Peregrine White Archives - Ancestors in Aprons

Sarah Bassett 1630-1711

Peregrine White 1620-1704

Many people seem to think that the purpose of genealogy is to find out how your family is related to royalty. I have not extended my family history to Europe in search of titled ancestors, but among that bevy of misbehaving children sired by our pilgrim ancestor, William Bassett, Sarah, born in 1630, made the choice of mate that ties us firmly to American “royalty.” (Although my early American ancestors–not a Tory in the bunch–would have been horrified by the term.)

Our family has always been proud of being descendants of the Pilgrim William Bassett, even though his ship the Fortune didn’t get here with the Mayflower as scheduled. But my mother, who loved family history, never learned that one of the Bassett girls married so well. She would have loved this story.

Whose names do we hear in 6th grade when we are studying the Pilgrims? Well there is William Bradford, Governor of the colony, the other main leader Edward Winslow, and surely Miles Standish, the military leader. William Brewster was the religious leader, and you have probably heard of him. And there is the 3-way romance of Priscilla Alden, John and Miles Standish, made famous (or embroidered) by Longfellow.

The actual Peregrine White cradle, kept at the Pilgrim Museum by the Pilgrim Society.

But the name that struck an emotional chord with me as a child was Peregrine White. Besides the fact that I wondered why his parents would give him such a silly name, I was fascinated that he was born ON the Mayflower–the first child born in the Pilgrim colony.

As to the name, what do I know? I have since read that Peregrine comes from a Latin word that means pilgrim (or traveler).

Peregrine had an older brother, Resolve, who had traveled with their parents on the Mayflower. (Read more about his mother Susannah, sturdy pioneer, in the following short bio.) Baby Peregrine waited until the ship had safely docked in Cape Cod harbor to make his appearance, becoming the first child born in the Plymouth Colony.

Unfortunately, Peregrine’s father William White, a signer of the Mayflower compact, was one of the casualties of the first dreadful winter in New England. He died in February 1621, and Susannah quickly married Edward Winslow, who was one of the close-knit community who came from Holland.

Peregrine would have been a toddler when the colony celebrated the first Thanksgiving. Speculation is that it took place some time in October. Edward Winslow, Peregrine’s step-father, by the way, is not only important as a leader, but also because he left one of only two surviving documents that mention that first Thanksgiving.

Some time in his early twenties, young Peregrine caught the eye of Sarah Bassett, who was ten years younger than he was. His obituary says, “He was vigorous and of a comly (sic) Aspect to the last.” He must have been an attractive youth. According to church records, although they married–perhaps when she was as young as sixteen–they had been fooling around beforehand. The church charged them with “fornication before marriage.” It seems you just could not get away with anything in Plymouth Colony.

Peregrine White homestead marker

But Sarah and Peregrine were destined to have a long marriage. They lived in Marshfield, Massachusetts on land that William Bassett gave to them when they married. Peregrine, besides his soldiering, was a farmer and he did well, expanding his land. He and Sarah had seven children (one dying in infancy) and lived their entire lives on the land in Marshfield.

Imagine my surprise to discover that the land of the homestead is for sale. If anyone would like to build a true Thanksgiving home,near the Atlantic with a view of a river, and a claim to history, check out this listing on Peregrine Drive in Marshfield, Massachusetts.

Peregrine White property in Marshfield MA

But wait, there’s more. Sarah and Peregrine’s home, built in 1648, still stands. No doubt it has been altered considerably, since it is not protected by historic status. But it was for sale a few years ago, so there are pictures of it all over the Internet. (It is not for sale now despite misleading information on the Web.)

Peregrine and Sarah Bassett White’s home 178 Peregrine White Dr, Marshfield, MA

How I am Related

My maternal grandmother, Vera Stout Anderson, was the daughter of
Hattie Stout Morgan, the daughter of
Mary Bassett Platt Morgan, the daughter of
William Bassett the son of
Samuel Bassett, the son of
William Bassett, Jr., the son of
William L. Bassett, the son of
William Bassett, the son of
Joseph Bassett, the son of, and Mary Lapham Bassett, the step-daughter of
William Bassett, the Pilgrim, also father of
Sarah Bassett,8th Great Grand Aunt married to
Peregrine White

Research Notes

The Boston Newsletter, Monday, July 31, 1704

The Sun Journal (Lewiston Maine), November 23, 1994, found in Google News

(Other sources are linked above).

There is no end of information about Peregrine White on the Internet, and most of those sources mention Sarah Bassett as well. I started, as usual, with birth,death and marriage records at Ancestry.com

BLASPHEMY, FORNICATION, BEATINGS and DRUNKENNESS.

My forefather, Pilgrim William Bassett’s children and in-laws were quite naughty. Their misdeeds ranged from talking in church to outright scandalous.

Pilgrim Punishment

So you thought all Pilgrims were stuffily pious? Impious describes the behavior of the 2nd generation of Bassetts in America and some of their spouses. But the worst of them managed to have a very famous descendent.

Joseph Bassett, (my direct ancestor) the youngest, and perhaps the favorite of his father since he seems to have been the good child in this 2nd generation American Puritan family, had several brothers and sisters who acted up. Including our family’s proud claim to the first divorce in the Pilgrim colony.

NATHANIEL BASSETT’S sins were rather minor, and he went on to become a community leader. When he was about 22 years old he was sentenced to pay 20 shillings fine or be bound to a post in a public place with a paper on his head explaining his crime–disturbing the church of Duxbury.

WILLIAM BASSETT JR. moved from his father’s town of Bridgewater to Sandwich, where he joined some people who were stirring up dissent against the church. Two were fined for “deriding, wild speeches about God’s word.” William and another also paid fines–misdeed unspecified.

SARAH BASSETT WHITE married Peregrine White, the famous first child to be born in New Engalnd. I am going to write more about Sarah and her famous husband, but I need to mention here that in March 1648/49, they were fined at Marshfield, Massachusetts for “fornication before marriage.”

ELIZABETH BASSETT BURGESS HATCH

Now we come to a truly sexy couple–Elizabeth and her first husband Thomas Burgess.

In June 1661, Elizabeth asked for a divorce after the town brought her husband, Thomas Burgess, to court in Sandwich Massachusetts, “for an act of uncleanliness with Lydia Gaunt.” Elizabeth and Thomas had been married thirteen years when he strayed.

The Court agreed to a divorce and gave Elizabeth one third of Thomas’ property and 40s [shillings] worth of bed and bedding “that are at William Bassetts.” It was the first divorce in Plymouth Colony. Shocking!

But what amuses me is what happened next. They both remarried, and Elizabeth was the first at the altar with William Hatch in the same year as the divorce. The speed of her remarriage makes me a little suspicious about her motives for the landmark divorce.

Thomas marryied Lydia Gaunt a year and a half later. However, the embarrassment must have driven him out of Plymouth Colony. He and Lydia moved to Newport, Rhode Island.

Ruth Bassett Sprague Thomas

Elizabeth may have had a straying husband, but at least he wasn’t the complete rascal that her sister Ruth’s husband turned out to be.

Ruth Basset’s husband John Sprague, was born in 1633 in Duxbury, where the Bassett children also spent their childhood [Francis Sprague was John’s father].

“2 Jan. 1637/38 – Francis Sprague was fined 6 shillings & 8 pence for beating William Halloway (fined 5 shillings), late servant of William Basset. Witness: William Halloway.”

According to a source named Goodwin but not further identified in Miner Descent,

“Francis Sprague was licensed as an inn-holder in Duxbury. He continued to be so until 1666, though often before the court. He killed Hatherly’s mare, beat Bassett’s servant, drank “overmuch,” sold liquor illegally, etc. In 1669 he was succeeded by his son who was much like him.

Tavern Scene-1658-David Teniers II, Public Domain, Displayed at National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. USA
Although this is a Flemish tavern, the early New England taverns would have been similar.

Whoops! Son John follows in father Francis’ footsteps.That sounds like a formula for disaster. And indeed, John’s time in court had not ended. Drunken revelery, including leading his horse into a friend’s parlour got him in trouble once more.

John spent hours in the stocks for “highly misdemeaning himself in the house of James Cole of Plymouth, near unto or on the evening before the Sabbath Day, in drinking gameing, and uncivill reveling, to the dishonor of God and the offense of the govment, by his gameing and bringing his mare uncivilly into the parlour of James Cole aforesaid.”

So when John and Ruth were hauled into court for fornication–is this charge getting to be a family badge of honor?–one wonders whether Ruth was complicit or coerced.

At the 6 Jun 1655 Court at Plymouth, John Sprague and Ruth Bassett, of Duxbury, were presented for fornication before they were married and paid a fine.

Whatever they were doing in 1655 before marriage, their first child, named for his father, was not born until 1656. Presumably, they were married by then, although I do not have a record of their marriage.

Despite the fact that his daughter was marrying the son of the man who beat William’s servant, and a man who carries on drunkenly himself, William sold John Sprague four lots in Duxbury after his marriage to Ruth.

John was not an innkeeper for long. On 26 March , 1676, he was killed at Nine Men’s Misery, Pawtucket, Rhode Island. That was a particularly horrible and bloody battle in King Philip’s War. The dead fighters were identified as “Friends”, so perhaps the quick-to-drink-and-fight Spragues were Quakers? If you should want to visit the spot, here’s a description, pointing out that it includes the oldest monument to veterans in the United States.

Pequot War. Charles Stanley Reinhart drawing circa 1890. from a July 2007 exhibit by the East Hampton Historical Society on Gardiner’s Island. Licensed under Public domain

After John died, Ruth (Basset) Sprague remarried a Thomas. I just hope he was a bit mellower in disposition than her first husband.

A DISTANT COUSIN DISCOVERED

And here is the surprise–it is alleged that among Ruth and John’s descendents was a prominent Englishman whose mother was an American– Winston Churchill, it seems, was a distant cousin of mine. Wonder what he thought about his rabble-rousing American ancestors?

How I Am Related to Elizabeth and Ruth

My maternal grandmother, Vera Stout Anderson, was the daughter of
Hattie Stout Morgan, the daughter of
Mary Bassett Platt Morgan, the daughter of
William Bassett the son of
Samuel Bassett, the son of
William Bassett, Jr., the son of
William L. Bassett, the son of
William Bassett, the son of
Joseph Bassett, the son of, and Mary Lapham Bassett, the step-daughter of
William Bassett, the Pilgrim, also father of
my 8th great-grand uncles and aunts, Elizabeth, William, Nathaniel, Sarah and Ruth.

NOTES

Much of the information here is from a website called Miner Descent, which cites references. Unfortunately, the references are not tied directly to the facts and quotes, and most references used are secondary sources.
Birth, death and Marriage records gleaned from Massachusetts town records, particularly U. S. New England Marriages Prior to 1700 found at Ancestry.com
The New England Historic and Genealogical Register, 1847-2011, Vol 002 (1848) (1854) available through Ancestry, and other Internet sources.
FindaGrave often contains valuable hints about relationships, however the information is rarely sourced, so it is only a starting point.
New England,The Great Migration and The Great Migration Begins, 1620-1635 by Robert Charles Anderson, contains information about the early English immigrants. Accessed through Ancestry.com
www.Bassettbranches.org Because this is compilations of individuals family trees and does not contain original sources, it is only a starting point.
History of the Early Settlement of Bridgewater in Plymouth County, Massachusetts(1840, reprinted 1897,Gateway Press 1970; Heritage Books 1983; Higgeson Books 1992)

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