Richard Bass, Seven times great grandfather

A repost of information about Richard Bass, the grandson of Nathaniel, the first Bass immigrant to the Virginia Colonies. 

Richard Bassye 1658-1722 was my seven times great grandfather. He was born and died in Norfolk, Nansemond County, VA. His birth date was 2 August 1658. He was not the same as Richard Taylor Bassye/Bass.

North America, Family Histories and Alabama, Surname Files Expanded, 1702-1981 give the same information about Richard Bassye.  Richard is in the final paragraph on the following page, but I shall be using this information about his parentage as well in the next few posts here.

This information coincides with that of Dr. Albert Bell's 1961 book, The Bass Familie of the South. This is the book that many Bass descendants scoff at, as having been written to appease some descendant who wanted a heritage including Huguenot ancestors.

The Native American descendants who dislike the Bell book state that it is misleading as well because it gives John Bass' wife the incorrect name of Keziah Tucker.  They point to the actual document in their tribe's possession, which states his wife was Elizabeth. Tucker is the name that his brother, Edward Bass' wife Mary had...named Mary Tucker Bass. They say she was not supposedly a sister/cousin of Elizabeth, though they were both full blood Nansemond Indians.  That's the way several indignant Native Americans have spelled out one mistake made by Dr. Bell.

I've written about Elizabeth's life (or Kesiah Tucker) a little in yesterdays post.

Back to Richard, father of Richard and Andrew, his sons who moved to Craven County, NC.  Richard stayed in Virginia all his life.  I just read an application for a Sons of the American Revolution, which had been suggested as documentation about this family...only to find the Richard Taylor Basye it talked about lived in the time of the Revolutionary war, 1776.  SO that got him deleted from my files.  This Richard Bass lived from 1658-1722.

The reason so much difficulty has been found around the Native American tribe of the Nansemonds is that the racial problem started early in Virginia, one of the first laws being that Englishmen could not marry Indians.  The other side of the same coin is that later on, the tribal elders would not accept lineage that was questionable when someone wanted to belong to the Nansemond Tribe.

Richard Bass was the ninth of the ten children of Elizabeth and John Bass of what is now Nansemond County, VA.  That meant he was half American Indian, and half English colonial.  In 1680 he married his first wife, Jane Bryant. They had seven children before she died in 1690.  (Interestingly the document above only names 5 of these children.)

In 1695 he marred his second wife, Mary Burwell, and they had another 7 children. My six times great grandfather, Andrew Bass Sr. was the oldest of the second family of 7.

Richard Bass died 26 Dec, 1722, in Norfolk, Nansemond, VA.