Vassall, William

Notes:

portrait in san francisco: https://art.famsf.org/john-singleton-copley/william-vassall-and-his-son-leonard-1979730

slave plantation owner in Jamaica: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146634160




William Vassall senior
Profile & Legacies Summary

1715 - 1800
Biography

Of Boston (and later of Battersea Rise Clapham). American Loyalist exiled in 1775. Father of William Vassall (q.v.).

William Vassall was listed in the Jamaican Quit Rent books for 1754 as the owner of 963 acres of land in Hanover.

Will of William Vassall of Battersea Surrey proved 08/08/1800. Under the will he left his ten children annuities totalling £1430 p.a., increased by a codicil of 1799 to £1990 p.a., all secured on Green Castle estate. The structure varied among his children: in the case of two of his younger sons and four unmarried daughters, he left each £3000 [subsequently increased to £5000] each, with an annuity of £120 p.a. [for Leonard, £160 p.a.] raised to £220 p.a. each in the codicil. He left his daughter Sarah Syme an annuity of £150 p.a. with £500 each to her two children at their mother's death; and he left his daughter Lucretia the bond from her husband for £800 with punitive security of £1600 p.a. to part-fund her annuity of £120 p.a. His eldest son William received an annuity of £400 p.a. plus the Greencastle estate. His son Henry received the repayment from the estate of £2500 Henry had borrowed elsewhere for which his father had previously stood security. He left specified family portraits in his will, three by Smibert [now lost] to his son William and one by John Singleton Copley [extant, see opposite] to Leonard.


Sources

'A List of landholders in the Island of Jamaica together with the number of acres each person possessed taken from the quit rent books in the year 1754', TNA CO 142/31 transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Samples2/1754lead.htm.

PROB 11/1346/94.

We are grateful to Barry Jolly for his assistance with compiling this entry.
Further Information
Absentee?
British/Irish
Spouse
(1) Ann Davies (2) Margaret Hubbard
Children
William; 6 das; 2 other sons
Associated Estates (2)

The dates listed below have different categories as denoted by the letters in the brackets following each date. Here is a key to explain those letter codes:

SD - Association Start Date
SY - Association Start Year
EA - Earliest Known Association
ED - Association End Date
EY - Association End Year
LA - Latest Known Association

1740 [EA] - 1800 [LA] ? Owner
Green River Estate [ Jamaica | Hanover ]
1803 [EA] - 1839 [LA] ? Previous owner
Green River Estate [ Jamaica | Hanover ]
Legacies Summary
Cultural (1)
Paintings
William Vassall and his son Leonard, portrait by John Singleton Copley c. 1770-1772. Left by William Vassall in his will proved in 1800 to his son Leonard 'his and my picture drawn in one picture by...
Details
Relationships (2)
William Vassall senior
Other relatives
Alexander Graeme
Details
Notes ?
Henry Vassall, son of William Vassall senior, married Margaret Harvie Graeme, daughter of Alexander Graeme, after the latter's...
William Vassall senior
Father ? Son
William Vassall
Details
Addresses (1)
Battersea Rise, Battersea, Surrey, London, England
Details

[William Vassall and his son Leonard]



Of Boston (and later of Battersea Rise Clapham). American Loyalist exiled in 1775.

more info can be found at https://www.myheritage.com/names/william_vassell
look under 1715.

mentioned in books called:

Vassalls of New England and Their Immediate Descendants
Loyalists of Massachusetts
John Adams: Writings from the New Nation 1784-1826 ( see https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Il5xDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT1036&lpg=PT1036&dq=William+Vassall+1715+-+1800&source=bl&ots=qrrVLuiyMU&sig=ACfU3U2_qVbhXlzdUn6ojFdKneNabh8gqw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj32tWbq_fpAhVPQkEAHUhpA34Q6AEwBXoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=William%20Vassall%201715%20-%201800&f=false)
This book says he attended Harvard in 1733

Family/Spouse: Davies, Ann. Ann was born in 1720; died in 1760. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Vassall, Henry was born in 1755; died in 1845.

Notes:

Lived mainly in USA, Boston.

some info here https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=NFDUyV_BYAYC&lpg=PA380&ots=8RBHGcUibU&dq=William%20Vassall%201715%20-%201800&pg=PA25#v=onepage&q=William%20Vassall%201715%20-%201800&f=false


Leonard Vassall of Jamaica granted land for the construction of
Boston's Trinity Church in 1730. His son William (1715?1800) studied
56
at Harvard, where he graduated in 1733 and received an MA in 1743.
William's brother Florentius later arranged for a marble memorial
from London to be erected in the King's Chapel in Boston, com-
memorating Samuel Vassall's stance against Charles I's extra-parlia-
mentary taxation, and also the action of John Vassall in fighting the
Armada.57 The timing of this gesture, executed during the Stamp Act
controversy, is significant. Once war broke out in 1776, however, the
Vassalls elected to remain loyal to Britain, whatever sympathies they
may earlier have harboured for colonial grievances. The family's private
business affairs were too closely aligned with the apparatus of colonial
administration and regulation for detachment to be a feasible option.
Because of his Loyalist stance, William Vassall was forced to return to
England in 1775; subsequently, he suffered confiscation of his American
property.58

Leonard married Gale, Ruth. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

John married Lewis, Anna. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

William married King, Ann. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]