(1757 - 1835), e. s. of Francis Basset of Tehidy, Corn.; educ. Harrow, Eton and King's Camb. 1775; cr. Bt. 1779; m. 1 1780 Frances Susanna Coxe (d. 1823), 2 1824 Harriet Lemon; MP 1780 - 96; cr. B. de Dunstanville 1796, B. Basset 1797; FRS 1829.
1777 - 8 Rome (by 13 Dec. 1777), Florence (May 1778), Venice (26 May)
1788 Venice (by 17 Oct.)
Francis Bassett first went to Italy with the Rev. William Sandys. In Rome he bought a painting from Delane (originally painted for Charles Bampfylde) and commissioned another from Jacob More.1 He may also have been in contact with Piranesi, who dedicated a plate to him in his Vasi, Candelabri, Cippi [1778] (showing a tripod found by Gavin Hamilton in 1775). In May 1778 Basset appears to have stood proxy for Lord Carmarthen at the christening of Lord Cowper's second child in Florence.2 He was presumably the 'Tomaso Bassette' who arrived in Venice with Sandys on 26 May 17783 and he was certainly back in England later that year.
He returned to Italy in 1788, by which time he had been made a Baronet. In Venice on 17 October 1788 Charles Abbot recorded meeting 'Sr. F. Basset & 2 Ladies of his Family',4 presumably his wife and their only child, Frances, then aged seven.
Basset's pictures, dispersed in two sales at Christie's in 1824 (8/9 May) and 1920 (9 Jan.), included several Italian views by Robert Freebairn, Delane and More, Gavin Hamilton's Death of Lucretia, and some Italian old masters. Northcote said Basset owned copies by Nocci of Raphael's paintings in the Stanze, made for the engraver Volpato.5
1. Bell, Banks, 22. More 1993, 169. 2. Gazz.Tosc. 3. ASV IS 760. 4. Abbot jnl.MSS. 5. Northcote's annotated Autobiography (BMPL).
