Manor of Heanton Punchardon

Hantone is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as held by Robert de Pont-Chardon from Baldwin the Sheriff (died 1090), first feudal baron of Okehampton.

The lands granted to Robert were chiefly in Devon, Somerset, Hertfordshire and a manor in Hampshire.

His Devon estates comprised the following five manors, all in North Devon and all held from Baldwin the Sheriff (whose follower he thus may have been): In 1894 Reverend Elgood Punchard published his research into the Punchard family in a volume entitled "Punchard of Heaton Punchardon - Records of an Unfortunate Family"[6] in which he traced the descent from wealth and standing in royal favour in the Norman era to relative obscurity by Tudor times in the 16th century.

In 1277 Sir William de Punchardon of this line, following a muster at Worcester, performed military service due from Edmund, Earl of Cornwall.

Three years later he crossed overseas on the same military duty, and in 1312[a] his lands had the usual foedus de protectione (letters of protection).

In 1322 a certain Thomas Punchard was similarly bound for the return of John le Taverner for Bristol.

[17] The most distinguished of the line was Sir Richard de Punchardon, made a knight banneret by King Edward III (1327–1377).

During the French Campaign of 1356, which ended with the Battle of Poitiers on 19 September, he was caught in an ambuscade, but with his gallant comrades, he fought a way through to the main army under the Black Prince.

[20] He stood high in court favour, and was entrusted by the King with the guardianship of the young de Bensted of Benington, with estates in Essex, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Wiltshire.

(c. 1740 – 1802) of Heanton Court and his contemporary and distant cousin (from a junior branch of the family) Francis Basset, 1st Baron de Dunstanville and Basset (1757–1835), of Tehidy in Cornwall, who is stated in his History of Parliament biography to have been Lt-Col. of the North Devon Militia from 1779.

In accordance with the terms of the inheritance, as was then usual in such cases, Joseph Davie and his descendants adopted the arms and surname of Basset in lieu of their patronymic.