Richard Grenville

Sir Richard Grenville (15 June 1542 – 10 September 1591) (alias Greynvile, Greeneville, Greenfield etc.) lord of the manors of Stowe, Kilkhampton in Cornwall and of Bideford in Devon, was an English sailor who as captain of the Revenge, died at the Battle of Flores (1591), fighting heroically against overwhelming odds, and refusing to surrender his ship to the far more numerous Spanish. His ship, the Revenge, met 53 Spanish war ships near Flores in the Azores. He and his crew fought the fifty three in a three-day running battle. Many Spanish ships were sunk or so badly damaged that they had to retire from the battle. The Revenge was boarded three times and each time the boarders were seen off. He was also a soldier, an armed merchant fleet owner, privateer, colonizer, and explorer. He took part in the early English attempts to settle the New World, and also participated in the fight against the Spanish Armada. His non-military offices included Member of Parliament for Cornwall, High Sheriff of County Cork from 1569–70 and Sheriff of Cornwall in 1576–77. He was the grandfather of Sir Bevil Grenville (1596-1643) of English Civil War fame, whose son was John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath (1628–1701).

Sir Richard Grenville, 1st Baronet

Sir Richard Grenville, 1st Baronet (or Granville) (1600–1658) was a Cornish Royalist leader during the English Civil War.

He was the third son of Sir Bernard Grenville (1559–1636), and a grandson of the famous seaman, Sir Richard Grenville. Having served in France, Germany, and the Netherlands, Grenville gained the favour of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, took part in the expeditions to Cádiz, to the island of Rhé and to La Rochelle, was knighted, and in 1628 became member of parliament for Fowey, Cornwall.

In 1630, he married Mary Fitz (1596–1671), the wealthy widow of Sir Charles Howard (died 1626), and was made a baronet, of Kilkhampton in the County of Cornwall; his violent temper destroyed the marriage, and he was imprisoned as the result of two lawsuits, one with his wife, and the other with her kinsman, the Earl of Suffolk. In 1633 he escaped from prison and went to Germany, returning to England six years later to join the army which Charles I was collecting to march against the Scots. Early in 1641, just after the outbreak of the Irish rebellion, Sir Richard led some troops to Ireland, where he won some fame and became governor of Trim, County Meath; then returning to England in 1643 he was arrested at Liverpool by Parliament, but was soon released and sent to join the parliamentary army.

Richard Grenville (1678–1727)

Richard Grenville (1678–1727) was a British politician. He was MP for Wendover in Buckinghamshire from 1715 to 1722 and for Buckingham from 1722 to 1727. He was the father, father-in-law and grandfather of various Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom. Among his male-line descendants were the future Earls Temple and Dukes of Buckingham and Chandos.

Biography

Richard was born the son of Richard Grenville and Eleanor Temple. The family's country seat was at Wotton in Buckinghamshire. His wife Hester was the daughter of Sir Richard Temple, 3rd Baronet and sister of Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham. In her widowhood, Hester would come to inherit the titles of her brother and be created 1st Countess Temple in her own right. Resultantly, their eldest son, Richard, would become the second Earl Temple. Richard and Hester were the parents of five sons, every single one of whom served in parliament:

Richard Grenville (died 1550)

Richard Grenville (died 1550) was a west country nobleman. He was MP for Cornwall in 1529, and was both Sheriff of Cornwall and Sheriff of Devon.

Early life

Richard Grenville was the son of Sir Roger Grenville (d. 1523) of Stowe, Cornwall and Margaret Whitleigh. His forbears had held land in Cornwall since the 12th century. The family seat of Stowe is closer to Bideford in Devon than any significant town in Cornwall, so the family had strong links with Devon, hence Richard's positions in both Cornwall and Devon.

One of his sisters, Amye, married John Drake of Musbury, Devon.

Career

Early in his career Richard Grenville had some minor posts in the royal household. On the death of his father in 1523 he completed his father's term as Sheriff of Cornwall, a post he also held in 1526-7, 1544-5. In between he was Sheriff of Devon in 1532-3. He was Justice of the Peace for Cornwall from 1524 till his death and also in Devon, at Exeter from 1535 to 1547.

Further afield he was Marshal of Calais, a post that required his residence there, from October 1535 to October 1540. In 1544 Grenville accompanied the King to France as a commander in the English army.

Richard Grenville (disambiguation)

Richard Grenville may refer to:

Grenville of Devon and Cornwall

Grenville of Buckinghamshire

Other

Other uses