Francis Basset in 1778 on the Grand Tour in Rome, with the Castel Sant'Angelo and St. Peter's Basilica in the background - painting by Pompeo Batoni (Prado)

Francis Basset, 1st Baron de Dunstanville and Basset (9 August 1757 – 14 February 1835) was an English nobleman and politician. He was the first son of Francis Basset and Margaret St. Aubyn (daughter of Sir John St Aubyn, 3rd Baronet).

[edit] Life

He was baptised at Charlbury, Oxfordshire on 7 September 1757 and educated at Harrow School (1770–71), Eton College (1771-74) and King's College, Cambridge (1775).^[1] However, he left university for Italy in 1777, with the Revd. William Sandys as his cicerone. He passed through Rome, where he had his portrait painted by Pompeo Batoni (Batoni only finished it after Basset's departure, and - en route back to England on the Westmorland - it was seized by the French and sold to the Spanish). He returned to England in 1778, holding the office of Recorder of Penrhyn from that year onwards, and - like his father - being elected its Member of Parliament (between 1780 and 1796). The constituency returned two MPs, and one of his colleagues over that time was his cousin Sir John St Aubyn (son of Francis's mother's brother).

Whilst serving as lieutenant-colonel of the North Devon militia, he marched Cornish miners to Plymouth, stengthened that town's defences and fortified Portreath, all of which helped counter a Franco-Spanish invasion fleet (gathered as part of the European theatre of the American Revolutionary War). As a reward, he was made 1st Baronet Basset, of Tehidy, county Cornwall on 24 November 1779. He married Frances Susanna Coxe, daughter of John Hippesley Coxe, at St Marylebone Parish Church on 16 May 1780, and finally graduated from King's College as a Master of Arts in 1786.

He was made Baron de Dunstanville on 17 June 1796, and then baron Basset on 30 November 1797. On his first wife's death, he remarried to Harriet Lemon (1777-1864, the fourth daughter of Sir William Lemon, first baronet, of Carclew, and Jane Buller) on 13 July 1824 but, though she survived him, they had no children. Dying without surviving male issue, his baronetcy of Dunstanville became extinct and his baronetcy of Basset passed to his only child, Frances, his daughter by his first marriage.

[edit] Legacy

Basset Monument on Carn Brea

On the highest point of Carn Brea in Cornwall is a 90 foot high (30m) celtic cross, erected by public subscription in 1836. It is dedicated to Francis Basset and inscribed 'The County of Cornwall to the memory of Francis Lord de Dunstanville and Basset A.D. 1836.'^[2][3] 50°13′16″N 5°14′56″W / 50.22111°N 5.24889°W / 50.22111; -5.24889 (Basset Cross)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Francis Basset on thePeerage.com
• Francis Basset - entry on Dictionary of National Biography
• Maria Dolores Sanchez-Jauregui, 'Two Portraits of Francis Basset by Pompeo Batoni in Madrid', The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 143, No. 1180 (Jul., 2001), pp. 420-425
• Angus McLellan, 'Pirates of the Mediterranean - mining the cargo of the Westmorland in Madrid', Trinity Today, December 2007, pages 14 to 15
• Giles Tremlett, 'Spaniards looted British art hoard', The Times, 1999