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From the Diary of J. Bumstead of Boston 1722-1727, we have "News came this month of David Bassett's death in ye West Indies. He and another. Their throats were cut on board his vessel when asleep on ye hay of ye quarter deck, in ye day time 17 August last"
From New Findings on the Melansons
David Basset and his family
The fact that he was married to a Melanson does not necessarily mean that this is the place to give a complete biography of David Basset, although such a biography could fill several pages. Let us be satisfied with indicating here that he was from Marennes, department of Charente-Maritime. In 1687, when he became a citizen of the town of Boston, it is stated that he had resided there with his family for fourteen years. As regards Acadian matters, his name appears for the first time in 1687 under the pen of Parat, governor of Plaisance, when he was apprehended in the act of helping escape, to bring with him to Boston, two Huguenots whom Parat wanted to send to France. Basset was seized with his ship and had to appear before the officers of the Admiralty of Bayonne; it was a question of learning whether he professed the Catholic religion or whether he was of the Reformed Church. On November 19, 1687, the Minister in a letter from Versailles stated to Parat, "It appears from the proceedings that this man professes the Catholic religion." However, another source states that he had to put up bai of 1,000 pounds and abjure, in order to obtain his liberty. He had promised to leave Boston and settle at Port-Royal; it was on this occasion that his wife, Marie Melanson, would not agree to any of this.
Ten years later, in 1697, the last of April, having left Boston loaded with merchandise for Charles de La Tour, junior, he went to contact him at his home, at Pobomcoup, now Pucnico, where Pierre Maisonnet dit Baptiste, having gotten wind of the matter, seized Basset and de La Tour, and brought them to Saint John River, at Nashwaak, where de Villebon granted liberty to Charles de La Tour, after a fine of 300 pounds, but kept Basset in custody. It wasn't until the following year that the latter was permitted to go to Boston, where he was to get his family, which perhaps was only a pretext to obtain his liberty, knowing that Marie Melanson, his wife, had made an irrevocable decision ten years earlier. Again in Acadia in 1700, he was sent for the third time to Boston to get his wife. He dared to return to Acadia without his family; we find him there until 1702, carrying on an illicit trade between Boston and Acadia.
In 1701, Pierre Melsanson, his wife's uncle, owed him 1,400 pounds. It seems probable that subsequently, the merchandise which Pierre Melanson further bought from his was quite considerable, because four years later, in 1705, Pierre Melanson's debt to David Basset amounted to 3,000 pounds. On June 3 of that year, the King annulled that debt due to the lossed whcih Pierre Melanson had suffered at Minas at the time of the raid by the British, doubtless during the devastation caused here by Church in July of the preceding year. This is the last mention that is made of Basset, apparently, in the annals of Acadia. Thereafter, we will have to look for him in the West Indies. It was here that he met his death, August 28, 1724 (new style) when in broad daylight having fallen asleep on the straw, on the quarter-deck of his boat, he had his throat cut; and the same thing happened to a companion who was at his side. Thus ended tragically the one whom Marie Melanson had taken as husband at Boston, reportedly before 1682.
Here are the children they are known to have had:
1- Mary, born Feburary 20, 1683 (March 2, 1684, new style); she was baptized at the Old South Church at Boston, the following April 13;
2- Daivd, born September 3, 1687; he was baptized at the same place as Mary, September 25;
3- John, born June 9, 1693;
4- Elizabeth, born July 15, 1694;
5- David, born May 31, 1697;
6- Anne, born Feburary 8, 1701 (Feburary 19, 1702, new style)
BASSET
David Basset, a Huguenot from Marennes, in the Saintogne region of southwestern France, married Marie Melancon dit Laverdure, Protestant daughter of Charles Melancon, at Port-Royal c1682 when he was 23. They had seven children, including three sons, but only one of them, also named David, seems to have survived long enough to marry and raise a family of his own. David and Marie settled for a time in Boston, where all of his children were born between 1684 and the early 1700s. There he "entered actively into trade between New England and Newfoundland, shipping tobacco, sugar, and other produce, in exchange for fish." In the autumn of 1687, he ran afoul of the French governor of Plaisance, Newfoundland, who accused him of transporting Huguenots to Boston. The irate governor arrested him and sent him to France, where he was imprisoned at Bayonne. Basset obtained a pardon on condition that he settle with his family at Port-Royal. When war broke out between France and England in 1689, Basset managed to slip back to Boston and, in command of the English ship Porcupine, "he took part in Phips' capture of Port-Royal in 1690. Later he participated in a raid on the coast at La Heve and in the destruction of Fort Saint-Louis ... at Chedabouctou. ... For some time, he continued to be active in both privateering and trading...." Towards the end of the war, in 1697, Basset fell into the hands of French officer Pierre Masionnat dit Baptiste at Cape Sable and was held in the fort at Nashwaak on the Riviere St.-Jean (present-day Fredericton, New Brunswick). He again secured release by promising to "go fetch his family from Boston." In December 1698, after the war had ended, he returned to Acadia "all alone." Governor Villebon arrested him and deported him back to France "on the pretext that he was a dangerous character." Basset managed to secure his release once again, however, by promising to settle in Acadia. The birth of one of his daughters at Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1702 gives a clue that this wily fellow did not remain in Acadia.
Evidently, one of his descendants, five-year-old Marie Basset, daughter of deceased Francois Basset, traveling with her widowed mother, Marie-Josephe Richard, made it to Louisiana aboard L'Amitie in November 1785. Needless to say, the Acadian branch of this name did not survive in Louisiana.
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Bassett Family Association Database
Abt 1659 - 1724 (~ 65 years)