The entailed estates devolved, upon his death, on his nephew, the before-named John Francis Basset, from whom they have passed to their present owner, Gustavus Lambert Basset, Esq., of Tehidy.
The first Baron de Dunstanville left only one daughter, Frances, who, on her father's decease became Baroness Basset of Stratton. Noted for her diligence in charity and all good works, she died at Tehidy, on 22nd January, 1855, in her seventy-fourth year, last of her race in the direct line; and in her the revived, but short-lived, peerage became extinct.
FOOTNOTES:
[46] Major Glynn (who stammered), at one of the county meetings at which Lord de Dunstanville had spoken with laudable pride of his ancestors having come over with the Conqueror, is reported to have said, 'We-ell-ell-ell, and, and wha-at of that, my lord? M-m-mine were here c-c-c-centuries before the C-c-c-conqueror was born.'
[47] They quarter the arms of Plantagenet (or at least formerly did so); and Davies Gilbert calls De Dunstanville 'a nominal barony of Plantagenet blood.'
[48] Playfair says that the first of this family of De Dunstanville, one Thurston Basset, whom we find on the Roll of Battle Abbey, came over with the Conqueror. From him sprang many families favoured by our kings, most of them now extinct. There is a grant of lands from King John to Wm. Bassett, and Cecilia his wife. In the 'History of the Manor of Castle Combe, in Wilts, with Memoirs of the Dunstanvilles,' etc., by Geo. P. Scrope, M.P. (privately printed by J. B. Nichols and Sons, in 1852), it is stated that Reginald de Dunstanville, Earl of Cornwall, was first Baron of Castle Combe. There appear to have been more than one of that name living in the twelfth century; one of them, perhaps the earliest, was also sometimes named Reginald Fitz-Roy, who was the son of Henry I. by Adeliza de Insulâ. Reginald, according to Mr. Scrope's pedigree of the De Dunstanvilles, married Havisia (or Beatrix), daughter of Caudor, the second Earl of Cornwall, 'ex Regio sanguine Britannorum.' Adeliza, the sister of Cecilia de Dunstanville, married another Basset, viz. Thomas, Baron Basset of Hedendon, 10th Henry II. This work contains much minute information about the early De Dunstanvilles.
[49] One of their sons, Gilbert, founded Bicester Abbey, in Oxfordshire.
[50] The name was also written Tydy, Tihidi, Tyhudy, Tehedie, etc. It is perhaps right to add here (although this is a sketch of the Basset family, rather than of the De Dunstanvilles) the following notes, which I have gathered from Carew: 'Walter de Dunstanvil appears to have had to furnish one knight in respect of his Cornish possessions. See "Evidentiæ Extractæ de Rubro Libro de Scaccario," 143.—Cornub. And Alan de Dunstanvill's name occurs in the "Nomina Baron: et militum et rotulis de feodis militum, vel de scutagio solutis regi Richardo Primo: in libro rubro scaccarii."—Cornubia (a.d. 1189 to 1199). There was, moreover, a Reginald de Dunstanville, a baron of the realm, temp. Hen. I., who is mentioned in the Testa de Nevill.
[51] William of Worcester writes in 1478: 'Turris Castelli Karnbree, Sir John Basset, chevalier stat.' Hals says (but I cannot conceive upon what authority) that this castle was built by the Brays, who came over with the Conqueror (and who certainly intermarried with the Bassets), and hence the name. But Carn Brea is the appropriate Cornish form of 'rock-crowned hill.' Parker attributes the Castle to Robert Fitz Hugh de Dunstanville—temp. Will. I.
[52] There is a monument to this Basset, amongst others, in the church at Illogan; on it is recorded that he died '19 Sept., 1739, æt. 25, descended from a Race of Virtuous, Loyal, and well-Allied ancestors, who for more than four hundred years have lived at their Manor of Tyhydy, in this Parish, in great honour and esteem.'