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From: <>
Subject: VASSALL, SCITUATE, MA (first settlers)
Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 20:28:31 EST

With regard to the recent inquiry on Vassall of Scituate, MA I found these
paragraphs as follows: Chapter 3

Excerpts from The History of Scituate, MA
The Book, full text at
http://genweb.net/~blackwell/ma/Scituate1929Pratt/sct000.htm

" Upon these
represen tat ions a court of Assistants held on the first day of
Jaluiary 1637 passed th6 following order:-

"Whereas certain freemen of Scituate, vizt Mr. Tyrnothy
flatherly, Mr. John Lothrop, William Gilson, Anthony An-
nable, James Cudworth, Edward Foster, Henry Cobb, Isaack
Robinson, George Kennerick, Henry Rowley, Samuell
Fuller, John Cooper, Bernard Lumbard, George Lewis and
flumplirey Turner, have complayned that they have such
sinale porportions of lands there allated them that they can-
not subsist upon them, the Court of Assistants have this day
granted them all that upland & necke of land lying betweene
the North & South Rivers, and all the meadow ground from
tlie North River to the Beaver Pond, and all along by the
North River side, and to hold the breadth front the South
1~iver trey, or passage, by a straight line to tile North River,
so far tip into the land as it shall be marked and set forth
unto them. Always provided and upon condition that they

INCORPORATION OF TOWN 29

make a towneship there & inhabit upon the said land, and
that all differences betwixt them and Mr. Vassall or others
of Scituate be composed & ended before the next Court, or
if any doe then remayne, that they be referred to the cou-
sideration of the Governor & Assistants, that their removall
from Scituate may be without offarice. And also provided
and upon condition that whereas a proportion of two or
three hundred acres of the lands above said should have
been granted to Mr. Vassall, upon condition lie should )3ave
erected a ferry to transport men and cattell over the North
River at these rates, vizt, for a man a penny, for a horse
four pence, and for every beast four pence; and to make
causes (causeways) or passages through the marslies on
both sides the ferry both for man & beast to passe by, which
he was willing to doe, and to answere all damages which
might happen in default thereof; and the Court in their
judgments did conceive it more expedient to prefer tile
necessities of a number before one private pe,son. That
the said freemen of Scituate above named do so erect a ferry
over the North River, to transport men and beasts at the
rates above said, and make such passages on both sides
through the marshes to the ferry, & provide a sufficicnt
man to attend the same, that may answere all clatuages
which may happen through his neglect thereof, or else the
graunt abovesaid to he voyde."

Vassall, iii 1635 had lands granted to him on the North
River for the purpose of a borne and plantation. These
he called "West Newland" arid his residence, the house
beau ti fiif,-" Belle house." He was a learned 111:1n for the
times and ambitious to become a landed proprietor an(l per-
son of importance in the new colony. Ilis nei")1bors
evidently (lid not take him at his own valuation. The
only public service which he perforined among them was
to "sett" bounds between disputing Jand owners and this,
probably because he was a competent surveyor and possessed
one of the few "instruments" in the colony. The great
objection to him was apparently his endeavor to secure so

30 THE EARLY PLANTES OF SCITUATE

large a tract, containing so much valuable salt marsh, and
bordering tile river for himself. between Mr. Vassall and
The differences which existed r three
his neighbors who thus took away from him "two 0
. mediately upon his arrival
litindred acres" began almost 'in I
the patentees of tile Colony
here. Vassall bad been one of . th Gov.
of 'Massachusetts Bay and had been in Boston w,
He had returned to England but had
N\'inthrop in 1630. Edward
come again in 1634 and located at Scituate. ut when
Winslow wrote of him "he is a man never at rest, b
in the fire of contention" t and Governor Winthrop said he
was "a inan Of busy and factious spirit 1, always opposite
governments of the country and the way of our
to the civil Deane, On the other hand, records that he
clun-clies." rch and
united himself harmoniousiv with Mr. Lathrop's chu
enjoyed that place until 1642 when President Chauncey
came to be pastor. Governor Hutchinson says of him:
"Mr. William Vassall, as well as his brother
Sanuiel Vassall, were gentlelnen of good circumstances
in but do not seem to have I)een fully of the
tile planters

~allle lentiluent in matters of religion with
ill "elleral : and altho William came over with the first
.1 t he soon went back to I, ng-
company (to Boston), ye
land. He returned a few Years after to New England
and settled at Scituate in Plinlouth C01011v, not
beMllSe they were reputed more rigid than the
'Massachusetts people. When Jamaica was taken by
Cromwell, lie laid the foundation of several fine estates
there, elljoyed I)y his posterity to tile present tilue-
William Vassell as we have observed came over with
the first patenties and was Of the Assistants in 1630,
but Soon after returned to England, and in the year
1635 came back to New England and settled at Scituate
in the Colony of New Plimouth. lie was a gentleman of
t Pamphlet entitled "New England's Salamander Discovered

11 Winthrop 260. age 367.
Deane,a History of Scituate P

INCORPORATION OF TOWN 31

a pleasant, affable disposition, but always opposite to
the government both in Massachusetts and Plimouth.
Scituate in Pliniouth is contiguous to Hingham in
Massachusetts, and Mr. Vassall bad much influence in
the latter colony as well as the former and had laid a
scheme for petitions of such as were non freemen to
the courts of both colonies and upon the petition being
refused, to apply to the parliament pretending they
were subjected to an arbitrary power, Extra-judicial
proceedings, &c."

However correct this latter estimate of him may be it
s true that he quarrelled violently with Chauncey over the
tiestion of baptism and caused a disruption in his congreation
which was not heated until after Vassal's departure
in 1646.

While it is true that both sides were capable of making
good fight and that the freemen won in the first encounter
before the court, it is not clear that they lived up to the
condition imposed upon the grant,-that Of maintaining a
ferry. On April 2, 1638 Vassall obtained this order from
the Court:-

"Two hundred acres of upland and a competency
of meadow lands to be layed to that, are granted to Air.
William Vassal] to keepe a ferry over the north river
where the old indian ferry was, and to transport men
& beasts at these rates vizt, for a man, 12 & for a beast
4 d, a horse and his rider 4 d and to make the way
passable for nian and beast throu.-h the marsli6 oii
both sides the river at his owile charges, and to keepc
them in repaire from tyine to tyme & Captain Standish
& Mr. Alden are appoynted to set the land forth to
him." t Even assuming that Standish and Alden
attended to this duty Lae land was not immediately
given him. The Scituate freemen were still fractious.
t Plymouth Colony Records Vol. I Page 82.

32 THE EARLY PLANTERS OF SCITUATE

They insisted that Vassall take the oath of "fidelitie," t
which he did in the following February. This was
supposed to settle the whole trouble. Bradford, Wins-
low and Browne were appointed to view the "neck
of land granted unto Mr. William Vassall & to set the
same forth to him execept there be some such difficultie
therein that will require the further consideration of
the Court." * Finally, on the third day of June 1639
he was granted a "parcell of land to lye in forme of
,a long square" containing, with the marsh, one
hundred and fifty acres, which included his original
Newlands.

The inhabitants of Scituate were also appeased. On
November 30, 1640, at a sitting of the Court of Assistants
it was enacted that:

"Whereas the inhabitants of the towne of Scituate
are greatly straitened for lands and there is necessyty
that they should be enlarged, and that at the North
River, where they desire to have supply for their
wants, there is five hundred acres and upwards granted
already to divers persons of Plymouth and Duxburrow,
the Court doth grant (that those persons to whome said
lands are granted, having their several grants layd
iorth iinto them) that the said inhabitants of Scituate
shall have two miles ~ in length from the end of the said
,graiints, tip the said North River, and a mile in breadth
(if it be there to be had when the foresaid graunts are
layd forth) and if not then to abate of that proportion
& Mr, Timothy Hatherly, Edward Foster & Humphrey
Turner sliall dispose the said lands to such persons of
t Plymouth Colony Records Vol. 1, page 103.
lbidem, page 120.

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