BASSETT. O. Fr. basset, ' a dwarf or very low man." Cotgrave. This family, who became great barons and gave tlieir name as a suffix to Drayton Basset, Winterbourne Basset, &c., are said to have been of humble origin. One of the family appears in Domesd. as an undertenant. Ordericus Vitalis speaks of Ralph B. as having been raised by Henry II. from an ignoble stock, and from the very dust — " de ignobili stirpeacde pulvere." The B.'s of Beaupre, liowever, claim descent from Turstin B., the Conqueror's grand falconer. B.L.G.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.