Anthony BESSE

                   Anthony Besse, Age 26, arrived at Plymouth Colony on the ship "The James" in 1635. Will dated 10 Feb 1656 WP 3 Jun 1657 Prob Plymouth MASS
V.R. Sandwich & Rochester. TIB F #1262707
Ancestors of Anthony Besse File by Florence Besse Balantine
Mrs. William Riggs, 3040 N. Waterford Dr., Florresant, MO 63033
Also Bapt. 24 Feb. 1989 Provo
Also End. 11 Mar. 1989 Provo


ANTHONY BESSE 1609-1656

       When Anthony Besse crossed the Atlantic to America in 1635 on board the "James" he was registered among the passengers as 26 years of age, and was certified "for conformity in religion and that he was no subsidy man."
       He lived briefly in Lynn, then moved to Sandwich where he remained until he died in 1656/7 (his will is dated Feb. 10 1656, proved June 3, 1657.)  This will which in all probability he wrote himself, and a letter which remains, show him to have been educated and gently reared.  The entries in Sandwich annals record his participation in public affairs and his modest contributions to the projects of building a mill and a meeting house, and of securing a minister.  He was before the court only once and that for "disorderly keeping house alone" in 1638 when he must have been trying to make a place ready for a wife.
       He received .01 acre in the 1641 division of Sandwich meadow lands, and in 1643 was declared liable to bear arms.  He was much concerned for the welfare of Indians, working with the minister, Mr. Leverech, as a lay preacher.  He wrote "concerning the Indians I have seen and heard more this summer than ever I did before.  I have seen some Indians crave a blessing before meat and return thanks after meat, pray morning and evening, some of them do frequent our meetings, they come constantly eight or ten miles every Saturday and the Monday they return home again, while our  Exercise doth last they attend diligently.  Mr. Leverich hath an Indian that speaks good English and he is interpreter.  There is a man that lives near us that comes from an Island that is called Martha's Vineyard where is a minister that speaks good Indian he doth preach to them every week and hath told me that that minister told him there are some of them, Indians, that are able to give a better reason of their Faith than some of the members of their church; some of them will preach and they have private meeting and keep very good orders."
                          Sandwich 2 Sept 1651         Anthony Besse


HIS WILL FOLLOWS:

       "To Jane, my wife, three cowes viz. blacking, moose and cherry, and three yearlings and one yearling steer that Dorcas my daughter hath given unto Jane my wife.  I give her likewise my bed with the appurtenances.
       To Dorcas my daughter two heifers formerly deposed to her viz. -- Nubbin and spark and one more now which we call Young Moose.
       To Ann my daughter one heifer which we call Pretty.
       To Nehemiah my son one heifer deposed to him called Coll.
       I give my house now possessed by me unto my two sonnes viz. Hehemiah and David and two steers likewise to them both viz. Burnett and Raven.
       To Nehemiah my gun, my cutlas and my boats.
       All my wearing clothes should be equally divided betwixt my two sonnes and also all the meadow I have.
       To my daughter Mary one heifer we call Daysey.
       To my daughter Elizabeth one ewe lamb which is in Mr. Edward Dillingham's hands.
       For my debts owing to others there is as much owing to us by others as will discharge it the which I leave with my wife to receive and satisy wher I owe.  Likewise in case my mother send any thinge over to me as formerly she hath Don that it be Disposed of among my family in general; furthermore for any moveables not formerly mentioned as household stuffe or the like I leave it amongst the family until my wife shall marry and then to be Divided amongst my children.  likewise my will is that soe long as my wife remains in her widowhood to Enjoy the benefit of the house and land and children's cattle until they come of age but in case she marry then the five bigest to be put forth and their cattle with them according to the Discretion of the overseers.  Moreover for the little one my wife goeth with that my wife give to it a portion if God give it life for the which I have given the more to my wife.  furthermore I leave my wife the exequitor of this will.  and my loving friends James Skeffe and Richard Bourne to be overseers of this my will."
                                          From Mayflower descendants

The above is taken from the Research Notes ANTHONY BESSE by Florence Besse Ballantine


   Between the writing of Anthony Besse's will (1656) and the writing of Jane's will in 1693 (see her notes) when she had become the wife of George Barlow, Dorcas, Mary, Jane and David had probably died.  She mentions only Ann Hallett, Elizabeth Bodfish, Nehemiah Besse, Rebecca Hunter, John Barlow and Nathan Barlow.  The surname and age of Jane are not known.
       It is of course impossible to recapture the personality of Anthony from the few details we have, but the pattern which he set of inconspicuous participation in public welfare, the habit of church association, dependence on contact with the land and sea, and a careful, tranquil domestic life seems clear, and it has persisted as characteristic of many of his descendants.
       Anthony's son David died 1676 in the battle against the Indians at Rehoboth.  "Early Rehoboth" by Richard Bowen quotes a letter signed by Noah Newman and dated 1/27/1676 "5 of English slain and 11 Indians 5 English from Sandwich were Benjamin Nye, David Bessey, Caleb Blaike, Hoe Gibbs and Stephen Wing."
       Ann Besse married Andrew Hallett, gentleman, presumably as his second wife soon after 1661 when she and her sister Dorcas were before the court on charges of ill treating their step father.  Ann confessed that she had.  Both girls were unmarried at the time and suffering from the severity of Barlow.
       Elizabeth Besse married Joseph Bodfish and had 12 children.
       Rebecca married William Hunter of Barnstable.


CAPE COD AND SANDWICH, MASS.:

       Cape Cod, the south and south-east boundary of the great bay from which the State of Mass. takes its name, is a long irregular peninsula sixty-five miles in length, by from five to twenty miles in breadth, and embraces the entire Co. of Barnstable.  Its name was conferred upon it May 15, 1602, by its discoverer, the intreped mariner Bartholomew Gosnold, from the circumstance that his crew caught a large quantity of codfish while anchored there.  In 1614 Captain John Smith, skirting the American shore north from Virginia, visited Cape Cod and called the country round about, which he mapped New England.  Smith left his crew at Cape Cod to load fish and sassafras for the return voyage, and sailed for England on another ship.
       Smith's second in command, the villainous Thomas Hunt, kidnapped seven Indians from Nauset (afterwards known as Wastham) and twenty others from another section of the Cape, and sold them as slaves in Malaga, Spain.  He thus kindled the fires of revenge among the Indians of New England that plagued the future settlers.
       The first mention we find of Cape Cod after the settlement of Plymouth is March 17, 1621, when Samoset came to the settlers boldly with the salutation, "Welcome, Englishmen"  He informed them that the Nauset Indians were much incensed against the English because of Captain Hunt's perfidy, and that about five months before the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, they had slain three Englishmen.  A short time earlier a pestilence had swept the Indian habitations on the shore of Mass. and exterminated whole villages.  Old fields that the red men had cultivated, particularly at Mattacheese (now Barnstable) on Cape Cod, were lying fallow.  These eventually were taken over by the land-hungry settles of Mass. Bay.
       The first English settlement on the Cape was made at Sandwich, 1637, by Mr. Edmund Freeman and others, who on April 3 of that year obtained a grant from Plymouth, and brought a large number of families from Plymouth, Duxbury and Lynn to plant the town.  Among the newcomers was Anthony Besse, the Founder Ancestor, who came to preach to the Indians.
       By 1639 the first group of towns or settlements any considerable distance from Plymouth came into existence; Barnstable (formerly Mattacheese,) Yarmouth and Sandwich on Cape Cod and Cohannet or Taunton.  Plymouth retained a firm hand in regulating these settlements.
       Sandwich always seemed to be a thorn in the flesh of the rigid Puritans of Plymouth.  On Sep. 3, 1639, the committees of Sandwich were "complained of" for receiving into the town "persons unfit for church society" and were "forbidden to dispose of any more land."

Ref:  VRSM Bk 1803-42, p. 500.  FCC c 2 p. 74
TTCB p. 21
Randall & Allied Families by Frand R. Randall, p. 306-309

       Anthony Besse's house was probably located east of Benjamin Nye's on present Route 6A in Spring Hill, the paternal site inherited by Nehemiah in 1664 when he came of age, and shown in the property survey of 1667.  The six older children probably remained in the Besse house even after Anthony Bess's wife Jane remarried in 1661, taking Elizabeth and Rebecca with her to the home of her new husband, George Barlow.  This is suggested in Plymouth Colony Records for 1662 when the cow (Daisy) taken away by Barlow is ordered to be returned to the girl, Jane Besse, under the guidance of overseers of the estate, Richard Bourne and James Skiff.  The younger son David was killed in the battle at Rehobeth on 26 March 1676.  the other son, Nehemiah, moved with his family to Wareham about 1700.