File:BassetArms HeraldicBrass 1913 QueenAnne'sWalk Barnstaple.jpg

English: 1913 heraldic monumental brass with enamelled arms and crest of Basset: Barry wavy of six or and gules, motto: Bene Agere Ac Laetari ("Act well and rejoice"). Crest: A unicorn's head and neck couped argent crined and armed or the neck charged with two bars dancetée gules. Stamped at top "PARTRIDGE 1913".

Maker

Made 1n 1913 by w:May Hart Partridge (born c.1881 in Harborne, Staffordshire - died 1917), an art enameller who studied at the w:Birmingham School of Art.^[1] She was "the most notorious pupil of w:Arthur Gaskin".^[2] Her works are mainly in the w:Arts and Crafts style. She later worked at w:London County Council schools and at home.^[3][4][5] She was the wife of w:Frederick James Partridge (c.1877-1946) (known as "Fred Partridge", works signed "FJP"), born in Barnstaple, an English jeweller, silversmith and teacher of jewellery making, active circa 1901-1930.^[4] His works are in the w:Art Nouveau style. He has been called the "British w:René Lalique".^[6]

Background

Queen Anne's Walk (formerly The Mercantile Exchange) is a grade I listed building in the town of Barnstaple, North Devon, completed in 1713 as a meeting place for the town's merchants. It was promoted and financed by the thirteen members of the Corporation of Barnstaple whose armorials are sculpted in stone on and above the parapet, and the work was overseen by Robert Incledon (1676-1758), Mayor of Barnstaple in 1712-13. The armorial bearings on the structure are illustrated and described in Blaylock's 1985 survey. As the contemporary brass tablet affixed to the east parapet suggests, they represent the members of the Corporation of Barnstaple, viri ipsi ornatissimi & honorabiles, "men themselves honourable and most illustrious", who financed the building work. Nine of them are members of a tightly-knit group closely related by blood or marriage, namely: Acland, Hooper, Basset, Davie, Clevland, Chichester, both Incledons and Lethbridge (see pedigree chart illustration). The arms shown on the entablature were repeated on twelve 1913 small escutcheons and crests in coloured enamels on small decorative brass plates, made by May Hart Partridge (c.1881-1917). These are now displayed in individual glazed wooden frames affixed to the walls of the staircase of the Barnstaple Guildhall, six on each side.

Person represented

John Basset (d.1721) of Umberleigh and of Heanton Court, Heanton Punchardon, situated on the shoreline of the River Taw below Barnstaple. He was MP for Barnstaple 1718-1721 in which seat he was successor-but-one to Sir Nicholas Hooper (whose arms also appear on Queen Anne's Walk), whose daughter and ultimate sole-heiress Elizabeth Hooper he married.^[7] His mother was Elizabeth Acland, first cousin of Richard Acland (1679-1729), of Fremington House, MP for Barnstaple 1708-13,^[8] whose arms also appear on Queen Anne's Walk. His granddaughter Eleanor Basset (1741-1800) was the last of the ancient Basset family of North Devon, and married her step-first cousin^[9] John III Davie (d.1793) of Orleigh, great-grandson and eventual heir of the merchant John I Davie (d.1710) (whose arms also appear). Their son Joseph Davie (1764-1846) of Orleigh inherited all the Basset estates and changed his name to Basset, adopted the Basset arms and built Watermouth Castle. The arms are raised above the parapet at the far east (right) corner of the south front.