Climbing further up the tree of the Jordans

 I've always been fascinated by the Virginia colonists. They dealt with harsh environments, Natives who sometimes were friendly, and sometimes weren't, especially with the way the English settlers treated them!

Today I'm looking at the possible parents of Mary Jordan Bass, who I talked about in my last post. One genealogist stated emphatically that Mary was probably not a Jordan, and there was nothing that said as much.

But even if she wasn't I've been enjoying learning about her "possible mother," Cicely Reynolds Bailey Jordan Farrer. 

Cicely came to America on the ship Swan in 1610. Cicely was identified as just 10 years old by one source, but as 24 by another. She must have had a guardian with her, but he is not named anywhere. 

My guess is that her parents had already come to Virginia and Cicely for some reason had to come later, with the unnamed guardian.  The new settlement of Jamestown was being built, but between starvation and disease, and even Indian raids, many of the early settlers died without any records being kept.

She married Thomas William Bailey, and they had at least one child, Temperance Bailey. When Mr. Bailey died in 1618, his heir and oldest daughter, Temperance inherited his property. 

The dates of the women's lives are quite confusing. Since her second daughter, Mary Jordan, grew up and gave birth to the first of her twins in 1615, she is assumed to have been born in 1600. That is rather impossible if her mother, Cicely was born also in 1600.

Mary Jordan Basse, who was my grandmother times nine greats, was the daughter of Capt. Samuel Silas Jordan. He came to America from France, on the "Sea Venture" in 1609, which wrecked in the Bermudas. John Rolfe was on the same ship, and the shipwrecked immigrants spent a year building a new ship from the parts of the old, and then sailed to Jamestown. His 3 sons had stayed in England. He was a member of the first assembly held in 1619. His plantation was named Jordan's Journey.  He was born in 1578 and he died in 1623. 

Cicely and Samuel Jordan had 2 daughters, Mary Jordan who grew up to marry Nathaniel Bass, and Margaret Jordan, who may have been born after her father's death in 1623. Cicely was being courted by the minister, who was certain she had given him promise of marriage, but she married William Farrar. There was a mention in a document that no one in the future could promise marriage to more than one person at a time.

Cicely married William Farrar in 1624, and they had seven children at Farrar Island. He died in 1637. It is likely Cicely lived until 1660 at least.

I just noticed that their son, William Farrar II was the ancestor of a movie star, Tommy Lee Jones. So he's a cousin, about 10 times removed!

Mary Jordan Bass

My nine time great grandmother! What a woman she was!

Mary Jordan Basse was born in 1621, or perhaps earlier, either in London, or probably at Jordon's Point, VA.  If the story that she was a Huguenot refugee is correct, she might have been named Ann Marie Jourdan. She died 17 Jan. 1629/30, possibly in London. There are some sources that say she died in America. But she died trying to give birth to a still-born child, her 13th child. She and Nathaniel Basse had 3 sets of twins in all those children. (This is my current information from Ancestry, it may change someplace or another.)

Mary was the daughter of Capt. Samuel Silas Jordan, (1578-1623) and Cicley Reynolds Bailey Jordan (who later married a Mr. Farrer as well.) There seems to be controversy that Cicley was a Reynolds. So she's not the first with questionable parentage that I have in my tree. Cicely died on 12 Sept. 1660 on Farrars Island, Virginia.

Mary Jordan married Capt. Nathaniel Basse on 21 May 1613 in London. Many reccords indicate he had been born in London as well. Both her father and husband were merchants who took many trips back and forth form England to the Virginia Colony. 

Her childhood was probably spent in London, She married Capt. Nathaniel in London, and their first set of twins were born on July 15, 1615, in London. Their next son, John, was born in London on Sept. 17, 1616.  He became my nine time great grandfather.

I've already shared the story of how he escaped the Indian attack which burned Basses Choice. Remember this was very early settements, so think of log cabins and pallisades to enclose the homestead's buildings. 

John's younger brothers were also born in London, but at least oder brother Humphrey was killed by the Indians in 1622. It must be noted that their leadership was no longer Powatan, father of Pocahontas. And there aren't any records indicating other children also perished, but Humphrey's twin was also assumed to have perished at the same time.

The story that the parents were away when the Indians burned their holdings on Good Friday, it also srtressed that they returned and set about rebuilding, so that Edward might be born in a shelter by May 8 of 1622. But the records say he was born in London. Perhaps records were only being kept there, as the colonials hadn't set up their first government yet, let alone had time to write down birthdates.

Edward married Mary Tucker, a Christianized Native American cousin of John's Native American wife, Elizabeth Kesiah Tucker.

Of all the 12 live births of Mary Jordan Bass, about 4 died before they were 6, (2 in the Indian attack) and then 2 of the brothers, John and Edward must have been part time with the settlers, and/or part time with their wives' Indian families.* At best. I have heard that most Native tribes have the husband move in with the wife's family. But since both of these ladies were baptized and became Christian, I'm not sure. It would have been really hard on them to join the English society. And shortly after their marriages, a law was passed forbidding marriages between English and Indians. But the church made effort to Christianize the natives, and that' probably how John learned to read and write, after he'd been saved from the fire by friendly Nansemond Indians.

Mary must have been on the seas a few times with her husband in his ships. Early on the ships were providing all the necessities for the settlers, tools, iron things for building, food, animals.

By all the best guesses as to her birthdates, I think she was around 30 years old when she died in childbirth. And I don't see any records that her husband remarried. He lived until 1654, while she died in 1629.  There must have been servants enough to care for all the children in his home, Bass's Choice.

* thinking more of how colonial Englishmen were, I now believe their wives and homes would have been modeled after other Colonial Early Americans, and the Native families would have remained in a background to the business of farming tobacco.

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.