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- Boston Herald, Massachusetts, Friday, March 8, 1940
J.C. Bassett, Lawyer Dies
Director of Several N.E. Corporations
Josiah Colby Bassett, senior partner in the Boston law firm of Powers and Hall and a director of several New England corporations, including the New England Telephone & Telegraph Company, died early yesterday at his home, 6 Louisburg square. He was 66 years old.
Born in Winslow, Me., the son of Josiah Williams and Susan (Cornish) Bassett, he was a descendant of William Bassett, who came to America in 1621 on the ship Fortune.
He was a graduated from Coburn Classical Institute, Waterville, Me., in 1891, and from Colby College in 1895. After studying law in the office of his uncle, Leslie C. Cornish, who later became chief justice of Maine, Mr. Bassett entered Harvard law school, graduating in 1900 with a degree of L.L.B. He then took graduate work at Harvard for a year, receiving his B.M. degree in 1901.
The same year he was admitted to the Massachusetts bar and entered the office of Powers and Hall in Boston. In 1908 he was made a member of the firm, of which he had been senior partner since the death of Samuel L. Powers in 1929.
At the time of his death he was a director of the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company, Boston Machine Works Company, C. E. Riley Company, H and B American Machine Company, John Hetherington and Sons, Inc., Palmetto Mills, Talbot Mills and a trustee of the Moses Greeley Parker Trust.
Prominent in fraternal life, he was a member of the Exchange Club, Harvard Club, St. Botolph Club, Union Boat Club, Union Club, Curtis Club, Club of Odd Volumes, The Country Club, Duxbury Yacht Club and the Harvard Club of New York.
He was also a member of the Waterville, Me., lodge of Masons, Sons of the American Revolution, Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquity, New England Historic and Genealogical Society, Selden Society, Delta Kappa Epsilon and Phi Beta Kappa fraternities, and from 1905 to 1909 a member of the First Corps Cadets in Boston.
His law affiliations included membership in the American Bar Association, Boston Bar Association, Law Society of Massachusetts and the American Law Institute.
He leaves his widow, the former Josephine Simes of Boston; a son, Cornish Bassett of Boston, and two daughters, Miss Charlotte Bassett of Boston and Mrs. James L. Coombs of Cambridge.
1920 Federal Census of 8th Ward, Boston, Suffolk County, MA (18 Jan 1920)
Josiah C. Bassett 46 M ME ME ME Head Lawyer
Josephine 34 F MA MA CN Wife
Charlotte 8 F MA ME MA Daughter
Barbara 6 F MA ME MA Daughter
Cornish 4 M MA ME MA Son
& a waitress, nurse & cook
Josiah Colby Bassett Obituary
(New England Historical and Genealogical Register Apr 194
Josiah Colby Bassett, A.B., LL.B., A.M., of Boston, elected a resident
(annual) member 6 April 1926, was born at Winslow, Maine, 25 November 1872,
the son of Josiah Williams and Ella Susan (Cornish) Bassett, and died in
Boston 7 Mar 1940.
He claimed descent from William Bassett, who arrived at the Plymouth
Colony in 1621 on the Fortune, settled in 1638 in Duxbury, where he was
deputy, and moved in 1656 to Bridgewater, where he died in May 1667, through
Joseph 1629-1713, of Norton, Mass., William of Bridgewater, Nathan, born in
1702, whose first wife was Hannah Hallett, Joseph, 1757-1817, of Bridgewater,
who married Hannah Lothrop, William 1777-1843, of Bridgewater, whose wife was
Abiah Williams, 1806-1877, of Bridgewater, and Winslow, whose wife
was Sibyl Howard of Winslow, and Josiah Williams, his father, who was born at
Winslow 2 January 1843, married in Boston, 7 January 1868, Ella Susan Cornish
(born at Winslow 15 March 1843, died there 21 November 1914, daughter of Colby
Coombs and Pauline Bailey (Simpson) Cornish), and died at Winslow 4 June 1917.
Josiah Colby Bassett attended public schools, was prepared for college
at Coburn Classical Institute, and entered Colby College, where he was
graduated in 1895 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts.
After practice in the office of his uncle, Leslie C. Cornish, he
entered Harvard Law School, where he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws
in 1900. During the following year he studied at the Harvard Graduate School
and in 1901 received the degree of Master of Arts from Harvard and from Colby.
Entering the law firm of Powers, Hall & Jones in 1901 as junior law
officer, he was admitted as a partner in 1908 when the firm was reorganized as
Powers & Hall, and at the time of his death was senior partne
He was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1904 and to practice
before the United States Circuit Court in 1904, and the United States Supreme
Court in 1921.
Among the many offices he held were directorships in the New England
Telephone and Telegraph Company, H. & B. American Machine Company, Talb
Mills, C.C. Riley Company, Palmetto Mills, and the Boston Machine Works
Company.
He was a member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants, the Society
of Sons of the American Revolution, the Society for the Preservation of New
England Antiquities, and his clubs included the Country Club, the Exchange
Club, the Harvard Club of Boston and New York City, the Union Club, the St.
Botolph Club, the Curtis Club, the Duxbury Yacht Club, the Union Boat Club,
and the Club of Add Volumes.
He was also a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the Unitarian
Church.
He married 1 June 1910 Josephine Simes, a native of Plymouth, an
annual member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, daughter of
George and Charlotte Crewe (Read) Simes, who, with three children, Charlotte
Bassett of Boston, Mrs. James Lord Coombs (Barbara Bassett) of Cambridg
Mass., and Cornish Bassett of Boston, survives him.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1873 - 1940 (66 years)