William Vassall facts for kids

William Vassall (1592-1656) was an English colonist known for two very different things: he fought for religious freedom in New England, but he also started his family's ownership of slave plantations in the Caribbean. He was an early investor in the Massachusetts Bay Company. Vassall was one of the merchants who asked Puritan courts for more civil liberties and religious tolerance. In 1647, he and John Child published a pamphlet called New-England’s Jonas cast up in London. This book described the efforts of colonists who were asking for changes. By early 1648, Vassall moved to Barbados to start a sugar plantation that used enslaved labor. He and his family became major plantation owners in the Caribbean. They enslaved more than 3,865 people before Britain ended slavery in 1833.

William Vassall's Family Background

William Vassall's grandfather, Jean Vassall, was a Huguenot (a French Protestant). He sent his son John to England from their home in Normandy, France, because of religious disagreements. John Vassall (1548-1625) was a very rich man. He equipped and commanded two ships against the Spanish Armada, a famous Spanish fleet. Queen Elizabeth I rewarded him for this help. In 1618, he bought shares in the Virginia Company, starting a long family tradition of investing in colonies. William was the son of John Vassall and his second wife, Anna Russell. He was born in Stepney, England, on August 27, 1592. On June 9, 1613, he married Anna King. They had ten children, but only five daughters (Judith, Frances, Anna, Margaret, Mary) and one son (John) lived to be adults.

Early Days in Massachusetts: 1628-1630

In March 1628, William and his brother Samuel Vassall were among the first people to get a special permission (called a patent) for the Massachusetts Bay Company. Both were chosen as "Assistants" in 1629, which meant they helped lead the company. William Vassall was very active in the company at first. He was on committees that decided how to divide land and how to make rules. On August 26, 1629, he was one of twelve men who signed the Cambridge Agreement. They promised to be ready to sail to the new colony by March 1, 1630.

In the summer of 1629, the Company sent about fifty people to start a settlement in Charlestown. Two settlers, John and Samuel Brown, were forced to return to England because they tried to start an Episcopal church. They asked William and Samuel Vassall to represent them in this argument. The Company's lawyer, John Winthrop, defended the decision to remove the Browns. This was William Vassall's first disagreement with Winthrop about religious tolerance. Winthrop always won these arguments. The Company even took the Browns' private letters. This showed that the colony would not allow the Episcopal way of worship.

At a meeting on October 20, 1629, Winthrop was elected Governor, and Vassall was reelected as an Assistant. On March 23, 1630, they were among eight men who attended the last meeting of the Court of Assistants in England. This meeting was held on the ship Arbella in Southampton. Within months, Vassall sailed to New England in the same group of ships that carried Winthrop and the other Assistants. He might have been on the ship Lyon. In total, fifteen ships brought about 1,500 people to Massachusetts in 1630. This was the start of the Puritan Great Migration, when about 21,000 people moved to New England between 1630 and 1640.

However, William Vassall and his family returned to England in July, just a month after arriving. They sailed back on the Lyon. The Deputy Governor, Thomas Dudley, noted that some people left the colony because they feared famine. Others left because they did not like the government. When the Vassall family returned to New England five years later, they chose to live in Plymouth Colony. This colony was known for being more tolerant than Massachusetts Bay.

Life in Scituate, Plymouth: 1635-1645

The Vassall family sailed across the Atlantic for the third time in the summer of 1635 on the ship Blessing. They stayed with Rev. John Eliot in Roxbury. Meanwhile, Vassall claimed a large piece of land in the new Plymouth settlement of Scituate. In 1636, he built one of the first homes in the village, calling it “Belle House.” He joined the village church on November 27.

Vassall's land was much larger than anyone else's. Scituate's minister, Rev. John Lothrop, and fifteen other free men asked the court to reduce its size. They argued that their own land was too small to live on. On January 1, 1637, the court agreed and reduced Vassall's land by 200-300 acres. In return, the other free men were supposed to run a ferry. They didn't, so on April 2, 1638, the court gave Vassall 200 acres to run the ferry himself. Vassall kept trying to get more land. On December 3, 1638, he was given another 150 acres if he promised to be loyal to the colony. He made this promise on February 1, 1639. On June 3, the court settled his disagreements with his neighbors and made the 150-acre addition final. On December 3, 1639, Vassall also got permission to create an oyster bank in the North River near his estate. Others needed his permission to use it.

While in Scituate, Vassall was part of a war council in September 1642. This was when settlers feared attacks from the Narragansett people. In 1643, he was listed among the men who could carry weapons. Because he owned one of the few surveying tools in the colony, Vassall sometimes helped settle land disputes between neighbors. However, Vassall was more famous for causing arguments than solving them. He became a leader in a dispute that permanently split the Scituate Church into two parts.

The issue of baptism had caused problems in the Scituate Church for a long time. When Rev. Lothrop moved away in October 1639, more than half the church members moved with him. The seven male members who stayed, including Vassall, were also divided. Four of them asked Charles Chauncy to be their new minister. Vassall led the group that opposed Chauncy. Their main disagreements were about baptism and communion. Chauncy believed baptism required full immersion, even for babies, and thought "sprinkling" was wrong. Vassall agreed with the colony's leaders that "immersion or dipping was lawful—but in this cold country, not so convenient."

Unlike Chauncy, Vassall believed that churches in New England should allow all members of the Church of England to take communion and be baptized. This was different from the usual practice, which required people to go through a difficult process to join a colonial church. Chauncy accused Vassall of being "inclined to the Bishops" (meaning the Anglican church leaders). Chauncy told those who opposed him to stay away from communion, which meant they lost their church rights. The excluded members met on February 2, 1642, probably at Vassall's home. They signed a church agreement and started a new church. Chauncy was very angry, and the arguments between the men continued for years. Vassall often wrote letters about dividing land and common areas to make sure the new church had as much land as the first. This plan would have increased his own property. This church is now known as First Parish, Norwell.

In early 1642, Vassall wrote to Maine Governor Thomas Gorges. He warned Gorges not to hire Rev. Joseph Hull, who had been displaced when Lothrop moved. Hull had taken a job at a nearby church without Lothrop's permission, so he was excommunicated and a warrant was issued for his arrest. He fled to Maine. In his reply on May 17, Gorges said he was "shocked" by Vassall's letter and supported Hull. Gorges explained, "As for … neighbors here I shall not press their consciences but leave them to their own liberty." Later, Vassall would ask Plymouth and Massachusetts for the very religious freedom he had tried to deny Rev. Hull.

Fighting for Rights in New England: 1645-1646

By the early 1640s, the economy in New England was getting worse. Plymouth Colony was hit harder than Massachusetts Bay and was "rapidly and irretrievably declining." People stopped moving to New England in 1640 because the Long Parliament was established in England. Puritans no longer feared being persecuted in their home country. That year, more people returned to England than arrived in the colonies. In 1642, when the English Civil War began, about 7 to 10 percent of colonists, including nearly a third of the ministers, went back to England to help with the war.

In 1644, the Massachusetts Bay Colony banned Anabaptists and other non-Puritan Protestants. In the summer of 1645, Massachusetts leaders tried to extend this law to other colonies in the New England Confederation, including Plymouth. Because of the bad economy and the growing intolerance, merchants like Vassall and his friend Robert Child led efforts to make the colonies more tolerant. They hoped this would attract new residents and investors.

In the fall of 1645, the law against Anabaptists was discussed at a Plymouth Court of Elections meeting. Vassall was there as Scituate's representative. He was the only one who objected to the matter being heard in that court. After a whole day of debate, the law was allowed. Vassall was also present a week later when the General Court met. Several leaders who had been absent earlier asked for the law to be removed. Governor William Bradford, who supported the law, agreed to "leave it to the next court, where it might be repealed if the Country saw fit." Vassall was not happy with just stopping the law's progress. He suggested that Plymouth should "allow and maintain full and free tolerance of religion to all men that would preserve the civil peace, and submit unto Government." He said there should be no limits against "Turk, Jew, Papist, … or any other."

Most of the Plymouth General Court supported Vassall's idea. It would have passed if Governor Bradford had not stopped the vote. Bradford claimed that religious liberty "would eat out the power of godliness." Bradford's "arbitrary action" (meaning he acted without proper authority) gave the conservative minority time to work against the proposal. The leaders were so against Vassall's plan that they didn't even mention it in official documents. However, a Plymouth leader named Edward Winslow, who hated the petition, wrote a detailed letter to Winthrop on November 25, 1645. This letter preserved the details of Vassall's proposal.

In his Journal entry on May 6, 1646, Winthrop described Vassall as "a man of a busy and factious spirit, and always opposed to the civil governments of this country and the way of our Churches." According to Winthrop, Vassall sent petitions to both Plymouth and Massachusetts. He complained that settlers were denied access to church services and "deprived of all power … in civil affairs" unless they joined a church. He also called for the colonies to end "arbitrary government" (rule without clear laws) and "extrajudicial proceedings" (actions outside the law). He wanted them to be "wholly governed by the laws of England." Vassall threatened to complain to the English Parliament if he failed in the colonies.

Winthrop reported that Vassall's petition was followed by a similar, much longer one. This petition, called the Remonstrance of 1646, was presented to the General Court in Boston on May 19. It was signed by six merchants and businessmen led by Dr. Robert Child. Like Vassall, these men were not just religious reformers. They petitioned the Court because the colony's religious and political situation "threatened to undermine the success" of their businesses. The petitioners focused on how Massachusetts' intolerance and political exclusion affected society and the economy. They wanted their "reforms to reverse Massachusetts’ decline."

Massachusetts leaders were "most enraged" by the petitioners' claim that they could challenge colonial decisions by appealing to Parliament. This was a serious threat. Vassall and Child were a "very formidable and dangerous opposition" because both were wealthy enough to travel to London. Also, both men had brothers serving in Parliament. John Child was a Member of Parliament (MP) and part of the majority party. In 1646, Samuel Vassall, another MP, was on the Commission for Foreign Plantations. He signed documents that helped colonist Samuel Gorton in his successful dispute with Massachusetts that May.

William Vassall did not sign the Remonstrance, even though his living in Plymouth would not have stopped him. Two men who signed it, Robert Child and John Smith, were "strangers" in Massachusetts, and Vassall had petitioned both colonies before. Because his name was not on the document, Vassall avoided the harsh punishment that the other petitioners received. In a long Journal entry on November 4, 1646, Winthrop reported that the General Court accused the seven petitioners of sedition (trying to stir up rebellion) for the "false and scandalous passages" in their petition, not for the act of petitioning itself. They were accused of defaming the government, weakening laws, slandering churches, and causing discontent. Because they refused to admit they were wrong, the petitioners were fined between £10 and £50 each.

Vassall and two other petitioners, Robert Child and Thomas Fowle, planned to sail to England to take their petitions to the Commissioners for Plantations. But on the evening they planned to leave, Child and another petitioner, John Dand, were arrested and searched. Various "seditious" documents were found with Dand, written by Child. Both men were imprisoned. Vassall and Fowle sailed to England on the ship Supply on November 9, 1646.

New-England’s Jonas cast up at London: 1647

Shortly before the Supply sailed in November 1646, Rev. John Cotton of Boston gave a sermon. He said that the Remonstrance would be like "Jonas" (Jonah) to the ship carrying it. He told the ship's captain to throw it overboard if a storm came, so the ship could be saved. When the ship did face stormy seas (which was expected in a winter crossing), some passengers remembered his words. To calm one "distracted" passenger, Fowle gave the woman an extra copy of a Boston petition, which she threw into the sea. But, as an eyewitness (almost certainly Vassall himself) wrote in a 1647 pamphlet, "the storm did not leave us upon the throwing of the Paper." The ship faced "many great storms" before arriving in Bristol on December 19. Cotton's sermon became well-known. The pamphlet's title, New-England’s Jonas cast up at London, reminded people how the story of Jonah ended: Jonah survived inside the "great beast" and was "vomited up on shore" to "fulfill his obligation to preach." This meant the petitioners would succeed despite difficulties.

Published in London by April 15, 1647, New-England’s Jonas was a small, 24-page pamphlet with four connected sections. Three sections reprinted documents from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The title page said that English MP Major John Child was the only author. However, Edward Winslow claimed it was mainly William Vassall's work. Experts since then have credited both men. The U.S. Library of Congress lists both Child and Vassall as authors.

The pamphlet starts with a short introduction by Major John Child. His brother Robert was under house arrest in Massachusetts at the time. The first section of Jonas includes three documents about a 1645 decision by leaders to overturn a vote for a militia leader in Hingham. This argument almost led to the impeachment (removal from office) of Deputy Governor John Winthrop.

The second section of New-England’s Jonas contains the full text of the 1646 Remonstrance. For nine pages, the petitioners used the language of Puritan preachers against the colony itself. They dramatically described how God seemed to be against the colony, "blasting all our designs," making many rich people "to the brinks of extreme poverty," and striking others with "malignant sicknesses" and "shameful diseases." They offered the Remonstrance as a solution. They asked for three things: (1) English common law to be used in Massachusetts; (2) all well-behaved freeborn Englishmen to be able to vote; and (3) all Church of England members to have access to church services or the freedom to form their own churches.

Vassall and John Child followed the Remonstrance with a brief summary of its "effects." These included "large and defamatory declarations" against the petitioners in sermons. More seriously, one leader claimed in court that the petition threatened "the very foundations of both Church and Commonwealth." This echoed a Massachusetts law that called for the death penalty for anyone who tried to "alter and subvert our frame of Polity or Government fundamentally." This meant Robert Child and John Dand were "in danger of their lives."

The third section of New-England’s Jonas reprinted the Capital Laws of Massachusetts from 1641-1642. This showed Parliament and the public that Massachusetts laws were not based on English Common Law. Instead, they were based on the Puritans' interpretation of the Bible, as each law was followed by a Bible quote. Jonas also included the full text of the Freeman’s Oath. This was important because it showed that the oath made no mention of loyalty to the King or any power on Earth except their own government.

The fourth section of New-England’s Jonas was the eyewitness account. It aimed to prove wrong the popular belief that Vassall and his group only escaped a predicted disaster at sea by throwing their petition overboard. The pamphlet's postscript attacked Edward Winslow. Winslow had been sent by the Massachusetts General Court to argue against the colonists' right to petition Parliament. Jonas described Winslow as "a principal opposer of the laws of England, in New-England." Vassall and Winslow knew each other well. In 1640, Winslow became the father-in-law of Vassall's daughter Judith. In 1645, Winslow wrote the letter warning Winthrop about Vassall's attempt to establish religious freedom in Plymouth.

Together, the documents in New-England’s Jonas showed that Massachusetts believed it was "entirely independent of the British Parliament" in all government matters. It thought it had "absolute power" over its affairs, including the power to "rule, punish, pardon, etc." Vassall was among those who "denied this contention of the leaders." He had signed the 1629 Bay Company Charter, which promised "all liberties and immunities of free and natural subjects" to Massachusetts residents, as if they were born in England. Vassall therefore believed that "any colonist had a right of appeal to England." Winthrop strongly refused to recognize this right. On this basic point, Vassall's petitions of 1646 and the Remonstrance "brought forward the whole relation of the Colony to England."

Six weeks after Jonas was printed, on May 25, 1648, the Commission advised the colony that it would not "encourage any appeals from your justice." It would "leave you with all that freedom and latitude that may, in any respect, be duly claimed by you." With this, the Commission refused to get involved in the colonial government's decisions. This was a defeat for Vassall and his fellow petitioners.

On May 29, 1647, Winslow published his own pamphlet: NEW-ENGLAND’S SALAMANDER, DISCOVERED By an irreligious and scornful Pamphlet, called New England’s cast up at London, &c. Owned by Major John Childe, but not probable to be written by him. Winslow began by addressing Child. He noted that if Child knew the people who "came lately from New-England," he would not "father" their "falsehoods and irreligious jeers and scoffs." Winslow added that "no man is or ever was better acquainted with the phrase or writings of another, than I am with your chief animator to this undertaking, whom I call New-England’s Salamander, because of his constant and many years exercise, and delight in opposition to whatsoever hath been judged most wholesome and safe" for the "country (from whence he last came) either in politics or ecclesiastics."

In his Journal, Winthrop identified Winslow's "Salamander" as "Mr. Vassall, a man never at rest except in the fire of contention." On May 10, 1648, Winthrop reported news from England: Vassall, "who went from Scituate to petition against the country," had moved to Barbados.

Starting a Slave Plantation in Barbados: 1648-1656

William and Samuel Vassall invested in "nearly all aspects of English Atlantic colonization during the first half of the seventeenth century." Slavery was a key part of the Vassalls' colonial business. Samuel Vassall helped pay for ships that traveled the Middle Passage (the route used to transport enslaved Africans). He was also the main shareholder of the Guinea Company, which was created to supply enslaved labor to the colonies. By early 1648, William Vassall moved to Barbados to take advantage of the worldwide "sugar boom." This was a time when people could make huge fortunes very quickly from sugar. He bought land in St. Michael and also bought people to work on it. From that point on, his family built their wealth by running slave-labor plantations in the Caribbean. Vassall also represented the interests of several New England merchants on the island. He served as a commissioner of highways in 1652. In 1655, he was appointed a commissioner for enforcing the Navigation Acts, which controlled trade.

The Vassalls' family life in St. Michael was very luxurious. However, the people they enslaved lived in terrible conditions. English visitors to their home were "shocked" that the enslaved people who served food on silver plates wore "the scantiest of clothing, and that often in tatters." Sugar slavery was "hugely profitable," even though it was "one of the most deadly forms of slavery ever invented." The money made from goods produced by enslaved people was so great that it was profitable to work African men, women, and children to death. On average, enslaved workers died within seven years. Because the English knew slavery was brutal, they made it illegal to enslave Christians. They tried to keep the line between slave and free by limiting access to baptism. When courts started freeing enslaved people who converted to Christianity, slave owners changed their rules. They introduced a new way of exclusion based on "whiteness" rather than Christian status.

Vassall made his will in Barbados on July 13, 1655. One-third of his estates in Barbados, New England, and elsewhere went to his only son, John. The remaining two-thirds were divided equally among his daughters. His wife, Anna King, was not named in the document. Vassall chose his son John as the only executor of his will. He told his son-in-law Nicholas Ware, who was married to his daughter Anna, to stay on the plantation and manage it until John gave other instructions or arrived. Vassall did not sign the document but "made his mark" in front of witnesses. This suggests he might have been injured or ill.

William Vassall's exact death date and burial place are unknown, but he is generally believed to have died in 1656, when he was 64. He likely died between July 13, 1655, when he wrote his will, and May 8, 1656, when Ware arranged to sell Vassall's Scituate estate. His will was officially approved on June 12, 1657.

Vassall Family Legacy and Slavery

This home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was built with wealth from slave labor by John Vassall, Jr. It later became George Washington's headquarters during the Revolution and the home of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

William Vassall and His Son Leonard (c. 1771), painted by John Singleton Copley. William Vassall (1715-1800) used wealth from his Jamaican slave-labor plantation to invest in New England. The town of Vassalboro, Maine, is named after him.

Like their father, William Vassall's children, John and Anna, quickly took advantage of opportunities in the West Indies and North America. They "amassed great fortunes from slavery." A 2004 history of slavery in Virginia mentions these siblings. It notes that by the mid-1700s, slave purchases often happened in areas that attracted people from other colonies. These purchases often involved individuals like Anna Vassal Ware, who moved from Barbados to Virginia, and her brother John, who lived in Jamaica. These moves and the family and business connections they created were central to Virginia’s slave trade.

In 1669, John Vassall was granted 1,000 acres near the Black River in St. Elizabeth, Jamaica. He bought another 4,000 acres there in 1672. The Vassalls continued to expand their ownership of people and land in Jamaica. Records show that between 1714 and 1827, 27 Vassall family members owned eighteen slave-labor plantations across western Jamaica. The Vassalls owned ten plantations in St. Elizabeth, three in Hanover, two in Westmoreland, and one in St. James.

Wills from 1714 to 1827 identified 3,282 individuals enslaved by the Vassalls. After the Slavery Abolition Act was passed in 1833 and the Slave Compensation Act in 1837, Vassall descendants claimed full compensation for six properties and 583 enslaved people. This data does not include those enslaved during the Vassalls' first 66 years as planters. It also doesn't fully count all those enslaved by the family in Jamaica or in their homes overseas. So, in addition to the documented 3,865 enslaved men, women, and children, hundreds more remain uncounted and unknown.

The wealth from these plantations made William Vassall's descendants important people in the colony he had helped found.

His grandson Leonard Vassall (1678–1737) had a mansion built in Quincy, Massachusetts. Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams later lived there. Leonard "ostentatiously" (meaning in a showy way) paid his son Lewis's Harvard tuition with a barrel of sugar produced by enslaved labor. This sugar was "worth more than the entirety of many of his classmates’ dues." In 1728, he provided money for the purchase of land to build Trinity Church, Boston. When Leonard Vassall died, he owned 131 enslaved people, including 51 children. The value of the people he enslaved made up 73% of his total wealth.

His great-grandson Henry Vassall (1721-1769) bought a Cambridge mansion from his older brother John and married Penelope Royall. The enslaved workers on the Royall family's plantation in Antigua "created wealth that made possible the founding of Harvard Law School." Henry and Penelope Vassall enslaved at least 7 people on their "Tory Row" property. This was an unusually high number for a single New England home, though records show the "names of nearly a score" of enslaved people in their household. Henry Vassall "squandered much of his inheritance" on this expensive property and lavish lifestyle. He died without money in 1769. The Henry and Penelope Vassall house at 94 Brattle Street, Cambridge, is now a historic home.

Another great-grandson, William Vassall (1715-1800), was different from his siblings. He expressed doubts about whether it was "Christian morality" to keep "a great number of slaves on his West Indian plantations." He wrote to Bishop Joseph Butler for advice and accepted his assurance that slavery was justified by the Bible. William Vassall invested the wealth from his Jamaican plantations throughout New England, including Kennebec County, Maine. The town of Vassalboro is named after him. William Vassall fled to England during the American Revolution. He died there after many years of arguing for "compensation for what he deemed the illegal confiscation of his properties in Massachusetts and Rhode Island."

Great-grandson Col. John Vassall (1713-1747) represented Cambridge in the Massachusetts legislature in 1740 and 1747. Col. Vassall owned Jamaica’s Lower Works Pen and Newfound plantations. When he died, he enslaved 1,167 people, including 270 children.

Great-great grandson John Vassall II (1738-1797) was nine when he inherited his father’s huge holdings in people and property. At 21, the younger John Vassall commissioned what would become Cambridge’s "largest and most elegant estate." This grand home on 90 acres was where he lived in "princely style" with his wife, Elizabeth Oliver, whose family also owned plantations in Antigua. The couple enslaved 7 people in their home. This showed both "the enormous wealth of the white Vassalls" and their "commitment" to slavery. After the Vassalls, who were Loyalists (supporters of the British Crown), fled their mansion in 1774, Gen. George Washington used it as his headquarters in Cambridge. The poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow later made it his home. The U.S. National Park Service now owns the Georgian-style home at 105 Brattle Street. William Vassall’s descendants owned the Newfound River plantation until Great Britain abolished slavery. Each year, they enslaved an average of 177 people there.

Great-great granddaughter Elizabeth Vassall (born 1739) also married into the wealthy Oliver family. Her husband, Thomas Oliver, was the last Lieutenant Governor of colonial Massachusetts and the son of Antiguan planters. The couple enslaved 11 people on their Cambridge estate, Elmwood, which is now the home of Harvard’s president. As Loyalists, they fled the country and later asked the British government for £480 in compensation for the "valuable slaves" they left behind.

Anthony (“Tony”) Vassall (around 1713-1811), his wife Cuba, and their children were enslaved by Henry Vassall and his wife Penelope Royall. When Henry Vassall’s widow and John Vassall II fled the colony with other Loyalists in 1774, Tony and his family lived in a building on John II's estate. They farmed about 1.5 acres for food. When the sale of confiscated Loyalist properties was finished in 1780, Tony Vassall, then about 67, asked the legislature to confirm his right to live there by giving him a title to the land. His request was denied. However, Vassall succeeded with a second request in 1781. The legislature ordered that "out of the proceeds of the John Vassall sales Tony should be paid the sum of £12, and the same amount annually thereafter from the public funds." His was the "first petition for slavery compensation granted after American independence." His success "inspired other suits," which helped lead to the end of slavery in Massachusetts.

Darby Vassall (around 1769-1861), son of Tony and Cuba, became a well-known activist in Boston's Black community. He and his brother Cyrus were among the founders of the African Society, a mutual aid society started in 1796. Darby signed a local petition against the Fugitive Slave Act in 1861. Both brothers also signed a petition created by Primus Hall to build a Black school in Beacon Hill in 1812. On August 23, 1825, Darby Vassall was the "second Vice President of a banquet to celebrate the anniversary of Haitian independence." He offered this toast: "Freedom—May the freedom of Haiti be a glorious harbinger of the time when the color of a man shall no longer be a pretext for depriving him of his liberty." His funeral on October 15, 1861, was widely reported. A Philadelphia newspaper reported that the 92-year-old was "well known. He was born in the house in Cambridge distinguished as WASHINGTON’S Head-quarters. He was the oldest member of the Church in Brattle square, (Boston), and was universally respected for his general intelligence and excellent character."

In their 1778 claim to the British government, the Loyalist Vassalls valued Darby Vassall at £200. "Listed at comparable monetary value were the Vassalls’ livestock," including two oxen and a bay mare.

Images for kids

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  Home built with slave-labor wealth by John Vassall, Jr., in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The mansion at 105 Brattle Street was headquarters to Washington in the Revolution and home to the poet Longfellow.

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  William Vassall and His Son Leonard (c. 1771), John Singleton Copley, oil on canvas, DeYoung Museum. William Vassall (1715-1800) invested wealth from his Jamaican slave-labor plantation in New England. He was a proprietor of Vassalboro, Maine, which bears his name.