Thomas was born about 1602 and emigrated from England around 1634 in the
"Mary and John". He settled first in Dorchester, MA among the other settles
of this ship. In 1689 he moved to Windsor, CT, and in 1655 settled in Northampton,
MA where he was among the first settlers of that town. Soon after he arrived
Thomas was appointed commissioner to end small causes and is later referred
to often in the Northampton town records as "Constable Bascom". He married
a woman with the Christian name Avis and had one son, Thomas Jr., and three
daughters.
From Thomas' time forward, we have a considerable amount of material compiled
on the Bascom descendants. Over the years various branches of the family
have compiled their own genealogies. The most notable works are Thomas
Bascom and His Descendants by Edward Doubleday Harris, 1870. Bascom and
Allied Families, compiled by Mrs. Joseph Dayton Bascom, 1932, and A History
of the Battiscombe and Bascom Families by G. B. Barrow, 1976. These published
materials have been greatly supplemented by the works of Lelia Bascom of
Wisconsin, 1949, correspondences of the Bascom Reunion Association, and
the continuing research of our family historian, Paul P. Bascom of Virginia.
Tracing the ancestry of Thomas Bascom and the roots of the Bascom name
is a bit more difficult. The two most popular theories are that Thomas
was descended either from a branch of the Battiscombe families of England
or from a line of French Huguenots bearing the Bascom name. Gradually more
evidence is being found to support the latter theory. If this holds true,
it would indicate that the origins of the Bascom name extend at least as
far back as to Gilbert Bascom, who married Jehanne de Mons in France in
the year 1410.
Mrs. Joseph Dayton Bascom's book states: "The name Bascom, as we shall see, does not, in fact, occur in England prior to the year 1540. The name Bascom occurs as early as in the year 1383, and then of Bearn, one of the early provinces of France, on the boundary to Spain, adjoining the Spanish Bisquay and Navarre, where the Basques had their principle domicile. As always in Latin documents names were written without initial capitals, and it is, therefore, somewhat difficult to decide if the name baskom was not, after all, merely an abbreviated form of basque' homme, a Basque and not used as a surname."
Page created June 1996, updated February 2001, Brad Bascom.