Having escaped three earlier brushes with death, Bideford merchant John Strange ( or Strang) had a reputation as a survivor. John rose to the position of town Mayor and his family later traded out of East-the-Water. When his portrait was painted in c. 1642, it portrayed all three incidents in…
Civil War
With the outbreak of civil war in 1642, the royalist Granvilles found themselves at odds with the parliamentarian town’s-folk of Bideford. Sir Richard Grenville (grandson of the last mentioned Sir Richard) became a prominent royalist leader and rallied the Cornish behind the crown. Meanwhile, the Bideford-based Sir Bevill Grenville led…
Building Colonies
The year 1606 saw the founding of the Virginia Company to promote the production of tobacco in the colony, in 1607 Jamestown was founded, and by 1608 the colony had its first true leader and corporate evangelist, in the person of John Smith. Yet the growth of the Virginia colony…
Expanding Trade
Bideford’s maritime trade continued to flourish, not least due to the colonial efforts of Sir Richard Grenville’s cousin Sir Francis Drake. Tobacco from America began to pass through the port and with it came examples of Native American clay pipes, the local pipe-clay proving ideal for replicating these. A return…
Hostilities with Spain and a New Place
In 1585 Sir Richard Grenville’s capture of the Spanish vessel Santa Maria de Vincenz´ provided him with both ample funds and a workforce, in the form of captured Spanish prisoners. He put both to work constructing a grand mansion for himself, known as New Place. Forcing the prisoners to labour…
Settling Overseas
Sir Richard Grenville had married Mary St Ledger, and in 1569 he was briefly active alongside the St Ledger family in attempts to settle southern Ireland, holding the position of Sheriff of Cork. The English interference in the affairs of Munster, of which Grenville was a part, prompted a backlash…
Sir Richard Grenville’s Quays
The Grenville with whom Bideford is most closely associated is Sir Richard (1542-1591). Now known to have been born within the town, his rise at the court of Elizabeth I saw Bideford re-incorporated as a borough (in 1574). At that time Sir Richard gifted the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses with…
Religious Refugees
In 1572 simmering unrest in France between the ruling Roman Catholic elite and minority Calvinist Protestants (the Huguenots) came to a head in the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. The assassination of several Huguenot leaders was followed by mob violence against the group. Many leading Huguenots were killed and a wave…
A Leader in Ship Building
By 1549 the Granville family, besides changing the spelling of their name yet again, had established themselves in both manors of Bideford and Stowe, with branches of the family overseeing each. Richard Greynfelde (d 1549/50) was clearly based in Bideford, as he left his mansion house in the town to…
A Better Way to Cross
Legend has it that the site of the current Long Bridge was determined when a parish priest dreamt of a boulder rolling down to the shore to mark the spot, a boulder that was subsequently found. Within sections of the modern church such instances of divine guidance may still be…