Benjamin Bass (1694 - 1756)

Born 19 Dec 1694 in Braintree, Suffolk, Massachusetts Bay

Ancestors

Husband of Mary (Gardner) Bass — married 3 Nov 1729 in Marshfield, Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay

Died 24 May 1756 at age 61 in Hanover, Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay

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Biography

Married Mary Gardner, daughter of Rev. James and Mary (_____) Gardner.

Benjamin and Mary (Gardner) Bass had the following (3) children:

1. Mary, b. 30 Oct. 1730; died 21 March 1802
2. Elizabeth, b. 18 March 1733; m. Edmund Sylvester
3. Benjamin, b. 6 June 1741; m. Mercy Tolman, m. Mary Eells.

Probate

Benjamin died intestate and on 5 July 1756, his widow Mary and David Stockbridge of Hanover were granted the administration of his estate.^[1]

His inventory was taken on 23 and 24 July 1756 in Hanover. He was a slaveholder. His inventory included an enslaved black man and an enslaved black woman, who is not named in the document.^[2] The 1754 Massachusetts Slave Census indicates that Bass enslaved a 22-year-old woman and a 17-year-old boy.^[3] Furthermore, the Rev. Bass records in his church diary that he baptized his enslaved child Titus in 1742, who may be the 17-year-old in the 1754 census and the man listed as moveable property in Bass' probate file.^[4]

Sources

1. ↑ "Massachusetts, Plymouth County, Probate Records, 1633-1967," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L97D-X453 : 20 May 2014), Probate records 1755-1758 and 1859-1862 vol 14-14E > image 52 of 498; State Archives, Boston.
2. ↑ "Massachusetts, Plymouth County, Probate Records, 1633-1967," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L97D-X4VY : 20 May 2014), Probate records 1755-1758 and 1859-1862 vol 14-14E > image 87-88 of 498; State Archives, Boston.
3. ↑ 1754 Massachusetts Slave Census. online: PrimaryResearch.org
4. ↑ Church records, 1728-1756, First Congregational Church of Hanover, Mass. Entry #255. online: Congregational Library & Archives. Boston, MA.

• Esther Littleford Woodsworth-Barnes, Mayflower Families through Five Generations, Vol 16, Part 1, The Descendants of John Alden, General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 2002. "The Silver Book" Page 480
• Find a Grave, database and images (www.findagrave.com/memorial/145441761/benjamin-bass : accessed 02 May 2021), memorial page for Rev Benjamin Bass (19 Dec 1694–24 May 1756), Find A Grave: Memorial #145441761, citing Hanover Center Cemetery, Hanover, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, USA ; Maintained by James Bianco (contributor 47745493) .