About the middle of the sixteenth century, the family appears to have divided into two branches. The Devonshire branch, descended from John, the elder son of John Basset of Umberleigh and his wife Honora Grenville, became extinct in 1796, by the death of Francis Basset; the Cornish branch was continued by George, the younger son of the above Sir John and the Lady Honora. Of this George there is little further to say, except that his wife bore the odd name of Jaquet Coffin, and that he himself was member of Parliament for Launceston, in which neighbourhood the Bassets formerly held a considerable amount of land, which they disposed of a few years ago. The children of George and Jaquet do not seem to have distinguished themselves: the two girls married, respectively, a Cary and a Newman; the son and heir, who has a brass at Illogan recording that he died in 1603, aged 43, married Jane, a daughter of Sir Francis Godolphin. Possibly the intermixture of the blood of the more warlike Godolphins may have contributed to the result, but this at least is certain--that their eldest son Francis, whom we shall have to notice more fully, was one of the most distinguished members of the family. The Bassets, like most of the Cornish gentry, as we shall see, were, with perhaps one exception, of whom more hereafter, stout Royalists; and at the outbreak of the Civil War, Francis, then head of the family, was Sheriff and Vice-Admiral of Cornwall (a command subsequently divided into two--north and south)--and Governor of St. Michael's Mount,[53] which was his own inheritance. He was 'a staunch friend to Church and King; and--a devoted lover of game-cocks,' says a writer who was not much disposed to magnify Francis Basset's good points. I hardly know whether or not it is worth recording, as showing the Vice-Admiral's love of sport; but Hals tells the story how he 'let fly his goshawk or tassel to a heath-polt, or heath-cock,' and both were lost to sight; but were both sent back to Tehidy the next day by the Mayor of Camelford, the heath-cock killed by the hawk, but the latter alive and well. By a comparison of time it was shown that in half an hour the birds had flown thirty-two miles. Sir Francis was, moreover, Recorder of St. Ives, represented that borough in Parliament, procured its first Charter, and presented the burgesses with a loving-cup, bearing this genial, though uncouth, inscription: 'If any discord 'twixt my friends arise Within the borough of belov'd St. Ives, It is desirèd this my cup of loue To euerie one a peace-maker may proue. Then am I blest to have giuen a legacie, So like my harte, unto posterite.' FRANCIS BASSET, A^o. 1640. In 1640 he also contested the Cornish borough of Michael, or Michell, for which, however, he did not sit, owing to a double return.