Edward Drown Bassett descends from William Bassett of Plymouth as follows:
William Bassett and wife Elizabeth
Joseph Bassett (b. 1635) and wife Mary Lapham
William Bassett (b. 1667) and wife Sarah Sweetland
William Bassett (b. 1694) and wife Mary Crossman
William Bassett (b. 1726) and wife Lydia Fisher
Isaac Bassett (b. 1755) and wife Methitable Makepeace
Massa Bassett (b. 1781) and wife Chloe Hodges
Isaac Hodges Bassett (b. 1811) and wife Amey Ann Drown
Edward Drown Bassett (b. 1850)
Bassett & Raymond Letterhead
Memoirs of the Judiciary and the Bar of New England
for the Nineteenth Century (1900)
Biographical – Rhode Island
Edward D. Bassett, was born in Brooklyn, New York, August 14, 1852, a son of Isaac H. and Amy A. (Drown) Bassett. He is a lineal descendant of William Bassett who settled in Plymouth colony in 19621, being an immigrant passenger on the ship “Fortune”. He later removed to Bridgewater, where, with one Mitchell, he was among the first settlers. It is a curious coincidence that E.L. Mitchell, Mr. Bassett’s partner for over a decade, is a direct descendant of this settler. Mr. Bassett’s ancestors included the Bassett, Hodges, Drown and Arnold families, members of all of which were prominent in Revolutionary and Colonial times. His paternal grandfather, Massa Bassett, was a prominent citizen of Providence in his day, and his maternal grandfather, Caleb Drown, also a resident of Providence, was a colonel in the War of 1812 and prominent in military circles.
Mr. Bassett’s father was a merchant in New York city and educated his son at the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic institute, Providence High school, and Brown university, from which institution he took the A.B. degree in 1873. As an undergraduate at Brown he was one of the editors of the “Brunnonian” and a member of the class and “varsity” crews. He began preparation for the law in the Providence office of that eminent practitioner and legislator, Samuel Curry, with whom he remained two years. In 1875 he was admitted and began practice with offices in the building numbered forty-nine Weybosset street, Providence, where he has ever since been located. Mr. Bassett’s practice has been largely commercial and he ranks among the foremost corporation lawyers of the State. Among the many important cases in which he has been retained as counsel are the Aylesworth and Adams will cases, and the litigation over the Joseph J. Cook estate. Early in his practice he had charge of the litigation over the Cove Foundry and Machine company of Providence.
In politics he is a republican, but has never been active in political work, and, with the exception of several years’ service in the city council and as a member of the school board, has never held public office, devoting all of his time to an extensive practice. For over twenty years he has been a director of the Westminster bank.
Mr. Bassett is a member of the Providence Athletic association, Elmwood club, Providence Bar club and Providence Bar association. He married, in 1877, Mary A. Salde, daughter of Jonathan Slade, of Swansea, Massachusetts. Of this union are two children: Amy H., and Edward D. Bassett, jr. Second he married Anna H. Richmond, daughter of Henry P. Richmond, of Providence, November 3, 1886.
