Basset family

House of Basset
Noble House

Arms of Basset: Barry wavy of six or and gules
Country Normandy Duchy of Normandy
England Kingdom of England
Estates Various Earldoms, Baronies and Manorial Lordships
Titles Various
Style(s) Earls, Barons, and Knights
Founder Thurstan Basset
Ethnicity Norman

The Basset family were amongst the early Norman settlers in the Kingdom of England. It is currently one of the few ancient English families that have survived through the centuries in a paternal line. They originated at Basset in the Duchy of Normandy.

Origins

Thurstan Basset (1050–1128) is the founder of House Basset and came from Quilly Basset, Normandy. He appears in the Battle Abbey Roll, and the one surviving branch of his descendants was long seated at the manor of Tehidy in the parish of Illogan, near Camborne, in Cornwall. The family later moved its principal seat to Devonshire (Whitechapel, Bishops Nympton, then Umberleigh and Heanton Punchardon) and Tehidy became the seat of the junior branch, which became very wealthy in the 18th century from leases granted by them for tin and copper mines located on their estates, most notably the tin and copper mines at "Pool", between Camborne and Redruth, from which they earned income of £10,000 per annum. The family also controlled two of the richest mines in Cornwall, namely "Cook's Kitchen", in Pool and "Dolcoath", near Tehidy.[1] They were the fourth largest landowner in Cornwall in 1873, as revealed by the Return of Owners of Land, 1873, with 16,969 acres, after the Rashleigh family of Menabilly (30,156 acres), the Boscawens of Tregothnan (25,910 acres) and the Robartes of Lanhydrock (22,234 acres).

According to Hals, a Basset held some military post in Cornwall as early as the time of Robert, Earl of Mortain (fl.1066). However Lysons (who had a good opportunity of forming a sound judgment, from his personal acquaintance in the early part of the 19th century with Sir Francis Basset, 1st Baron de Dunstanville) says that the Bassets (who seem to have been first settled in Oxfordshire and other of the midland counties) can scarcely be said to have become Cornish folk (although they may have held property in Cornwall earlier) until the marriage of Adeliza de Dunstanville with Thomas, Baron Basset of Hedendon, Oxfordshire, in the time of King Henry II (1154-1189). Her ancestor, Alan de Dunstanville, was lord of the manor of Tehidy as early as 1100. Scrope in his History of the Manor of Castle Combe, Wilts, corroborates this account.

This Thomas Basset appears to have been a descendant (probably a great-grandson) of King Henry I's justiciary Osmund Basset, and himself held a like post under King Henry III (1216-1272). Other members of the families of Basset and De Dunstanville also intermarried in the reign of Richard I (1189-1199). It is extremely difficult to trace the details of the first settlement of the Bassets in Cornwall.

Once settled in Cornwall they remained at Tehidy steadfastly in a direct male line, albeit in a junior line, until 1915, and the bones of many generations of Bassets lie in Illogan church. They intermarried with the families of Trenouth, Trengove, Trelawny, Marrys, Enys, Carveth, Godolphin, Prideaux, Grenville, Pendarves, Rashleigh, and other prominent Cornish families.

Amongst the early Cornish Bassets are Sir Ralph Basset, who was summoned from Cornwall to attend, with other knights, King Edward I in the Welsh wars at Worcester in 1277, and it was probably he or one of his sons who obtained from King Edward III a patent for certain markets and fairs for the neighbouring town of Redruth in Cornwall. He also procured a licence to crenellate his manor house of Tehidy in the year 1330–31, and Leland mentions it as "a castelet or pile of Bassets". The name of a William Basset appears in 1324, during the reign of King Edward II, amongst the "nomina hominorum ad arma in com(itatu) Cornubiae" ("names of men-at-arms in the county of Cornwall") (Carew), and another Basset of the same name held a military fee at Tehidy and Trevalga in 1403.[2]

During the reigns of Kings Henry VI, VII and VIII, the Bassets were frequently Sheriffs of Cornwall; and during the reign of King Edward IV, according to William of Worcester, a Sir John Basset held the castle, the ruins of which still stand, on the summit of Carn Brea, not far from Tehidy. Their "right goodly lordship", as John Leland called it, extended over the parishes of Illogan, Redruth, and Camborne, the advowsons of which churches pertained to the manor of Tehidy, and the livings of which were occasaionally held by some member of the family; but their wealth in later times was mainly derived from the enormous mineral riches of this part of Cornwall, although they also held considerable property in the north-eastern part of the county.

The names of the earlier Bassets are little known in history, save that in the time of Henry VII (1485-1509) John Basset, Sheriff of Cornwall, found his posse commitatus too weak to suppress the "Flammock Rebellion".

Senior Devon branch

In 1558 the Bassets divided into two branches, the senior remaining at Umberleigh in Devon having given Tehidy to the junior branch, which remained there until 1915. The senior Devon branch were seated in addition at Heanton Punchardon in Devon, and became extinct in the male line in 1802, but continued under the adopted name of Basset via the female line, in the successive families of Davie and Williams at Watermouth Castle until that adoptive line failed a second time on the death in 1907 without children of Walter Basset Basset (1863–1907) (born Walter Basset Williams). The remaining Basset manors in Devon of Umberleigh and Berrynarbor (in which was situated Watermouth Castle) were then sold.

Junior Cornish Branch

The junior Cornish branch continues to this day in 2017, but Tehidy was sold by the family in 1915.[3] The Cornish branch was re-founded by George Basset (died 1580) who in 1558 had been given Tehidy by his nephew Sir Arthur Basset (1541–1586), of Umberleigh, who was buried in the Umberleigh Chapel in Devon (now a ruin) but whose chest tomb was moved circa 1820 to nearby Atherington Church where it remains today.

Descent of junior Cornish branch

The descent of the junior branch of the Basset family of Tehidy is as follows:[3]

References

  1. ↑ Havinden, Michael & Stanes, Robin, Agriculture and Rural Settlement 1500-1800, published in Kain, Roger & Ravenhill, William (Eds.) Historical Atlas of South-West England, Exeter, 1999, pp. 281–293, p.293, quoting: Halliday, F.E., A History of Cornwall, London, 1959, p.258
  2. ↑ Regnal date 3 Henry IV)
  3. 1 2 Burke's Landed Gentry, 1937
  4. ↑ Polwhele, Richard, History of Devonshire, p.181
  5. ↑ Identification of "Mrs Anne Basset" per Cornwall Record Office, Ref:CN/152/1,2, "99 year lease (lives of lessee's w. Susanna, sons Thos. and Edw. B.) (also counterpart) Dated 29 Sep. 1758
  6. ↑ Cornwall Record Office, Ref:CN/152/1,2: "Anne Basset of Haldon House, Devon"
  7. 1 2 Obituary of Lady Elizabeth Basset, Daily Telegraph, 5 December 2000.
  8. ↑ Obituary of Lady Elizabeth Basset, Daily Telegraph, 5 December 2000
  9. ↑ Obituary, EDP24, Britain's Regional Newspaper of the Year Friday, November 12, 2010, quoted by the Basset Family Association, bassettbranches.org, December 2010; accessed 30 March 2016.
  10. ↑ Obituary, EDP24, Britain's Regional Newspaper of the Year Friday, 12 November 2010.
  11. ↑ Debrett's Peerage, 1968
  12. ↑ "Anglia News: The Earl Of Leicester's Daughter Married Mr Bryan Basset Running time 2:55 Black & White Silent 1960 Holkham, Norfolk". For moving images see here
  13. ↑ Debrett's Peerage, 2015, p.733, Earl of Leicester
  14. ↑ http://thepeerage.com/p6872.htm#i68716
  15. ↑ Debrett's Peerage, 2015, p. 733

Further reading

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Basset of Cornwall". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. 

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