(James), a learned and accomplished author, and pastor of the Walloon church at the Hague, was born at Roan in Normandy August 8, 1653. He was the son of Henry Basnage, one of the ablest advocates in the parliament of Normandy. At 17 years of age, after he had made himself master of the Greek and Latin authors, as well as the English, Spanish, and Italian languages, he went to Geneva, where he began his divinity studies under Mefretzat, Turretin, and Tronchin; and finished them at Sedan, under the professors Juriel and Le Blanc de Beaulieu. He then returned to Roan, where he was received as minister, September 1676; in which capacity he remained till the year 1685, when, the exercise of the Protestant religion being suppressed at Roan, he obtained leave of the king to retire to Holland. He settled at Rotterdam; and was a minister pensionary there till 1691, when he was chosen pastor of the Walloon church of that city. In 1709 Pensionary Heinius got him chosen one of the pastors of the Walloon church at the Hague, intending not only to employ him in religious but in state affairs. He was employed in a secret negociation with Marshal d'Uxelles, plenipotentiary of France at the congress of Utrecht; and he executed it with so much success, that he was afterwards entrusted with several important commissions, all which he discharged in such a manner as to gain a great character for his abilities and address; a celebrated modern writer has therefore said of him, that he was fitter to be minister of state than of a parish. The abbe du Bois, who was at the Hague in 1716, as ambassador plenipotentiary from his most Christian majesty, to negociate a defensive alliance between France, England, and the States General, was ordered by the Duke of Orleans, regent of France, to apply himself to M. Basnage, and to follow his advice: they accordingly acted in concert, and the alliance was concluded in January 1717. He kept an epistolary correspondence with several princes, noblemen of high rank, and ministers of state, both Catholic and Protestant, and with a great many learned men in France, Italy, Germany, and England. The Catholics esteemed him no less than the Protestants; and the works he wrote, which are mostly in French, spread his reputation almost all over Europe: among these are, 1. The History of the Religion of the Reformed Churches. 2. Jewish Antiquities. 3. The History of the Old and New Testament; and many others. He died September 22, 1723.

Basnage (Henry) Sieur de Beauval, second son to Henry Basnage, and brother to James mentioned in the last article. He applied himself to the study of the law, and was admitted advocate in the parliament of Roan in the year 1679. He did not follow the bar immediately upon his admission; but went to Valencia, where he studied under M. de Marville. Upon his return from thence, he practised with great reputation till the year 1687, when the revocation of the edict of Nantz. Nantz obliged him to fly to Holland, where he composed the greatest part of his works, and died there the 29th of March 1710. His chief work is Histoire des ouvrages des Savants. Rotterdam, 24 vol. in duodecimo. This work was begun in the month of September 1687, and continued till June 1709. When he arrived in Holland, Mr Bayle, through indisposition, had been obliged to drop his Nouvelles de la Republique der Lettres, which induced Mr Bafnage to undertake a work of the same kind under a different title.