A move to New York around 1800 would have meant that Samuel would have only been about five years old at the time and not likely to have had a clear memory of these earlier places of residence. (Massachusetts is the probable origin of Samuel's wife's family.) To add to the confusion, Samuel's son, Lewis was listed as born in New Jersey in the 1870 census and he was certainly born in New York. This makes it clear that the combination of lack of written records, illiteracy, and interview of family members other than the person in question resulted in inaccuracies in census birth places in these situations where families moved repeatedly over the span of a few years.
9. Letter from Jeffrey N. Bassett to Steve Baskauf, 6 Apr. 1996
Census records (connection uncertain)
U.S.
Census of 1810 for New York, Otsego Co., Town of Burlington p. 137.
[blank 1810 form]
R. (N.?) Bassett: 1 male under 10, 1 male 26-44, 1 male 10-15, 1 female 16-25, 1
female 26-44
S. Basset: 1 male under 10, 1 male 10-15, 1 male 26-44, 2 females under 10, 1
female 26-44
U.S.
Census of 1810 for New York, Otsego Co., Town of Butternuts p. 161.
[blank 1810 form]
J. Bassett: 1 male 10-15, 1 male 45 and over, 1 female 45 and
over
.
