The manor of Bideford in North Devon was held by the Grenville family between the 12th and 18th centuries. The full descent is as follows:
Anglo-Saxons
Hubba the Dane was said to have attacked Devon in the area around Bideford near Northam or near Kenwith Castle and was repelled by either Alfred the Great (849-899) or by the Saxon Earl of Devon.
Normans
Brictric/Queen Matilda
The manor of Bedeford was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as held at some time in chief from William the Conqueror by the great Saxon nobleman Brictric, but later held by the king's wife Matilda of Flanders (c. 1031 – 1083).Thorn, Caroline & Frank, (eds.) Domesday Book, (Morris, John, gen.ed.) Vol. 9, Devon, Parts 1 & 2, Phillimore Press, Chichester, 1985, part 1, 1:60 (Bideford). In the Domesday Book a heading above the entry for Northlew, three entries above the entry for Bideford, states: Infra scriptas terras tenuit Brictric post regina Mathildis ("Brictric held the undermentioned lands and later Queen Matilda") There were then 30 villagers, 8 smallholders and 14 slaves in Bideford. The unabbreviated Latin text of the entry, and a translation, follows: Infra scriptas terras tenuit Brictric post regina Mathildis...Bedeford Tempore Regis Eduardi geldabat pro iii hidae. Terra est xxvi carrucae. In dominio sunt iiii carrucae, xiiii servi, xxx villani, viii bordarii cum xx carrucis. Ibi sunt x acrae pratae, xx acrae pasturae, cl acrae silvae. Reddit xvi librae. Huic manerio adjacet una piscaria (quae) Tempore Regis Eduardi reddabat xxv soldii "The below written lands Brictric held, afterwards Queen Matilda...Bideford in the time of King Edward (the Confessor) paid geld for 3 hides. There is land for 26 plough-teams. In demesne there are 4 plough-teams, 14 servants, 30 villagers, 8 smallholders with 20 plough-teams. There are 10 acres of meadow, 20 acres of pasture, 150 acres of woodland. It returns £16. To this manor lies adjacent a fishery which in the time of King Edward (the Confessor) paid 25 soldi"
According to the account by the Continuator of Wace and others,Thorn, Caroline & Frank, (eds.) Domesday Book, (Morris, John, gen.ed.) Vol. 9, Devon, Parts 1 & 2, Phillimore Press, Chichester, 1985, part 2 (notes), 24,21, quoting "Freeman, E.A., The History of the Norman Conquest of England, 6 vols., Oxford, 1867–1879, vol. 4, Appendix, note 0" in his youth Brictric declined the romantic advances of Matilda and his great fiefdom was thereupon seized by her. Whatever the truth of the matter, years later when she was acting as Regent in England for William the Conqueror, she used her authority to confiscate Brictric's lands and threw him into prison, where he died.Edward Augustus Freeman, The History of the Norman Conquest of England, Vol. IV (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1871), pp. 761–64 The Exon DomesdayThorn & Thorn, Part I, 1;61, small type at bottom of entry, denoting additional text in Exon Domesday not present in Exchequer Domesday notes that Bideford and nearby Littleham were held at fee farm from the king by Gotshelm, a Devonshire tenant-in-chief of 28 manors and brother of Walter de Claville.Thorn & Thorn, chapter 25:1-28 Gotshelm's 28 manors descended to the Honour of Gloucester,Thorn & Thorn, Part 2 (notes), chapter 25 as did most of Brictric's.
Feudal barony of Gloucester
Brictric's lands were granted after the death of Matilda in 1083 by her eldest son King William Rufus (1087–1100) to Robert FitzHamon (died 1107),Round, p. 139. the conqueror of Glamorgan, whose daughter and sole heiress Maud (or Mabel) FitzHamon brought them to her husband Robert de Caen, 1st Earl of Gloucester (pre-1100-1147), a natural son of Matilda's younger son King Henry I (1100–1135). Thus Brictric's fiefdom became the feudal barony of Gloucester.Sanders, I.J. English Baronies: A Study of their Origin and Descent 1086–1327, Oxford, 1960, p.6, Barony of Gloucester The Grenville family held Bideford for many centuries under the overlordship of the feudal barons of Gloucester, which barony was soon absorbed into the Crown, when they became tenants in chief.
Grenville According to the 1895 work of the family's historian Rev. Roger Granville, Rector of Bideford, the descent of the manor of Bideford in North Devon, England, was as follows:Granville, Roger, M.A., (Rector of Bideford). The History of the Granville Family Traced Back to Rollo, First Duke of the Normans, with Pedigrees etc. (Exeter, 1895).
Sir Richard de Grenville (died after 1142)
Sir Richard de Grenville (died after 1142) (alias de Grainvilla, de Greinvill, etc.) was one of the Twelve Knights of Glamorgan who served in the Norman Conquest of Glamorgan under Robert FitzHamon (died 1107), the first Norman feudal baron of Gloucester and Lord of Glamorgan from 1075. He obtained from FitzHamon the lordship of Neath, Glamorgan, in which he built Neath Castle and in 1129 founded Neath Abbey. Richard de Grenville is by tradition the founder and ancestor of the prominent Westcountry Grenville family of Stowe in the parish of Kilkhampton in Cornwall and of Bideford in Devon.
By tradition Richard de Grenville is said by Prince (died 1723),Prince, John, (1643–1723) The Worthies of Devon, 1810 edition, p.440, biography of Sir Theobald Grenvil (apparently following Fuller's Worthies)Round, p. 138.) after he had founded Neath Abbey and bestowed upon it all his military acquisitions for its maintenance, to have "returned to his patrimony at Bideford where he lived in great honour and reputation the rest of his days". However, according to Round no proof exists that Richard de Grenville ever held the manor of Bideford, which was later one of the principal seats of the Westcountry Grenville family. It was however certainly one of the constituent manors of the Honour of Gloucester granted by King William Rufus to Robert FitzHamon." Richard de Grenville is known to have held seven knight's fees from the Honour of Gloucester, either granted to him by his FitzHamon or the latter's son-in-law and heir Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester (1100–1147). Round supposes that the Grenvilles of Bideford and Stowe were instead descended from a certain "Robert de Grenville" (alias de Grainville, de Grainavilla, etc.) who was a junior witness to Richard's foundation charter of Neath Abbey and who in the 1166 Cartae Baronum return was listed as holding one knight's fee from the Earl of Gloucester, feudal baron of Gloucester. Robert's familial relationship, if any, to Richard is unknown.
Richard de Grenville (fl. late 12th century) Richard de Grenville (eldest son, by tradition). He married Adelina de Beaumont, and during the reign of King Henry II (1154–1189) held 3 1/2 knight's fees from the Honour of Gloucester.
Richard de Grenville (died 1204) Richard de Grenville (died 1204) (son), who married a certain Gundreda. He died in 1204, leaving his children as minors. King John granted the wardship of his son and heir Richard de Grenville to Richard Fleminge in consideration for six hundred marks and six palfreys.Granville, p. 32.
Richard de Grenville (died c. 1217) Richard de Grenville (died c. 1217) (son). As arranged by his father, he married the daughter and heiress of Thomas de Middleton, whose wardship and marriage the former had acquired from King John in 1204.Granville, p. 31.
Richard de Grenville (fl. 1295)
Richard de Grenville (son) (fl. 1295), who married Jane Trewent, daughter and heiress of William Trewent of Blisland, Cornwall, in the hundred of Trigg Minor,Granville, p. 34. situated 5 miles north-east of Bodmin. A roll of arms from the reign of King Edward III states: Monsire Esteine de Trewent, port les armes de Tyes, a trois egles de gules a double teste.Nicholas, Nicholas Harris (ed.), Rolls of Arms of the Reigns of Henry III and Edward III, London, 1829, p.14 of A Roll of Arms of the Reign of Edward III ("Monsieur Stephen de Trewent bears the arms of de Tyes, three eagles with two heads gules"). These are the arms shown in the 19th century stained glass window in St James Church, Kilkhampton, shown impaled by Grenville. He left four sons: Richard de Grenville (died 1310) (eldest son and heir) Bartholomew Grenville (died 1325), heir to his elder brother Robert de Grenville William de Grenville (died 1315), Lord Chancellor of England and Archbishop of York.Granville, p. 36.
Richard de Grenville (died 1310) Richard de Grenville (died 1310) (eldest son and heir). He married Isabel of Monte Treganion, daughter of Joscelyn of Monte Treganion, but died without children.
Bartholomew Grenville (died 1325) Bartholomew Grenville (died 1325) (younger brother). He married Amy Vyvyan, daughter of Sir Vyell Vyvyan of Treviddren, Cornwall. Walter de Stapeldon, Bishop of Exeter, granted to "Sir Bartholomew and his wife Amy" a licence for the celebration of divine service in capella sua de Bydeforde ("in his chapel of Bideford").Granville, p. 49.
Henry de Grenville (died 1327)
Henry de Grenville (died 1327) (son), who married Ann Wortham, daughter and heiress of the family of Wortham, near Lifton, Devon. He was buried at Kilkhampton, where in 1895 his armorials impaling Wortham (Sable, a chevron between three lion's paws argent) were said to survive. In 1324 Henry de Grenvile presented to the Rectory of Kilkhampton Thomas Stapeldon, brother to Bishop Stapeldon, and also Walter de Prodhomme, a nephew of the ishop's, to the Rectory of Bideford in the same year. The Bishop in his will bequeathed to Walter de Prodhomme a legacy of 40s. for the maintenance of Bideford Bridge, as well as 10 marks pro defectibus Ecclesiae de Bideforde reperandis ("for the repairing of the Church of Bideford").
Sir Theobald de Grenville I (1323 – c. 1377) Sir Theobald de Grenville I (1323 – c. 1377)Granville, p. 54. (son), the builder of Bideford Long Bridge and Sheriff of Devon. He married Joyce de beaumont, daughter of Thomas de Beaumont, Earl of Meulan. Following a financial dispute between the king and the Bishop of Exeter, Sheriff Theobald was ordered by the king in the summer of 1347 to enforce an order made against the bishop in the Court of King's Bench. He marched to the bishop's manor of Bishops Tawton at the head of an army of 500 persons and seized goods to the value stated, not without killing several occupants of that manor. In January 1348 he made apology on bended knee to the bishop in his great hall at Chudleigh.Granville, pp. 52–3.
Sir Theobald de Grenville II (c. 1343 – July 1381) Sir Theobald de Grenville II (c. 1343 – July 1381) (son), who married by 1365, Margaret Courtenay (born between 1342 and 1350, died after July 1381), a daughter of Sir Hugh Courtenay, 2nd Earl of Devon (12 July 1303 – 2 May 1377), and his wife, Margaret de Bohun (b. 3 April 1311 - d. 16 December 1391), daughter of Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford (by his wife Elizabeth of Rhuddlan, a daughter of King Edward I)Vivian, J. L. The Visitations of Cornwall of 1530, 1573, & 1620. (1887): p. 190 (Grenvile ped.), (author states, "Sr. Theobald Grenvile, Kt., temp. Rich II. = Margaret, da. of Hugh Courtenay, Earl of Devon.")
Sir John Grenville (died 1412) Sir John Grenville (died 1412) (eldest son and heir),Granville, p. 56. Sheriff of Devon in 1395, Sheriff of Cornwall in 1411 and four times MP for Devon, in 1388, 1394, 1397 and 1402.Roskell, J. S.; Clark, L.; Rawcliffe, C. R. (1993). "Grenville, Sir John (d.1412), of Stow in Kilkhampton, Cornw. and Bideford, Devon.". The History of Parliament. Retrieved 3 September 2018. At some time before September 1391 he married Margaret Burghersh (c. 1376 – c. 1421), elder daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Burghersh, MP, of Ewelme, Oxfordshire. He had no male children, only a daughter who predeceased him. His wife survived him and remarried to John Arundell (c. 1392 – 1423), MP, (who during his marriage lived at Bideford) eldest son of Sir John Arundell (c. 1366 – 1435), MP, of Lanherne, Steward of the Duchy of Cornwall.
William de Grenville, Esq. (died 1450)