Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Basset descends from the #292 Basset family of Wales as follows:
Thomas Basset
Sir Elias Basset (b. 1300)
John Basset (b. 1350) and wife Joan
Thomas Basset (b. 1380) and wife Alice Marcross
John Basset (b. 1410) and wife Gwenllian
Jenkin Basset (b. 1445) and wife Jennet Philip
William Basset (b. 1477) and wife Catherine Fleming
William Basset (b. 1510) and wife Catherine Mansel
Richard Basset (b. 1535) and wife Mary Bowen
Edward Basset (b. 1556) and wife Catherine Carne
William Basset (b. 1578) and wife Cecil Vaughan
Sir Richard Basset (b. 1602) and wife Elizabeth Vanne
Richard Basset (b. 1638) and wife Priscilla Jones
Richard Basset (b. 1690) and wife Barbara Bainbrigge
Harry Basset (b.1710) and wife Catherine Bainbrigge
Thomas Basset (b. 1756) and wife Elizabeth Cruikshank
Richard Basset (b. 1697)
Birmingham Daily Gazette, Friday, 5 February 1932
Mystery of Safe
Letters of Kings and a Queen
4/- at Auction
The mystery of a safe, which contained documents signed by Kings and a Queen, bought at an auction for 4s. and resold for 10s., has not yet been cleared up.
Mr. Isaac Downes, a furniture dealer, of Rounds-lane, Daisy Bank, Coseley, bought the safe for 10s. from a man who had just previously paid 4s. for it at a Wolverhampton auction room.
The safe is a small cast-iron box, and painted on it in white letters is the name “R. Bassett.” The place-name is Coalbrookdale.
On the door of the safe is a piece of brass, on each edge of which there is a dot with a ring around it.
At first neither keyhole nor key could be found. Mr. Downes called in his wife’s uncle, who, taking up a file, struck one of the markings on the box and lo! – a piece of the brass plate flew open, revealing a keyhole.
Mr. Downes summoned a locksmith named Anslow and a key was made.
On 22 January the safe door was opened. Forty-four documents were found inside.
The value of these has not yet been assessed. They may be worth hundreds, perhaps thousands.
Some bear the signature of William IV, George III, George IV, Queen Victoria, the Duke of Wellington, Earl Grey, Earl Mulgrave, and Lord Newcastle.
There are Spanish State documents, a number of letters addressed to Thomas Bassett, Military Knight, Windsor, and a tree of the Bassett family tracing their line back to A.D. 1100.
The tracing of the safe back through auction rooms and second-hand dealers’ shops is now in progress. There is a story of the safe having been stolen many years ago.
Further, it is understood that members of the Bassett family are laying claim to the documents although Mr. Downes states that he had received no communication from then.
Mr. Downes cannot understand, if the safe was stolen, why it was not opened. Nor can he understand why the dealers through whose hands it has passed have not opened it.
“Dealers have been barking their shins and blacking their boots on it for years,” said Mr. Downes, “while I have been buying things for years in the hope of striking a fortune. Instead it seems to have brought me a lot of trouble.”
Sheffield Iris, Tuesday, 11 January 1842
On Friday morning, at Windsor, aged 85, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Bassett, who had filled the appointment of Governor of the Military Knights of Windsor during a period of about twenty years.
The Gentleman’s Magazine, Volume XX, 1843
Captain R. Basset
Nov. 8. At Beaupre, Glamorganshire, in his 52nd year, Richard Basset, esq. Captain in the Royal Artillery, a Deputy Lieutenant of that county.
He was born on the 6th Dec. 1797, the elder son of the late Lieut.-Colonel Thomas Basset, some time Governor of the Military Knights of Windsor,* by Elizabeth, daughter of the late Alexander Cruikshanks, esq. of the co. Aberdee. He entered the Royal Artillery as Second Lieutenant, Dec. 11, 1815; was promoted to be 1st Lieutenant Nov. 24, 1826; 2nd Captain, Jan. 10, 1837; and Adjutant of the 2nd battalion on the 22nd of the same month.
During the contest in Spain between the Queen and Don Carlos in 1836 and 1837, Captain Basset was employed in raising the siege of Bilboa; took part in the field actions of the 10th, 12th, 14th, 15th, and 16th March, assisted at the assault of the town of Hernani, and was present at the capitulation of Fontarabia.
We believe the circumstances under which Captain Basset succeeded to the estate of Beaupre were of a very unexpected nature. His father, as we have already stated, was one of the poor knights of Windsor; the third son of a Lieut-Colonel; who was the son of Major Basset of Sir John Brull’s regiment; the younger son of Sir Richard Basset, of Beaupre, who was knighted in 1681. (The genealogy of the family may be seen in Burke’s Landed Gentry.).
The estate of Beaupre had passed by sale to the family of Jones. Not very long before death of his father, Captain Basset was visiting Wales, and accidentally fell under the notice of Mr. Jones, then the owner of the property. That gentleman was so pleased with his new acquaintance, that, having no immediate heir, he came to the determination that he could not do better than restore the estate of Beaupre to the race of its ancient possessors. He died very soon after, and Lieut.-Colonel Basset became lord of Beaupre for a single day, and then transferred it to his son.
Captain Basset married, Oct. 24, 1843, Ann-Maria, youngest daughter of John Homfray, esq. of Llandaff House.
* Lieut.-Colonel Basset died Jan. 7, 1842, aged 84, and is briefly noticed in our vol. XVII. p. 224. A tablet in the Cloisters at Windsor bears the following inscription:
“In memory of Lt. Colonel Basset, of Beaupre, who died the 7th January, 1842, aged 84 years. And Elizabeth, his wife, who died the 4th of December, 1835. This tablet is erected to the best of parents by their affectionate children.”