User talk:Fzsfzs

Hi,

I deleted some material that did not add up. The source deleted is a self-proclaimed work of historical fiction. This article for Nicholas Gassaway notes that he was born in 1634 (parish record), but the citation I deleted stated stated he was married in 1672, age 42 (1672-42 = 1630). That "1672 marriage" was also 4 years after the first child was listed on the page as born (1668). The deleted reference also alleged a second marriage 1680, yet listed a child by that marriage born in 1676. I arranged children in order of birth. There is no evidence provided of a second marriage. The deleted reference also stated he married Ann Besson in 1672, age 18 (= born 1654). New source that I added shows she was born prior to 1649 when she was transported into Maryland by her father. Also, the deleted material alleged Nicholas Gassaway married in 1680 to a sister to his first wife Anne, (that alleged sister named Hester), after the death of their father. That would imply that this alleged second wife Hester Besson was single until 1680.

The Maryland Calendar of Wills volume 1, http://www.usgennet.org/usa/md/state/wills/01/208.html lists the will of Anne's father Thomas Besson was written on 15 October 1677 and probated 29 April 1679, and he had no daughter named Hester. Hester was the name of his widow. I find nothing to support a second marriage for Nicholas Gassaway, or evidence of a daughter of Thomas Besson named Hester. Just that Thomas Besson's wife had that name.

This is the first thing I have ever edited on Wikipedia. I have tried to read-up on everything, and hope I doing it correctly.Fzsfzs (talk) 01:26, 22 June 2013 (UTC)


 * Welcome to Wikipedia. I hope you will continue to contribute.


 * This entry above would best serve understanding if placed on the talk page for the article, but I was able to find it here. There are other sources that would dispute some of your changes, but the remarriage to a sister thing is a source of confusion even within the family - it is based on a letter stating that the sister became attached when Col. Nicholas comforted her after the death of her father and though it seemd wrong, they decided to get married, both being widowed (her first husband was ????). The confusion over Hester Besson and Anne Besson along with two birth dates within the time Capt. Besson was having kids, leave the issue open. In those days, everyone seemed to marry everyone Hester was Besson's second wife, but he was her third husband - its all very messy.


 * Capt. Besson was Col. Nicholas' employer and they came over together - Nicholas ran Bessondon until able to buy his own land. So even the date of arrival changes from source to source between 1649 and 1651.


 * I have made a change to just say that the Col. had 7 kids and removed the marriage date. Two of the best sources for family history, the Rutherford book and the HG Gassaway files at the Mormon Center in Salt Lake both say 1672 (but yes, Nicholas Jr. was born in 68 based on his headstone). It is generally recorded in those books and family records as well that Col. Nicholas was 38 when he married, which would be 1672. Marrying late remained a family trait by the way . . .Rwberndt (talk) 20:13, 24 June 2013 (UTC)

I just found your response. I thought I had placed this on the talk page for the article. The whole layout of Wikipedia is very confusing. I have no idea if in replying here if you will see this, or know how to write something that you will see. I have never heard of the letter you mentioned, nor seen it cited or referred to in anything on the Gassaway family. Can you tell me the source of this letter (where is it now located), or where I might read a transcription?

I corresponded with the Rutherfords nearly 40 years ago when they were preparing their book. As you will note in their book, they list Anne Besson as a second wife of Nicholas Gassaway, but cite no source for why they believe there was a first marriage. From that correspondence, I believe they were basing that on Harry Wright Newman's "Anne Arundel Gentry" Volume I (2nd Edition) where Newman stated that when Anne Besson married Nicholas Gassaway, she was no more than 14 years old. Newman apparently thought that Thomas Besson's wife Hester was his only wife. He correctly knew they couldn't have married before 1658 when her first husband Henry Caplin died: http://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/000001/000051/html/am51--261.html

If Hester was his only wife, (with Anne Besson born in 1658 after the marriage) then any children of Nicholas Gassaway born before about 1672 (when Anne would have been only about age 14) would had to been from a "first wife."

Since Newman believed that Anne Besson was born 1658, he had to "invent" a first wife to account for Nicholas Gassaway's children born before 1672 when she would have been "14." Everyone since that time has just seemed to copy either directly from Newman (that the Rutherfords did of the 1658 birth for Anne) or they have copied from someone who copied from Newman. No one in published sources had apparently looked at the records showing that Thomas Besson's daughter Anne was born before 1649 (not in 1658) when he transported her into Maryland, until Russell in 2002.

You also mention "H G Gassaway files" in Salt Lake City. I live there. He does not appear as an author in the catalog, and a surname search for Gassaway does not list any work with a title similar to that or anything specifically about him. Can you please be more specific of what you mean by "H G Gassaway files"? Microfilm number? Book call number?

I would also refer to Donna Valley Russell, (source 18 on the page) page 52, where under the section on Nicholas Gassaway under her footnotes she states: "Newman states he had an earlier wife but I find no evidence of it..."

Newman had apparently not seen the 1649 transportation of Anne Besson, so he concluded that Nicholas Gassaway had a first marriage. Everyone since that time has either directly (or indirectly) copied Newman's statement about this "first marriage", which was based on incomplete information. From there, it appears that other researchers have concluded this "other wife" was Hester Besson, apparently from J. D. Warfield, "The founders of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties, Maryland : a genealogical and biographical review from wills, deeds and church records" (Baltimore, Md.: Kohn & Pollock, 1905), p. 170 where he stated regarding Nicholas Gassaway: "In 1663, a tract of land called 'Poplar Ridge,' on the north side of South River, was laid out for him. It adjoined Captain Thomas Besson, whose daughter Hester, as shown in Captain Besson's will, became the wife of Nicholas Gassaway." Obviously another flawed statement that people have just copied without verifying, as the only Hester named in Besson's will is his wife.

That is another reason I am interested in the source of this letter you mentioned. Is it legitimate, or is it from the deleted book of historical FICTION about the family?

You also stated that Thomas Besson was Hester's third husband. Evidence? I show she had three husbands, but he was the second. (1) Henry Caplin, (2) Thomas Besson, (3) Thomas Sutton.Fzsfzs (talk)