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In November 2002 proof of the connection
between Samuel Bass (1782-1868), basket maker, of Topsham DEV and the Bass's of Lympstone was finally found.
The Public Record Office
had placed the PCC (Prerogative Court of Canterbury) Wills on-line where the
indexes could be searched at:
http://www.documentsonline.pro.gov.uk/
My search found two
promising-looking Wills:
1. John Bass of Lympstone
Devon proved 14 December 1832 (PRO ref,: Prob 11/1807)
2. Sarah Bass of
Lympstone Devon proved 7 April 1841 (PRO ref.: Prob 11/1943)
In the first Will, John
Bass (1784-1832) ) leaves land known as “The Windmill” at Littleham Devon to Samuel Bass
of Topsham, basket maker. He does not state what the relationship between
them is.
However, in the second
Will, Sarah Bass (1777-1841, who is known from my researches to be John’s eldest
step-sister and daughter of the marriage between the elder John Bass and his
first wife, Rebecca Marshall) refers to “my cousin Samuel Bass” when she
leaves her part of their common interest in premises in Littleham to him.
From this, I deduce that
Samuel’s father, Thomas Bass (a baker) must have been a brother to the above
John and Sarah’s father, John Bass. Unfortunately, I do not have a parish
register entry showing this.
Nevertheless the connection to Lympstone which
my grandfather told me about in about 1946 is made.
I have concluded that the
baptism of Samuel Bass
(my 3xgreat grandfather) took place on 28 April 1782 at
Gulliford Meeting House,
on the outskirts of Lympstone, together with that of his sister, Sarah Bass.
My maternal grandfather's ancestry can now be
traced back to my 8x great grandparents, William Bass and Agnes
Adams, who married, 22 December 1646, in Lympstone Devon. Their descendants
include several generations of shipwrights who built wooden ships in
Lympstone, West Teignmouth and Topsham.
There is an interesting reference at
http://www.heritage.nf.ca/avalon/history to an early John Bass, master
of the 45 ton ship John, with a crew of 7/8 men out of Topsham, being in the
port of Ferryland, Newfoundland. In 1677, he appears to have taken on
a cargo of wine from Fayal in the Azores and was bound for Bilbao in Spain.
In 1681 he was bound for the Mediterranean and had 800 quintals (of wine? A
quintal = 100Kg or about 220 pounds). It appears to be rather a circuitous route, so perhaps
he carried passengers to Ferryland. At this period, fishermen would take a
passage to Newfoundland and, during the summer, catch cod in small
boats using lines. These would be dried and salted and sold to "sack ships"
to be sold in Spain. These "sack ships" would also take provisions and
passengers to the fishery. It is possible that the John was involved
with this trade. One statistic is that 34 vessels sailed to the fishery from
Topsham in 1699.
It is feasible that this John Bass is an ancestor
of mine.
It's probably not the same ship, but a converted
frigate, also called the John, transported convicted rebels to Barbados
after the Monmouth Rebellion between 1686-1689.
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