Dea. Samuel Bass
Samuel Bass was born at Braintree, Massachusetts, on 25 March 1660. The town clerk wrote "Samuel Bass, the sone of John Bass & Ruth his wiffe was borne 1 mo. 25, 1660". Under the calendar then in use the year began on 25 March, so March was the first month. His father was a wheelwright of Braintree. His mother, Ruth Alden, was a daughter of John Alden and Priscilla Mullins of the Mayflower. His grandfather, another Samuel Bass, had been the first deacon of the Braintree church.
His mother died in October 1674, when he was fourteen. His father married Hannah Sturtevant of Plymouth the following September.
The 1940 genealogy of the Bass family says he served in King Philip's War. It places him in Capt. Johnson's company on 14 June 1675 and gives him a share of the Narragansett grant, land later granted to the soldiers of that war. By trade he was a cooper, a maker of casks and barrels.
He married three times. The First Church of Braintree recorded "Samuel Basse & Mercy Marsh" on 22 November 1689. Another Samuel Bass, a son of Thomas, was living in Braintree then and died at sea in 1690. The 1940 genealogy notes a long confusion over which of the two married Mercy.
By July 1694 he was married to Mary Adams, a daughter of Joseph Adams of Braintree. They had five children. Jonathan and Abigail were baptized together on 3 October 1697, Mary on 14 August 1698, Samuel was born on 26 July 1700 and Bethia on 2 February 1704. Mary died on 9 March 1706. On 14 October 1706 he married Bethiah Nightingale at Boston. Their daughter Bathsheba was baptized in March 1712.
Like his grandfather, he became a deacon. A deacon was a lay officer of a Congregational church who served the bread and wine at the Lord's Supper and looked after the church's poor. His church was the South Church of Braintree, which served the town's middle precinct. A precinct was a part of a town set off to support its own church and minister. When Samuel Niles was settled as its minister in 1711, his list of the men in full communion named "Deacon. Joseph Allin Deacon Samuel Bass" third and fourth. The next spring Niles baptized "Bathsheba Bass Daughter to Deacon Samuel Bass".
His children married into the families around him. Mary married William Bowditch on 2 April 1720, with Niles officiating. Samuel stayed at Braintree, became a deacon in his turn and died in 1768. Bathsheba married Naphtali Thayer. Abigail very probably married John Wild, whose family belonged to the same church. Jonathan settled at East Bridgewater in Plymouth County and was known as Capt. Jonathan Bass.
In his last years Samuel lived at East Bridgewater with Jonathan. He died there on 20 February 1751, in his ninety-first year, and his gravestone stands there. No probate of his estate has been found. The Suffolk County probate index has no Samuel Bass file for 1751, and none has been found in Plymouth County.
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Cite: Heirology, "Dea. Samuel Bass (1660-1751)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/dea-samuel-bass-1660-1751-f7e81b.