by Adrian Peters


Ernest Bassett was the uncle of Adrian Peter's Great-Grandmother, Winifred Selina Emily Bassett.


Ernest Bassett was my Great-great-great uncle – my mother’s father’s mother’s uncle and due to his interesting career I decided to focus much of my genealogy / family history research on Ernest and the other Bassetts of Wolverhampton.

Ernest Bassett was born in 1871 in Wolverhampton.  I do not have his birth certificate or exact date of birth but I presume he was born in Ash Street, St. Mark's, (now Chapel Ash) as his family had lived there from the mid-1850s onwards.  In the 1881 census he is listed as 9 years old and living with his parents, Henry (a rifle sight maker) and Mary and two older sisters, Lucy (a dressmaker) and Sarah (who was still at school).

The Bassetts were a large, hard-working, family – Wolverhampton born and bred.

Henry Bassett, Ernest’s father was born in 1831 and baptised at St. Peter's church in December of that year. Henry’s father was John, a wood-screw manufacturer as shown in local directories from 1828 – 1851, living and working in Oxford Street Wolverhampton for the majority of that time and then moving to Salop Street /Peel Street – the present location of the indoor market.

Henry married Mary Ann Lloyd in 1852 beginning a long association with St. Mark's church in Chapel Ash where many of their children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren were baptised and married. Henry and Mary had at least 8 children – John, Selina, Alfred, Henry, Lucy, Sarah, Winifred and Ernest – the future photographer. However, Winifred died 6 months after her baptism at St. Marks and maybe the same fate befell other young children in the family as child mortality in industrial towns such as Wolverhampton was truly alarming during this period.

By the time of the 1881 census only 3 children remained in Ash Street (near Great Brickkiln Street) with their parents. John had married and gone into the lock making industry; Alfred, from whom I am descended, became a Tin Plate worker and Henry later followed his father into the gun-making industry. It seems that the Bassetts had contacts in all these industries through family connections, giving children the opportunity to apprentice with an uncle or other relative – Henry Bassett also had an older brother called William, could this be the William Bassett also listed as a photographer? Only future research will tell.

A cabinet photo of a young man, showing the Brickkiln Street address. The back is blank. 

The original from which this scan is taken is in poor condition and has been cropped at the foot (probably to squeeze it into an album).  But the print is of good quality.

By the 1891 census Ernest is listed as a photographer - at the young age of 19.  (His father, Henry is now listed as a locksmith and his sister Sarah is now a housekeeper).  In 1896 Kelly's Directory of Staffordshire lists "Ernst. Bassett - Photographer - Brickkiln View, Gt. Brickkiln Street, Wolverhampton".  The Wolverhampton Red Book of 1897 lists E. Bassett at Great Brickkiln Street (dropping the remarkable house name "Brickkiln View").

Another cabinet photo of a young man, from the same source as the photo above and to which the same remarks apply. 

The sitters may well be brothers.

 

In 1900 Ernest married Helena Hyde, probably at St. Mark's church.

The 1901 census shows Ernest Bassett, photographer, living at 140 Great Brick Kiln Street. The Wolverhampton Red Book for 1902 has the same information and Kelly's Directory of Staffordshire, 1904, also lists him as a photographer and gives the same address.

But Kelly's Directory for 1912 lists Ernest Bassett, photographer, at 32 Oxford Street, Bilston.

In this photo the front edge of the pram is in focus and the rest is not, producing a pleasantly soft effect on the baby's face. I have a theory that the quality of the image and the subject matter suggest that this was not the sort of photo client's would pay for. 

It may be some kind of test piece or a freebie for family, as he had many nieces and nephews born in the 1890s.

Ernest Bassett seems to have carved out a career for himself at a very early age, opened his own studio, expanded with the expansion of his profession and moved to better premises in the centre of Bilston.

I cannot prove any connection between Ernest Bassett and the W. Bassett who was also a photographer in Wolverhampton at the same time. However, it is possible that W. Bassett was Ernest’s uncle William and therefore also possible that Ernest was apprenticed to W. Bassett before starting his own business.


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