Ralph Basset

- 1127

• Name	Ralph Basset  [1]
  Birth	of Montreuil-au-Houlme, Normandy, France   [2]
  Gender	Male
  Death	1127	Abingdon Abbey, Berkshire, England   [3]
  Person ID	I7280	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of AP, Ancestor of DDB, Ancestor of DGH, Ancestor of DK, Ancestor of EK, Ancestor of JMF, Ancestor of JTS, Ancestor of LD, Ancestor of LDN, Ancestor of LMW
  Last Modified	15 Sep 2020

  
  

  Father	(Unknown) Basset
  Family ID	F760	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Children	+ 1. Richard Basset   d. Between 16 Sep 1144 and 29 May 1147
  Family ID	F2087	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	17 Oct 2015

  
  

• Notes

  A justice of England, but not, as sometimes asserted, the chief justiciar. Died as a monk. From the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: "Basset, Ralph (d. 1127?), justice, was included by the chronicler Orderic Vitalis in his list of new men raised from the dust by Henry I, men allegedly of obscure birth who rose by their service to Henry and acquired great wealth in the process. He came from Montreuil-au-Houlme near Argentan in Normandy, not far from the abbey of St Évroul where Orderic was a monk and to which Ralph was a benefactor. In England either Ralph Basset the justice or an earlier namesake was in 1086 an under-tenant of Robert (I) d'Oilly at Marsworth in Buckinghamshire and Tiscot in Hertfordshire. He could also have been connected with Robert d'Oilly in Normandy, given that Robert may have come from Ouilly-le-Basset. [...] "Between 1110 and 1127 Basset was one of the most prominent of Henry I's justices, and was described by the chronicler Henry of Huntingdon as one of the 'justices of all England', a description which indicates the geographical scope of his authority, as opposed to those who acted for the king only in their own locality. As such he was an early example of a royal justice who conducted local visitations to investigate the administration of the king's rights, setting a precedent for the later general eyres. Two sessions where he presided have become well known. The first took place at Huntingdon, where a man named Bricstan was brought to trial for concealment of treasure, a case reported by Orderic Vitalis. At the second, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Basset was responsible for hanging forty-four thieves in 1124 at 'Hundehoge', probably Huncote in Leicestershire."

  
  

• Sources

  [S4384] George Eldridge, Hydrographer, and Eliza Jane His Wife: Their Ancestors and Their Descendants by Henry James Young. Carlisle, Pennsylvania: 1982. [S76] The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2004-ongoing. [S76] The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2004-ongoing., with a question mark on the date.