John William Bassett descends from #227B John Bassett of England as follows:
John Bassett and wife Elizabeth Tyler
John William Bassett (born in England) and wife Sarah Burr Cogswell
New York Herald, 1853
Medicine Jar for sale on e-bay
Staten Island and its people, a history, 1609-1929
J.W. Basset
J.W. Bassett we have the following advertisement from the “Sepay” of February 12, 1859, in which he described himself:
J.W. Basset, member of the Apothecaries’ Co. and Pharmaceutical Society of New York respectively invites the attention of residents on Staten Island to his Drug Store at Tompkinsville where may at all times be found a full assortment of the finest quality of Drugs and medicines, together with such fancy goods and miscellaneous articles as are usually found in first class drug stores on Broadway.
J.W.B. having been engaged as a manufacturing Chemist and Phamaceutist for the last thirty years (nearly twenty of which have been passed on Broadway) believes that he has gained an amount of useful experience such as is rarely to be met with in a Country druggist. His experience as a manufacturer has perfected his judgement so that few in New York can excel him in the selection of drugs and by his extensive acquaintance with dealers he possesses facilities for buying, which are excelled by none in that great metropolis; it will be his constant aim to select goods only of the ver best quality, leaving the cheap and nasty to his competitors, and he will guarantee that the prices shall never exceed those charged by his former employer, Mr. John Milhau or by Druggists of like standing.
Bassett believed in advertising and in keeping a complete stock of high grade articles, as shown by many items in the “Richmond County Gazette.” The following from that newspaper of 1863 is a sample:
Bassett’s Pectorial Candy
Now that the cold season (or season of colds) is about setting in, and the Coughing (coffin) Demon is sowing the seeds of consumption in our midst, that he may reap the abundant harvest that usually awaits his unrelenting sickle, we would earnestly advise our friends-an our enemies, too, if we have any-to lay in a supply of the above excellent compound for winter use. We have recently tested its virtues with very gratifying results, and cheerfully recommend a trial by our readers. This is all that the manufacturer asks for it.
Bassett was a brown-eyed Englishman, and when he was preparing his pink-colored Pectorial Candy, or stewing some herbs in the retort, his store had a pleasant odor, which to our youthful minds was most attractive. We also partook of some of the candy on occasions, or gazed in admiration into the large wardian case with its wealth of luxuriant plants within that occupied a sunny window. For some years from 1859 he furnished the “Gazette” with a weekly record of the “Range of the Thermometer at Tompkinsville, cor. Hannah and Griffen Sts.”