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- There is no marriage record for Elisha Bassett and Elizabeth Collins in Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, which would seem to indicate that Elizabeth came from another community. Accounts vary as to the number, name and date of birth of their children. Only Hannah, Elizabeth, Elisha and Daniel are certain, for they are recorded in the vital statistics of Lynn, Massachusetts. Others are said to be William and Zebedee. Another account refers to an old Bible with a note dated 30th Oct 1837 to the effect that Richard Bassett, William, Zebedee and Daniel, with brother and sister, names unknown, emigrated from Lynn, Massachusetts to New Jersey about 1682. Another account lists Zebedee, born 1680, William born 1685 and Benjamin born 1687, all born in Lynn, Massachusetts. Other accounts say that they had thirteen children.
Apparently Elisha Bassett took his family to Pilesgrove Township, Salem County, New Jersey between late 1694 and 1700, for son Daniel was born in Lynn in October of 1694. On 22 Oct 1700, Elisha bought 100 acres of land on the main branch of Salem Creek from Benjamin Acton.
Thomas Elwell, Elisha's brother-in-law, bought land in the same township on 6 Nov 1698, and one Samuel Bassett bought 150 acres on 26 Nov 1698, both from the same Benjamin Acton. Samuel was presumably a brother of Elisha and of Sarah (Bassett) Elwell. No record of Samuel is found in Lynn, other than his name mentioned in his father's will, after this date. Since Elisha was a Quaker, as well as two of his brothers, it is logical that Samuel was also. Their names were not on the list of Quakers submitted to the governor, and this seems evidence that neither of these two were in Lynn in 1703. The assumption is that Samuel also went to New Jersey.
Elisha was elected constable of Salem, New Jersey in 1705 and held the office for eight years. Several histories of Salem County state that the Bassett who emigrated from Lynn was named William, and that his son, Elisha was the constable. However, all of the William Bassetts of Lynn are accounted for, they all remained in Lynn. It had to be Elisha who settled in Salem County and was the constable. His son, Elisha, who is known to have been born in 1692, could hardly have become a public official at the age of 13, or have bought land when he was 8 years old.
No record has been found of the date of Elisha Bassett's death. The Salem Friends Monthly Meeting records have been published, but not those of the early Pilesgrove Meeting, which was established in 1725 in the borough of Woodstown, and of which the Bassett and Davis families were original members.
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