Life

He entered Richard Frankland

Richard Frankland (tutor)

Richard Frankland was an English nonconformist, notable for founding the Rathmell Academy, a dissenting academy in the north of England.-Biography:...

's Rathmell Academy

Rathmell Academy

Rathmell Academy was a Dissenting academy set up at Rathmell, North Yorkshire, in the north of England by Richard Frankland from 1670.-Preparations:...

 as student for the Presbyterian ministry on 1 April 1696. He was an intimate friend of Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry was an English commentator on the Bible and Presbyterian minister.-Life:He was born at Broad Oak, a farmhouse on the borders of Flintshire and Shropshire. His father, Philip Henry, had just been ejected under the Act of Uniformity 1662...

, who says in a manuscript diary, 20 July 1709, ‘recommended Mr. Basnet to Liverpool,’ and 1 August ‘he is inclined to accept.’

He ministered to the congregation at Kaye or Key Street, Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, then included in the Warrington

Warrington

Warrington is a town, borough and unitary authority area of Cheshire, England. It stands on the banks of the River Mersey, which is tidal to the west of the weir at Howley. It lies 16 miles east of Liverpool, 19 miles west of Manchester and 8 miles south of St Helens...

 presbyterian classis (meeting-house opened on 24 Nov. 1707). He was incapacitated by illness from 23 March 1711 to 26 January 1712. He married, on 9 February 1713, Mrs. Cheney of Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

, daughter of the Rev. Samuel Eaton (d. 1729). He assisted in establishing a school for the free education of poor children in Liverpool in 1716. He had John Brekell

John Brekell

John Brekell was an English presbyterian minister and theological writer.-Life:Brekell was born at North Meols, Lancashire, in 1697, and was educated for the ministry at Nottingham, at the dissenting academy of John Hardy. His first known settlement was at Stamford, Lincolnshire, apparently as...

 as a colleague from 1728. He died on 22 July 1744, aged 68.

Works

He published:

• ‘Zebulun's Blessing opened and applied, &c.,’ 1714 (eight sermons to seafaring men and traders, occasioned by the construction of a new dock, and memorable for the comment on Luke xiv. 20: ‘But why could not the fool bring his wife along with him?’ &c., p. 55); and
• ‘Church Officers and their Mission,’ &c., 1717 (sermon at ordination of Henry Winder
  Henry Winder
  -Life:The son of Henry Winder , farmer, by a daughter of Adam Bird of Penruddock, he was born at Hutton John, parish of Greystoke, Cumberland, on 15 May 1693. His grandfather, Henry Winder, farmer, who lived to be over a hundred , was falsely charged with murdering his first-born son...
  
   and Benjamin Mather at St. Helen's).