Norman Leslie Bassett descends William Bassett of Plymouth as follows:
William Bassett and wife Elizabeth
Joseph Bassett (b. 1635) and wife Mary Lapham
William Bassett (b. 1677) and wife Sarah Sweetland
Nathan Bassett (b. 1702) and wife Hannah Washburn
Joseph Bassett (b. 1747) and wife Hannah Lathrop
William Bassett (b. 1777) and wife Abiah Williams
Williams Bassett (b. 1806) and wife Sibyl Pattie Howard
Josiah Williams Bassett (b. 1843) and wife Ella Cornish
Norman Leslie Bassett (b. 1869)
1923 Diary of Norman Leslie Bassett, Maine Supreme Court Justice
Diary of Normal Leslie Bassett. It also includes newspaper articles related to the family.
Maine, A History, Volume 4, 1919
By Maine Historical Society
NORMAN LESLIE BASSETT was born in Winslow, Kennebec county, Maine, June 23, 1869, the oldest of three sons and two daughters of Josiah Williams and Ella S. (Cornish) Bassett.
William Bassett, the immigrant, came over to Plymouth in 1621, in the ship Fortune, and ultimately settled in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts, being one of the original proprietors of the town of Bridgewater. The seventh in descent from him was Williams Bassett, who moved from Bridgewater to Winslow about 1830. He was the father of Josiah Williams Bassett, and was named for the family of his mother, Abiah Williams, whose grandmother was Jane Alden, daughter of John and Priscilla (Mullins) Alden, and her grandfather was Alexander Standish, son of Captain Miles Standish. The mother of Williams Bassett was Sybil Howard, who was seventh in descent from Mary Chilton Winslow. Ella S. (Cornish) Bassett was the daughter of Colby Coombs and Pauline B. (Simpson) Cornish. Mr. Cornish was born in Bowden, and came to Winslow in 1839.
Norman L. Bassett attended school in District No. 2, in Winslow, until twelve years old, and then went to Waterville Classical Institute (now Coburn Classical Institute). He first entered the department of Mrs. James H. Hanson, and later the college preparatory course of three years under Dr. Hanson. He graduated July 1, 1887, entered Colby University (now Colby College) in the fall, and graduated July 1, 1891. His scholastic record was excellent. In 1879 he received the prize for highest rank during the year in the district school; in 1886 the first declamation prize at the exhibition of the middle class at the institute; the second entrance prize to Colby in 1887; a second and especially awarded prize for scholarship during his freshman year; first prize at the sophomore declamation; junior Latin part; junior class day orator; first prize, junior exhibition of original articles; first prize, senior composition; prize for highest rank during senior year; Alden prize for highest rank during the four years. On his graduation he was elected instructor in Greek and Latin at Colby and entered upon the work in the fall. He resigned at the end of three years to take up the study of law. For one year he studied in the office of his uncle, Leslie C. Cornish, at Augusta, Maine, and in the fall of 1895 entered Harvard Law School, from which he was graduated cum laude, June 29, 1898. His class elected him the class marshal for the graduating exercise, a much prized honor.
He returned to the office of Mr. Cornish, in Augusta, the following October, and was admitted to the Kennebec bar, October 18, 1898. He became a resident of Augusta in 1900, having up to that time maintained his residence in Winslow. He was associated with Mr. Cornish until October, 1901, when the partnership of Cornish & Bassett was formed, and continued until March 31, 1907, when Mr. Cornish was appointed a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court. Since then Mr. Bassett has practiced alone in the offices in the Vickery building, formerly occupied by the firm.
Mr. Bassett has a varied and extensive practice. He is counsel for numerous corporations, and trustee of several large estates. In Jun, 1908, he became a trustee of the Augusta Savings Bank, and in January, 1914, a trustee and member of the Executive Committee of the State Trust Company of Augusta. In October, 1916, he was elected a director of the Boston and Maine Railroad. April 5, 1905, he was appointed by Governor Cobb the legal member of the Maine Enforcement Commission, and served until April 8, 1907, when he resigned. He is and has always been a Republican; was a member of the Augusta Common Council in 1911, and of the Board of Alderman in 1912-13-14. In April, 1907, Mr. Bassett was elected secretary and treasurer of the Maine State Bar Association, succeeding Judge Cornish, and has served since. In the same year he became a member of the American Bar Association, and since 1910 has been one of its local council for Maine. He has taken a deep interest in civic institutions of all kinds. He has been, since its incorporation in 1901, a trustee of Coburn Classical Institute; January, 1902, he was elected secretary and director of the Augusta General Hospital, serving for fifteen years as secretary and was elected a director; in June, 1916, he became a trustee of Colby College. He was for a number of years chairman of the Executive Committee of the Howard Benevolent Union, of Augusta, which he organized into a corporation in 1918 and became its president. In January, 1906, he was elected clerk of All Souls’ Church (Unitarian), of Augusta, and has served since. He took an active part in establishing the Augusta Y.M.C.A. and is now a trustee and treasurer of its endowment funds. In November, 1917, he was appointed by Governor Milliken a member of the State Central Legal Advisory Committee in the administration of the Selective Service Law.
June 24, 1903, Mr. Bassett married Lula J. Holden, of Bennington, Vermont, daughter of John S. and Jennie E. Holden. He resides on Green street, in Augusta.