BASINGHALL or BASSISHAW WARD. One of the 26 wards of London, described by Stow as "a small thing, consisting of one street, called Bassings Hall-street, of Bassings Hall, the most principal house, whereof the ward taketh name"* (*Stow, p.107) The same authority adds "of the Bassings therefore, builders of this house and owners of the ground near adjoining, that ward taketh the name, as Coleman-street Ward of Coleman and Farringdon Ward, of Nicholas and William Farringdon, men that were principal owners of those places." The church (the only church in the ward) is dedicated to St. Michael, and is called St. Michael's Bassishaw. 

Peter Cunningham, Hand-Book of London, 1850