"John remained in Scituate, where he was a member of the militia
in 1643? and lieutenant under Cudworth in 1652. He became a
captain and later, in Jamaica, was spoken of as "colonel." When
Charles II granted Carolina to the Lords Proprietors he, with
Henry Vassall, a cousin in London, and some other adventurers
proposed to the Lords Proprietors to found a colony. Early in
the summer of 1664 the settlers arrived at Cape Fear in what is
now the state of North Carolina, and on Nov. 24, 1664, he was
appointed surveyor general. He was the leading promoter of the
enterprise in the colony, and Henry Vassall was the London
agent. Holding out as inducements the promise of land, freedom
of relgion, and the right to vote, they encouraged settlers from
New England, the West Indies, and Europe to join them, but the
colony was unsuccessful. In these circumstances he wrote to John
Leverett, 1616-1679, asking for aid; and in May 1667 the colony
of Massachusetts Bay voted to send relief to Cape Fear. On Oct.
6 of that year he was at Nansemond in Virginia and wrote to Sir
John Colleton of the breaking up of this Clarendon County
settlement. He seems to have remained there some time trying to
obtain redress of grievances against the Lords Proprietors. On
Mar. 2, 1672, he was reported as having arrived in Jamaica,
where he settled in St. Elizabeth's Parrish with his wife, Anne
(Lewis) Vassall. He maintained his connections with the mainland
colonies throughout his life, interested in the carrying trade
among them, the West Indies, and Europe. By his will, proved in
Jamaica on July 6, 1688, he provided for the education of his
son Samuel at Harvard College. Another son, Leonard, lived most
of his life in Boston. His great-grandson, John Vassall, built
the "Craigie-Longfellow" house in Cambridge and was living there
when the Revolution broke out. He, a Loyalist like many others
of the family, went to England. The vast family estates in the
U.S. were confiscated, and the family name has left no mark on
later republican history. Some of John Vassall's fortune,
however was inherited by Elizabeth Vassall Fox, a
great-great-grand-daughter, the wife of the third Lord Holland,
who became a political hostess in London and made "Holland
House" the center for the Whig party that was to revolutionize
England's own political and social system.--(Dictionary of
American Biography, Vol. 19 p. 230.)
SP LEWIS, Anne, Died ??? 1725?; Anne was the d/o John Lewis, and
English resident of Genoa.--(N.E.H.& G.R., Jan 1863, p. 58.) "