Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/242

boro, his collegiate course being interrupted by the civil war. He enlisted in the Confederate army at the age of sixteen, serving until the close of the war. He then entered mercantile life, and in 1874 became editor of the Murfreesboro News, which he conducted until 1882, when he was chosen editor of the Nashville American. He subsequently was editor of the Chattanooga Democrat and later held an editorial position on the Cincinnati News. from which place he returned to Chattanooga to take charge of The People's Paper, a tri-weekly literary journal. This position he held until 1884, when he became managing editor of the Nashville Evening Banner. In the following year he assumed its chief editorship, and the presidency of the Nashville Banner Publishing Co.

BASS, Edward, first bishop of Massachusetts, and 7th in succession in the American episcopate, was born at Dorchester, Mass., Nov. 23, 1726. He was graduated from Harvard college in 1744, and for several years occupied himself as a teacher. He was licensed as a Congregationalist preacher, but in 1752, he accepted the tenets of the established church, and in May of that year was ordained deacon at the chapel of Fulham Palace, by the bishop of London; he received his ordination as a priest at the hands of the same prelate. May 24, 1752. He was sent as a missionary to Newburyport, Mass., by the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and became incumbent of St. Paul's church. At the opening of the revolutionary war, he, in deference to the public sentiment, omitted the prayer for the King, but when the Continental Congress requested that clergymen no longer use the royal collects, he closed his church for twelve months, and did not open it even then till urged by the sight of his congregation gradually going over to the dissenters. He refused to read the Declaration of Independence in church, and called himself a "Tory, and inimical to the liberties of America." but notwithstanding his efforts to make his action clear with the society his past due stipend was refused and his name dropped from the roll. Finding him driven from the support of the society, his friends in America nominated him for bishop. The first election was not recognized, but after another attempt he was consecrated, May 7, 1797, first bishop of Massachusetts, by Bishops White, Provoost and Claggett. His jurisdiction was later extended to New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. He was awarded the degree of D.D. by the Pennsylvania university in 1789. He published several sermons and addresses, and a pamphlet on his connection with the Venerable society. He died at Newburyport, Mass., Sept. 10, 1803.

BASSETT, Homer Franklin, librarian, was born at Florida, Berkshire county, Mass., Sept. 2, 1826, son of Ezra and Keziah (Witt) Bassett. He removed with his father to Rockport, Ohio, in 1836, doing farm work to procure an education at the Berea seminary. In 1848 he entered Oberlin, intending to take a full course of study, but ill-health compelled him to leave school in 1849, and he returned to New England. He became a student of the natural sciences, and in 1853 established a school in Wolcott, Conn. In 1868 he became the principal of a private school in Waterbury, Conn., still making a specialty of the study of natural history, and particularly of insect life. In 1873 he was appointed librarian of the Silas Bronson library in Waterbury, founded in 1870. The library under his predecessor comprised about 13,000 volumes, which number was more than quadrupled in 1895. In 1894 a new library building was erected. Mr. Bassett was awarded the degree of M.A. by Yale university in 1894. He wrote; "Description of Several New Species of Cynips and of Diastrophus," in the "Proceedings of the Entomological society of Philadelphia," and "Waterbury and her Industries" (1889).

BASSETT, James, missionary, was born at Glenford, Ontario, Can., Jan. 31, 1834. He was educated at Wabash university, after which he pursued a theological course at Lane seminary, graduating in 1859. During the civil war he served in the Union army, after which he entered the Presbyterian ministry in New Jersey. He was assigned to missionary duty by the Presbyterian Board in 1871. He penetrated the interior of Turkey and of Persia, and during a residence in those countries covering many years obtained an insight into the knowledge of the manners and customs of their peoples, much of which he has given to the world through the medium of his various publications: "Among the Turcomans" (1880); "Hymns in Persian" (1884); "Grammatical Note on the Simnuni Dialects of the Persian" (1884); "Persia, the Land of the Imams" (1886). He also translated the gospel of St. Matthew into the Gaghatti Tartar dialect. In 1894 he returned to the United States.

BASSETT, Richard, governor of Delaware, was born in Delaware. In 1787 he was a member of the Continental Congress and met with the convention which formed the Federal constitution. In 1789 he was elected U.S. senator, and was the first to vote for the location of the capital on the Potomac. He held the office of senator until 1793, and in 1796 was made presidential elector, casting his vote for John Adams. From 1798 to 1801 he was governor of Delaware, and then acted as United States circuit judge for one year. He died in September, 1815.