The one surviving branch of the descendants of this family was long seated at the manor of
Tehidy in the parish of
Illogan, near
Camborne, in Cornwall. The family later moved its principal seat to Devonshire (
Whitechapel, Bishops Nympton, then
Umberleigh and
Heanton Punchardon) and Tehidy became the seat of the junior branch, which became very wealthy in the 18th century from leases granted by them for tin and copper mines located on their estates, most notably the tin and copper mines at
"Pool", between Camborne and Redruth, from which they earned income of £10,000 per annum. The family also controlled two of the richest mines in Cornwall, namely "
Cook's Kitchen", in
Pool and "
Dolcoath", near Tehidy. They were the fourth largest landowner in Cornwall in 1873, as revealed by the
Return of Owners of Land, 1873, with 16,969 acres, after the
Rashleigh family of
Menabilly (30,156 acres), the
Boscawens of
Tregothnan (25,910 acres) and the Robarteses of
Lanhydrock (22,234 acres). According to Hals, a Basset held some military post in Cornwall as early as the time of
Robert, Earl of Mortain (fl.1066). However Lysons (who had a good opportunity of forming a sound judgment, from his personal acquaintance in the early part of the 19th century with Sir
Francis Basset, 1st Baron de Dunstanville) says that the Bassets (who seem to have been first settled in Oxfordshire and other of the midland counties) can scarcely be said to have become Cornish folk (although they may have held property in Cornwall earlier) until the marriage of
Adeliza de Dunstanville with
Thomas, Baron Basset of Hedendon, Oxfordshire, in the time of King
Henry II (1154-1189). Her ancestor,
Alan de Dunstanville, was lord of the manor of Tehidy as early as 1100.
Scrope in his
History of the Manor of Castle Combe, Wilts, corroborates this account. This Thomas Basset appears to have been a descendant (probably a great-grandson) of King
Henry I's justiciary
Osmund Basset, and himself held a like post under King
Henry III (1216-1272). Other members of the families of Basset and De Dunstanville also intermarried in the reign of
Richard I (1189-1199). It is extremely difficult to trace the details of the first settlement of the Bassets in Cornwall. Once settled in Cornwall they remained at Tehidy steadfastly in a direct male line, albeit in a junior line, until 1915, and the bones of many generations of Bassets lie in
Illogan church. They intermarried with the families of Trenouth, Trengove, Trelawny, Marrys, Enys, Carveth, Godolphin, Prideaux, Grenville, Pendarves, Rashleigh, and other prominent Cornish families. Amongst the early Cornish Bassets are Sir
Ralph Basset, who was summoned from Cornwall to attend, with other knights, King Edward I in the Welsh wars at Worcester in 1277, and it was probably he or one of his sons who obtained from King Edward III a patent for certain markets and fairs for the neighbouring town of
Redruth in Cornwall. He also procured a
licence to crenellate his manor house of Tehidy in the year 1330–31, and Leland mentions it as "a castelet or pile of Bassets". The name of a William Basset appears in 1324, during the reign of King Edward II, amongst the
"nomina hominorum ad arma in com(itatu) Cornubiae" ("names of men-at-arms in the county of Cornwall") (Carew), and another Basset of the same name held a
military fee at Tehidy and Trevalga in 1403. During the reigns of Kings Henry VI, VII and VIII, the Bassets were frequently
Sheriffs of Cornwall; and during the reign of King
Edward IV, according to
William of Worcester, a Sir John Basset held the castle, the ruins of which still stand, on the summit of
Carn Brea, not far from Tehidy. Their "right goodly lordship", as
John Leland called it, extended over the parishes of Illogan, Redruth, and Camborne, the
advowsons of which churches pertained to the manor of Tehidy, and the
livings of which were occasionally held by some member of the family; but their wealth in later times was mainly derived from the enormous mineral riches of this part of Cornwall, although they also held considerable property in the north-eastern part of the county. The names of the earlier Bassets are little known in history, save that in the time of Henry VII (1485-1509) John Basset,
Sheriff of Cornwall, found his
posse commitatus too weak to suppress the
Cornish rebellion of 1497 ("Flammock Rebellion"). ==Basset family lineage==