Sir John Basset married twice, producing in total 12 children. His first wife failed to provide him with a surviving son and heir and he appears to have lost all hope of having a son, hence his conveyance of his Beaumont inheritance to Lord Daubeney, retaining only Umberleigh for his life. However, after a long marriage his first wife died unexpectedly and Basset found himself at the age of 53 remarried to a new 22-year-old bride, who would provide him with the desired son and heir. The problem then was how to recover for him the Beaumont inheritance conveyed to Lord Daubeney. This legal struggle, which Lady Lisle pursued vigorously over many years and which was ultimately successful, occupies much of the Lisle Papers.
First marriage es of himself, his two wives, and their children with heraldic escutcheons. Right: first wife Ann (or Elizabeth) Denys, above her 5 children, 1 boy and 4 girls; left: second wife Honor Grenville, above her 7 children, 3 boys and 4 girls. Atherington Church, Devon. These brasses were ordered by Honor Grenville herself, made in 1533, purchased by
George Rolle of
Stevenstone before July 1534 and set onto the tomb in 1534, as correspondence to Honor surviving in the
Lisle Papers reveals. • Firstly before 1474 to Elizabeth (or Ann) Denys, daughter of John Denys of
Orleigh, near
Bideford, by his wife Eleanor Giffard (daughter and co-heiress of Stephen Giffard of
Thuborough) by whom he had the following progeny, one son, who died young, and four daughters: • Unknown son Basset, died young • Anne Basset, who as a child had been sent by her father, together with her sister Thomasine, to live in the household of
Giles Daubeney, 1st Baron Daubeney (1451–1508), under a special agreement entered into in 1504, referred to by the family as the "Great Indenture". Devon, a younger son of the first Sir William Courtenay (d.1485) of
Powderham by his wife Margaret Bonville a daughter of
William Bonville, 1st Baron Bonville (d. 1461). James's eldest brother was
Sir William Courtenay (1477–1535) "The Great", who was responsible for giving the order for the pulling down of Umberleigh
weir in November 1535, much to the opposition of Lady Lisle. • Margery or Mary Basset who married William Marrys of Marrys in Cornwall (i.e. Marhayes Manor,
Week St. Mary, Cornwall). William died leaving a young daughter Margaret Marrys (d.1621) as his sole heiress. Her wardship and marriage was purchased by the North Devon lawyer
George Rolle (c.1486–1552) of Stevenstone, who later was an important adviser to John Basset's widow
Honor Grenville, later
Lady Lisle. In his will Rolle left Margaret's wardship to his son George Rolle (d.1573), who therefore chose to marry her himself. George Rolle (d.1573) named one of his daughters Honor, apparently after Lady Lisle, as his elder brother John Rolle had done for one of his daughters also. • Jane Basset. Six of Jane's letters, written when aged in her 40s, to her step-mother Lady Lisle survive in the Lisle Papers. Lady Lisle had legal possession for life of Umberleigh as her dower, but allowed Jane and her blood-sister Thomasine to live there. Jane was a talkative and assertive character. Jane's presence at Umberleigh from 1533 was resented by Lady Lisle's servants there, whom Jane believed were not looking after the property adequately and were defrauding their mistress, for example by selling salmon and accounting for only part of the proceeds. She wrote to Lady Lisle that while she was away at Calais (1533–1542) with Lord Lisle, that her servants, including Rev John Bonde her bedesman and Vicar of
Yarnscombe, kept a prostitute in the house and maintained a "bawdy and unthrifty rule" at the manor. She clearly was fond of Umberleigh, and perhaps resentful of her young step-brother John Basset who would himself inherit it. She occupied the "corner chamber" and the
buttery and was reported to have had a greyhound which slept on the bed most of the day. She was allowed by Lady Lisle pasture in the park for 2 cows, but defiantly pastured 3 cows and a horse, which was reported by Rev Bonde to Lady Lisle. She asked Lady Lisle to lease her the fishing rights on the River Taw to supplement her small income. • Thomasine Basset (d.1536). As a child she had been sent by her father, together with her sister Anne, to live in the household of
Giles Daubeney, 1st Baron Daubeney (1451–1508), under a special agreement entered into in 1504, referred to by the family as the "Great Indenture". Jane saw it as a conspiracy by Thomasine and the servants to persuade her to leave too. Thomasine became ill at Marrys and was apparently on her way back to Umberleigh when she died 18 months later at Dowland on the Friday before Palm Sunday 1536. to
Honor Grenville (1493–1566), a daughter of
Sir Thomas Grenville (died 1513),
Sheriff of Cornwall in 1481 and in 1485/6, (whose monument and effigy exists in Bideford Church) of
Stowe in
Kilkhampton, Cornwall and
lord of the
Manor of Bideford, Devon, by his wife Isabella Gilbert, by whom he had the following eight children (7 surviving): •
John Basset (1518–1541), eldest son and heir, who married Frances Plantagenet, the daughter and co-heiress of his step-father
Arthur Plantagenet, 1st Viscount Lisle, bastard son of King
Edward IV (she married secondly Thomas Monke (died 1583), of
Potheridge in
Merton, Devon (as his first wife), with whom she had three sons and three daughters. By her eldest son she was great-grandmother of
George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle (1608–1670),
KG. By Frances Plantagenet John Basset had a son and heir Sir
Arthur Basset (1541–1586), MP, of Umberleigh and a daughter married to William Whiddon. Due to his Plantagenet ancestry, Arthur's son Sir Robert Basset (1573–1641) made what turned out to be a foolish and costly decision to offer himself as one of the many claimants to the throne of England after the death of
Queen Elizabeth, perhaps encouraged by his father-in-law Sir
William Peryam,
Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer. He suffered a heavy fine for his action which according to the biographer
John Prince (died 1723), involved the sale of thirty of the family's manors. •
George Basset (c. 1524 – c. 1580), 2nd son, MP for
Newport-juxta-Launceston in 1563 & 1572 and for
Bossiney in 1571. •
James Basset (1526–1558), 3rd son and youngest child, a courtier first to
Stephen Gardiner,
Bishop of Winchester and
Lord Chancellor and later a courtier to
Queen Mary I. He built up his own substantial estate in lands and was granted by Queen Mary the manor of
Great Torrington. • Honor Basset, christened in 1515, assumed to have died young • Philippa Basset (d.1582), wife of James Pitts of Overcombe, possibly a son of Richard or William Pitts who appear on the lay subsidy roll of February 1526 for Atherington. •
Katharine Basset (b.circa 1522), (sometimes erroneously referred to as "Elizabeth") a servant to Queen
Anne of Cleves, wife of Sir
Henry Ashley (1519–1588), MP, of Hever in Kent, later of St. Giles, Upper Wimborne in Dorset •
Anne Basset,
maid-of-honour successively to
Queens Jane Seymour,
Anne of Cleves,
Katherine Howard and
Katharine Parr; and said to have been a
mistress of King Henry VIII. As a child she went with her mother and step-father Lord Lisle to Calais, and in November 1533 entered the household of Thybault Rouaud, Sire de Riou (d.1556), at
Pont de Remy near
Abbeville. He was a friend of Lord Lisle's and his sister Anne Rouaud was the wife of Nicholas de Montmorency, into whose household entered Anne's sister Mary Basset. She married Francis Hungerford (d.1598), youngest daughter. She went with her mother and step-father Lord Lisle to Calais, and in August 1534, aged about 11 or 12, she entered the household at
Abbeville of Nicholas de Montmorency, Sire de
Bours (d.1537), a branch of the premier family of France the
House of Montmorency. She remained there for almost 4 years, following which she returned to Calais. In Lent 1540 she was secretly engaged to her former guardian's son Gabriel de Montmorency, Seigneur de Bours, who had proposed marriage to her. This closeness to a subject of the French king was incriminating evidence in Lord Lisle's arrest for treason, followed by the arrest of Mary herself, with her mother and sister Philippa Basset. Following her release from house arrest at Calais in 1542 she became in 1557 the wife of John Wollacombe of Combe,
Roborough, Devon. She died and was buried on 21 May 1598 at Roborough, Devon, having produced several children. ==Remarriage of his widow==