[Illustration] The immediate ancestor of the Cornish Bassets was
William Basset, who married in 1150 Cecilia, daughter and coheiress
of Alan de Dunstanville, and the daughter of Reginald Fitzhenry,
Earl of Cornwall, natural son of Henry I., who thus acquired the
manor of Tehidy, which has ever since continued the residence of his
descendants of the house of Basset. In the early part of the
sixteenth century, John Basset appears to have been the chief of
this ancient family: he married Frances daughter and coheir of
Arthur Plantagenet, Viscount Lisle, natural son of King Edward IV.
From Arthur, his eldest son, descended the Bassets of Heanton Court
in Devonshire, extinct in the early part of the present century; and
from George, the second son, the house of Tehidy, the elder branch
of which were created Barons de Dunstanville in 1797. Extinct 1855.
Leland mentions "the right goodly lordship of Tehidy, and the
castelet or pile of Bassets on Carnbray Hill."
See Gilbert's Survey of Cornwall, i. 486.
ARMS.--_Or, three bars wavy gules_.
Present Representative, John Francis Basset, Esq.
VYVYAN OF TRELOWARREN, IN THE PARISH OF MAWGAN, BARONET 1644.
ORIGINALLY OF TREVIDERN IN THE PARISH OF ST. BURIAN.
[Illustration] The first recorded ancestor is Sir Vyel Vyvyan,
Knight, who lived in the thirteenth century, and whose descendant
John, having married an heiress of Ferrers, succeeded to the
lordship of Trelowarren in the reign of Edward IV., which has since
continued the seat and residence of this family. The Baronetcy was
conferred by King Charles I. on Sir Richard Vyvyan, as a reward for
his services in the civil wars of that period.
See Leland's Itin. iii. fol. 3; Gilbert's Survey, i. 557; Lysons,
pp. xc. and 218; Polwhele's Cornwall, 1803, vol. i. p. 42; Wotton's
Baronetage, ii. 411.
ARMS.--_Argent, a lion rampant gules, armed sable_.
Present Representative, Sir Richard Rawlinson Vyvyan, 8th Baronet,
late M.P. for Helstone.