Holland Family Genealogy

Holland

   "Holland" is English and Scottish: a habitational name from Holland, a division of Lincolnshire, or any of the eight villages in various parts of England so called, from Old English hoh (‘ridge’) + land (‘land’ -- duh!). The Scottish name may also be from places called Holland in Orkney, Houlland in Shetland, Hollandbush in Stirlingshire, and Holland-Hirst in the parish of Kirkintilloch. The Irish variant reduced the Anglicized form of the Gaelic Ó hÓileáin, a variant of Ó hAoláin, from a form of Faolán (with loss of the initial F-), a personal name representing a diminutive of faol (‘wolf’).
   The Coat of Arms is blue with a silver lion rampant surrounded by silver fleur de lis. The Crest features an arm holding a lion's paw. The Family Motto translates to: "Let peace be done."
   The family was first found in Lincolnshire, where they were seated from very ancient times, some say well before the Norman Conquest and the arrival of Duke William at Hastings in 1066 A.D. Some of the first American settlers of this name were: Gabriel Holland, who settled in Virginia in 1623; Edward Holland, who settled in Virginia in 1637; John Holland, who settled in Jamaica in 1661; and another John Holland, who settled in Virginia in 1649.

Bassett

   We can trace their lineage back almost 400 years, to ANN HOLLAND, possibly the daughter of RICHARD HOLLAND and WINNIFRED PIERCE. She lived in England and married ROGER BASSETT. On the 27th of April in 1623, they were married at St. Martin's Church in in Dorking, Surrey, England.
   What we have here is an extremely rare genealogical situation, where we know practically nothing about the husband, but a lot about the wife. We know that Roger died some time before 1635 in Dorking, Surrey, England, leaving a wife and son. She then married HUGH BURT (which is another family on the Hause genealogy -- how closely these lines are related is unknown). Hugh and Ann then emigrated to New England.
   Ann and Roger's son, WILLIAM BASSETT, was born in 1624 in Dorking, Surrey, England, and was baptized there on the 30th of May, 1624. At some point after that his father died, and William then emigrated to America in 1635, aboard the Abigail, with Robert Hackwell, master, sailing from London in mid-July. William was nine years old and the Bassett on this voyage. However, his name appears with the Burt family on the ship's manifest, and he was always treated as one of their own.
   William grew up in Massachusetts, and became a hero in both the King Philips' War & King William's War -- only to see his children absolutely decimated by the 1692 Salem Witchcraft Hysteria in 1692. He died in 1703.

Literature on the Holland Family:
"Gone to Texas: A Compendium of the Dulaney, Haddox, Heaton, Holland and Martin Families" by Mary Rebecca Scott.