Francis Basset, 1st Baron de Dunstanville, FRS (9 August 1757 – 14 February 1835) was an English peer and politician who sat in the British House of Commons from 1780 to 1796, representing the constituency of Penryn.

The constituency returned two MPs, and the other, also elected due to the Basset family's control of the borough, was at some time his first cousin Sir John St Aubyn, 5th Baronet.

In August 1779[a] as part of the national move to counter a Franco-Spanish invasion fleet gathered in connection with the American War of Independence, he marched 600 Cornish miners to Plymouth and strengthened that town's defences and fortified Portreath.

Each of them sought to use their powers of patronage to control elections to the House of Commons (Cornwall, with 44 seats, was grossly over-represented in Parliament given its population).

He married twice: His second marriage, when he was close to seventy, and so soon after his first wife's death, caused some derisory comment, and was generally thought to be inspired solely by the hope of producing a male heir: "the one ambition in his life which he never fulfilled".

The funeral itself, marked by the closure for the day of all the local mines, drew a procession of some 20,000 people from Tehidy Park to Illogan church.

[7][8] 50°13′16″N 5°14′56″W / 50.22111°N 5.24889°W / 50.22111; -5.24889 (Basset Cross) He is a recurring character in the Poldark novels by Winston Graham, where he is shown in a generally sympathetic light.