Basset family


Members of 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 has survived through the centuries in the paternal line. They originated at Montreuil-au-Houlme in the Duchy of Normandy.

Origins

Genealogists over many years have held the mistaken belief that the progenitor of the Basset family in England was one Thurstan Basset. As early as the sixteenth century, Sampson Erdeswicke proclaimed "Turstin de Basset" as owner of five hides of land at Drayton, Staffordshire, and as father of Ralph Basset, Chief Justice of England..
Erdeswicke based this claim on an entry in the Domesday Book naming "Turstin" as lord of the manor of "Draiton" in the landholdings of Staffordshire. A manor, which was known later as Drayton Bassett, became the main seat of the Lords Basset of Drayton. It was reasonable to assume that in 1086 the lord of the manor was named Thurstan Basset and that his lands descended to his son Ralph Basset, the Justiciar and his descendants. Unfortunately the entry in Domesday Book on which this supposition was made is an error. This was pointed out by the Rev. R.W. Eyton in 1881. Eyton explained in his Errata that, in compiling the fair version of the Domesday Book for Staffordshire, the details of a tenement in Oxfordshire named "Draiton" were accidentally duplicated by the scribes into the Staffordshire pages. The scribes made a further error by writing the name as "Turstin", whereas the holder of "Draitone" in Oxfordshire was "Turchil" i.e. "Thorkil of Warwick", whose lands have nothing to do with the Bassets. Erdeswicke gives credit to Ms. Charlotte Sophia Burne for pointing this out to him. The lands at Drayton Bassett in Staffordshire were held by the king at the time of the Domesday Survey in 1086, not by the fictitious Thurstan Basset. Further, Drayton Bassett only came to the Basset family through the marriage of Ralph’s son Richard Basset to Matilda Ridel in 1120x3.
The earliest Basset of whom we have any knowledge is Osmund Basset who, with his unnamed brothers, witnessed a grant from Hawise de Grandmesnil, daughter of Giroie, Lord of Échauffour, to Montivilliers Abbey in 1050. Orderic notes that Osmund Basset was one of the vassals of the Grandmesnil and Giroie clan who pledged part of their wealth to the Abbey of Saint-Evroul in 1051. Osmund was of an age to have participated in the Norman Conquest and perhaps it was his sons who were enfeoffed with land in England by the time of Domesday in 1086.
A charter of Henry I in 1113 confirmed a grant of income from "Fontanias in Obsimine" to St. Evroul Abbey by Ralph Basset. This is apparently the modern Fontaine-les-Bassets, 27 km northeast of Montreuil-au-Houlme. Also nearby is the small town of Ouilly-le-Basset, incorporated in 1947 in the modern town of Pont-d'Ouilly. The Domesday overlord of Ralph Basset and of Richard Basset was Robert D'Oyly. Reedy has suggested that Robert may have originated from Ouilly-le-Basset and may have been the overlord of the Bassets there as well as in England. There are thus three towns associated with the Bassets within a relatively compact area of Normandy. Reedy also speculated that Ralph Basset may have come to the notice of the future king Henry I when Henry was lord of Domfront during the reign of William II. Domfront is 30 km southwest of Montreuil-au-Houlme.
Three Bassets are recorded in the Domesday Book. Ralph Basset held Marsworth and Tiscott as a sub-tenant of Robert d'Oilly. Richard Basset held Thurleigh, also as a sub-tenant of Robert d'Oilly. William Basset held Milton Ernest from Hugh de Beauchamp. It is likely that these men were related, but it is not clear how. Reedy considers it likely that this Ralph Basset was the great justice of Henry I, or otherwise his father.
Ralph Basset was the ancestor of a prolific family of royal administrators. He had at least four sons; Richard, Nicholas, Turstin and Ralph, a clerk. They gave rise to the later Baronies of Drayton, Sapcote, Weldon and Wycombe. Further, Reedy considers that Ralph had two brothers Osmund and Gilbert.
Amongst the earliest recorded arms of the Basset family were those of Gilbert Basset, "barry wavy of six, or and gules". Variations of that design were followed by the older branches of the family. Following the marriage of Richard Basset to the rich heiress Matilda Ridel, his son Geoffrey assumed the surname Ridel and adopted the Ridel arms "or three piles gules". His descendant, a Richard Basset, became the first Lord Basset of Weldon in 1299. Another Ralph Basset, a descendant of Geoffrey's brother Ralph became the first Lord Basset of Drayton in 1295, and bore the arms "or three piles gules with a quarter ermine". William Basset, another brother of Geoffrey Ridel, received no inheritance from his mother and so retained a variation of the old Basset arms. His descendant, yet another Ralph Basset, bore "argent, 3 bars wavy sable" on becoming the first Lord Basset of Sapcote in 1371.

The Bassets of Cornwall and Devon

The one surviving branch of the descendants of this family 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 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. 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, the Boscawens of Tregothnan and the Robartes of Lanhydrock.
According to Hals, a Basset held some military post in Cornwall as early as the time of Robert, Earl of Mortain. However Lysons says that the Bassets can scarcely be said to have become Cornish folk until the marriage of Adeliza de Dunstanville with Thomas, Baron Basset of Hedendon, Oxfordshire, in the time of King Henry II. 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 of King Henry I's justiciary Osmund Basset, and himself held a like post under King Henry III. Other members of the families of Basset and De Dunstanville also intermarried in the reign of Richard I. 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 Cornubiae" , and another Basset of the same name held a military fee at Tehidy and Trevalga in 1403.
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 occasionally 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 John Basset, Sheriff of Cornwall, found his posse commitatus too weak to suppress the Cornish rebellion of 1497.

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 . The remaining Basset manors in Devon of Umberleigh and Berrynarbor 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. The Cornish branch was re-founded by George Basset who in 1558 had been given Tehidy by his nephew Sir Arthur Basset, of Umberleigh, who was buried in the Umberleigh Chapel in Devon 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: