There was, however, according to Lysons, another Basset named William, of Ipsden, also an Oxfordshire man, who, in the days of Richard I.—probably about the close of his reign—married Cecilia, the daughter of Alan de Dunstanville, and had with her 'Menalida' in Cornwall, which property, Playfair says, 'her father acquired by marriage with a daughter of Reginald Fitz-Henry;' Menalida—so our author thinks—being an ancient name of Tehidy.[50]
The marriage of this William Basset with Cecilia de Dunstanville probably began, or at least confirmed, the connexion which still subsists between the Bassets and Tehidy. Here they settled; and, as the centuries rolled on, their blood has intermingled with the old Cornish stocks by marriages with the families of Rashleigh, Carveth, Godolphin, Prideaux, Courtenay, Grenville, Trenouth, Trengove, Trelawny of Trelawny, Marrys of Marrys (near Bude), and Enys of Enys. And their bones lie in Cornish soil; for the most part in the adjacent parish church of Illogan.
Amongst other early fragmentary notices of them that I have found, are the following:
In the list of knights summoned from Cornwall, a.d. 1277, to attend King Edward I. at Worcester, on service against Llewellyn ap Griffith, the name of Ralph Basset occurs.
In 1324, William Basset's name occurs amongst the 'nomina hominum ad Arma in com. Cornubiæ.' In the reign of Edward III., he obtained a patent from that King for two markets weekly, and two fairs every year for Redruth. There was another William Basset who held a military feu at Tehidy and Trevalga, in 3rd Henry IV.
They were Sheriffs of the County during the reigns of three Henries—the 6th, the 7th, and the 8th; and also in some subsequent reigns: and one of the family[51] occupied, in the reign of Edward IV., that Castle of Carnbrea which stands on the granite hill of that name, within the manor of Tehidy, commanding a view of both the English and St. George's Channels, and down whose slopes groves of old oaks in those days flourished all the way from the summit of the hill to Portreath, or Basset's Cove. Most of these were cut down in the time of the Civil Wars—probably in order to raise money for the King—the remainder (if Hals is to be trusted) by the old Lady Basset, 'who had the estate in jointure.' Well might Leland say that theirs was 'a right goodly lordship,' extending as it did over large portions of the three parishes of Illogan, Redruth, and Camborne, the advowsons of which belong to the manor of Tehidy. In illustration of the latter statement, and further, as showing the early connexion of the Bassets with this neighbourhood, a writer in Lake's 'Parochial History of Cornwall' says, that '11 March, 1277, Sir Lawrence Basset, Knight, presented one Michael to the Church of St. Euinus, Redruth; and William Basset, Knight, presented Thomas Cotteford to Illogan in 1382; Alexander Trembras by J. Basset, of Tehidy, 1435,'—and so on. Sometimes a member of the Basset family held one or other of the three livings.
Of the early members of the family I know of little further that seems worthy of record; but perhaps we should not pass altogether unnoticed, the fact that the William Basset who obtained the patent for the Redruth markets, obtained a license to embattle his manor-house of Tehidy, in the year 1330-31 (Rot. Pat. 4th Edward III., Memb. 10); and that at this time the Bassets also had seats at Umberleigh, White Chappel, and Heanton Court, in Devon. This William appears to be he who was Knight of the Shire for Cornwall, 6th Edward II., and again in 6th and 8th Edward III.; a position which probably assisted in procuring for him the above-mentioned permission to fortify his house.
No representation of the original house at Tehidy, so far as I know, exists. We may be quite sure that it was a very different structure from that which now occupies its place, and which was built for John Pendarves Basset[52] by Thomas Edwards, about the year 1734. Dr. Borlase figures it in his 'Natural History.' Edwards was a London architect, and, as I was informed by the late Mr. Thomas Ferris of Rosewyn, Truro, was employed in the erection of some of the best modern Cornish mansions—as Nanswhydden, destroyed by fire early in this century; and the handsome house of Mr. William Lemon, in Prince's Street, Truro. Mr. Edwards was also the architect of the steeple and west front of St. Mary's Church, Truro, recently removed to give place to the new cathedral. The present mansion of Tehidy has been much enlarged, and contains some excellent pictures by Vandyck, Lely, Kneller, Rubens, and Reynolds; and the Print-Room of the British Museum contains interesting engravings of portraits of some members of the family.
Not even any remains exist of the ancient structure; yet portions at least must have been standing in comparatively modern times; for Leland speaks of a castelet or pile (of Basset's), and a park wall, both of which Tonkin says were to be seen in his time: and he died about the year 1750.
For more than a century after the date of the Basset who fortified Tehidy, the family appears to have made little mark in history, unless we may mention one John Basset (then Sheriff, as so many of his race were before and after him) whose posse comitatus was so weak that he dared not encounter the Cornish insurgents at the Flammock (or Flamank) rebellion; and thus allowed the rebels, whose object was to depose King Henry VII., on account of his exactions for the expenses of the Scotch war, to march on to Bodmin and Launceston; and so into Devon. But, despite their daring, the bills and bows of the Cornish, though their arrows were (says Lord Bacon) 'the length of a tailor's yard—so strong and mighty a bow were they said to draw'—were no match for the King's artillery, which completed their defeat at Blackheath, in 1496.