Robert Basset

Due to his Plantagenet ancestry he made what turned out to be a foolish and costly decision to offer himself as one of the many claimants to the throne of England after the death of Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603), perhaps encouraged by his father-in-law Peryam.

[1] He suffered a heavy fine for his action which according to the biographer John Prince, involved the sale of thirty of the family's manors.

[2] He married Elizabeth Periam (1571-1635) the second daughter and co-heiress of Sir William Peryam (1534-1604), of Little Fulford, near Crediton in Devon, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer.

Within a lozenge at the top and on an escutcheon to the sinister are shown her paternal arms of Peryam: Gules, a chevron engrailed or between three lion's faces affrontes of the last.

He died on 11 November 1641 aged 68 and was buried in the Basset Chapel (now the vestry) of Umberleigh Church, in the floor of which survives his plain ledger stone inscribed in Latin as follows:

Arms of Basset of Heanton Punchardon and Umberleigh , Devon and Tehidy , Cornwall: Barry wavy of six or and gules
Monument to Basset's wife, Elizabeth Peryam, in Heanton Punchardon church
Ledger stone to Sir Robert Basset in Heanton Punchardon Church