Richard Basset (royal justice)
| Richard Basset | |
|---|---|
| Royal Justice | |
|
In office c. 1120 – c. 1135 |
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| Personal details | |
| Died | between 1135 and 1144 |
| Spouse(s) | Matilda |
| Children | Geoffrey Ridel Ralph Basset William Basset Sibil Matilda |
| Occupation | Royal justice |
Richard Basset (died between 1135 and 1144) was a royal judge and sheriff during the reign of King Henry I of England. His father was also a royal justice. In about 1122 Basset married the eventual heiress of another other justice; the marriage settlement has survived. In 1129-30 Basset was co-sheriff of eleven counties. Basset and his wife founded a monastic house in 1125 from their lands, which before the donation were equivalent to 15 knight's fees.
Basset was the son of Ralph Basset, who was a royal justice under Henry I. While it is not known whether Richard was Ralph's eldest son, Richard inherited Ralph's estates in Normandy, which were near Montreuil-au-Houlme. He also inherited his father's English estates at Colston Basset, Kingston Winslow, and Peatling Parva. The bulk of Ralph's English lands did not go to Richard, however. Basset's brother Nicholas signed over his own inheritance to Richard. Ralph Basset was considered one of the "new men" of Henry I. William Basset, the abbot of the Benedictine monastery of the abbey of St Benet of Hulme, may have been a relative, as he granted lands to Richard Basset in return for a £10 annual rent. Another relative may have been the Robert Basset who witnessed nine charters of Ranulf de Gernon, Earl of Chester.
In 1125, the king appointed Basset to oversee the lands of Peterborough Abbey after the death of the abbot. The revenues of a vacant abbey went to the king, and Basset's job was to secure Peterborough's income for King Henry.
In 1129-30, Basset served as sheriff of Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, and Surrey together with Aubrey de Vere II. The number of shrievalties was unusual, and is known from the Pipe Roll of 1130. According to the entries in the Pipe Roll, de Vere and Basset did not function as traditional sheriffs, farming the revenues, but were instead responsible for the entire royal revenue in those counties.
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