William Vassall

Owner of Green River estate in Hanover, Jamaica on which he claimed unsuccessfully for the compensation (which went to Andrew Colvile of the Vassalls' London consignee of Wedderburn & Co., both of whom q.v.), and son of William Vassall of Boston (and later of Battersea Rise Clapham) and his first wife Ann Davis.

1. William Vassall, son of William Vassall of Boston, America arm., matriculated Magdalen College Oxford 04/12/1773 aged 20 (his brother Leonard matriculated Oriel College Oxford 08/07/1782 aged 18).

2. Born 31/01/1753, matriculated Harvard College in 1771, married in 1792 to Ann Bent (1771-1846). "They left New England in 1772, and he was asterized in H.C. Cat. of 1827 as dead, but he lived to the extreme age of 90 years, one of the oldest survivors of his class. He d. at Berry, Pomeroy, England, sine Prole, Dec. 2, 1843, and she d. Oct. 8, 1846."

T71/872 Hanover No. 464. The Vassall Letterbooks of William Vassall the father (who died at Battersea Rise in 1800) are in the Sheffield Archives MD2047/1 [We are grateful to Colin Thom of English Heritage who drew our attention to the Letterbooks and kindly provided extracts from them].

1. Ancestry.com, Oxford University Alumni, 1500-1886 [database online].

2. Charles Maclear Calder, John Vassall and his descendants (1921) p. 28.

We are grateful to Gillian Allen for her assistance with this entry.