General Notes

BIOGRAPHY: Few families in the early annals of England can boast of a more eminent progenitor than the Bassets, and the descendants of few of the Anglo-Norman nobles attained a higher degree of power than those of Ralph Basset (son of Thurstan, the Norman), who was justice of England under King Henry I. We find his son Ralph, in the reign of Stephen, "abounding in wealth and erecting a strong castle upon some part of his inheritance in Normandy." Ralph Basset, the justice of England, required none of the artificial aids of ancestry to attain distinction; he had within himself powers sufficient at any period to reach the goal of honour, but particularly to the rude age in which he lived. To his wisdom we are said to be indebted for many salutary laws, and among others for that of frank pledge. Like all the great men of his day, he was a most liberal benefactor to the church. He d. in 1120, leaving issue, Thurstine, Thomas, Richard, Nicholas, and Gilbert. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 26, Basset, Barons Basset, of Welden]