In 1125, the king appointed Basset to oversee the lands of Peterborough Abbey after the death of the abbot.
In 1129-30, Basset served as sheriff of Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, and Surrey together with Aubrey de Vere II [REF].