Editing Vassalboro, Maine (section)

===William Vassall===
William Vassall was born in 1715 on his family's Jamaican sugar plantation.<ref>{{Cite web |title=William Vassall (1715-1800): Profile and Legacies Summary |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146634160 |access-date=7 October 2022 |website=Center for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery}}</ref>
Slavery had formed an "integral part" of the Vassalls' fortune since 1648, when William's great-grandfather moved to Barbados and launched the family into the sugar business.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=J. D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NFDUyV_BYAYC |title=Slavery, Family, and Gentry in the British Atlantic |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2006 |pages=23|isbn=978-1-139-45885-6 }}</ref>
As a boy, Vassall moved first to Philadelphia, then Boston. He earned a BA (1733) and an MA (1743) from Harvard. A Loyalist during the Revolution, he fled to England,<ref>Stark, James H. (1910). ''[[iarchive:loyalistsmassac00stargoog/page/n364/mode/2up|The Loyalists of Massachusetts and The Other Side of the American Revolution]].'' Salem Press Company, p. 288.</ref> where he died in 1800, having spent many years arguing for "compensation for what he deemed the illegal confiscation of his properties in Massachusetts and Rhode Island."<ref>[https://loyalist.lib.unb.ca/node/4515 William Vassall], Letter Books, The Loyalist Collection, University of New Brunswick. See also [https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146634160 William Vassall (1715–1800)], Center for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery.</ref>
<ref>Baxter's claim that the town derived its name from Massachusetts patentee William Vassall seems highly unlikely. Vassall repeatedly clashed with civic and church leaders in the Bay Colony and Plymouth. In 1648, he moved to Barbados where he established the family in sugar slavery. See Baxter, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=crMTAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22william+vassal%22+vassalboro&pg=PA128 Documentary History of the State of Maine]'', Vol. XIV (1910), p. 128. On colonist William Vassall, see Samuel Deane, ''[[iarchive:historyscituate00deangoog/page/n376/mode/2up|History of Scituate, Massachusetts, from Its First Settlement to 1831]]'' (1831), p. 366, and S.D. Smith, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=NFDUyV_BYAYC&q=Vassall Slavery, Family, and Gentry in the British Atlantic]'' (2006), p. 23-25.
'''[[Vassalboro, Maine#cite ref-5|^]]'''</ref>

On 2 March 1770, Vassall conveyed to his niece Mary Prescott of [[Nova Scotia]] Lot Number 5 in Vassalboro, one of the so-called "Proprietor's Lots" reserved for the town's founders. Niece Prescott sold the lot nine months later to a citizen of [[Hallowell, Maine|Hallowell]].<ref name=":1">Dunnack, Henry E. (1920). ''[[iarchive:mainebook00dunngoog/page/n122|The Maine Book]].'' Augusta, Maine, p. 102.</ref>