Sir George Smith (died 21 March 1619) of Madworthy-juxta-Exeter [2] and Madford House, Exeter, Devon, was a merchant who served as MP for Exeter in 1604, [3] was three times Mayor of Exeter and was Exeter's richest citizen, possessing 25 manors. [4] He was the grandfather of George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle (1608-1670) KG and of John Grenville, 1st Earl of Bath (1628–1701).
He was the eldest son of John Smith (died pre 1581) of Borage (or Burridge), near Tiverton, a merchant who served as Sheriff of Exeter in 1565 and Mayor of Exeter in 1567/8, by his wife Alice Muttleberry, daughter of Alexander Muttleberry of Jordans, Somerset. [5] [6]
He rebuilt his Exeter townhouse in 1584 at a cost of £1,000. [7] His mercantile activities included dealing in tin, a noted product of Cornwall, and he invested in the colonizing voyage to North America undertaken by Sir Humphrey Gilbert in 1583. [8]
He was Sheriff of Exeter for 1583–84 and Mayor of Exeter for 1586–87, 1597–98 and 1607–08. He was knighted at Greenwich on 12 June 1604.
George Smith married twice: [9]
He died on 21 March 1619 and was buried in Exeter Cathedral. His heir was his son Sir Nicholas Smith. His will was disputed by his widow Grace and his son-in-law Sir Thomas Monck. [14]
George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle KG PC JP was an English soldier, who fought on both sides during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A prominent military figure under the Commonwealth, his support was crucial to the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, who rewarded him with the title Duke of Albemarle and other senior positions.
John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath PC was an English landowner who served in the Royalist army during the First English Civil War and was rewarded for his services after the 1660 Stuart Restoration with a title and various appointments.
Sir Bevil Grenville was an English landowner and soldier who sat as a Member of Parliament for various constituencies between 1620 and 1642, although during those years there were few parliamentary sessions. When the First English Civil War broke out in August 1642, he joined the Royalists and played a leading role in their early campaigns in the West Country. He was killed in action at the Battle of Lansdowne in 1643.
Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument is a monument erected in 1720 on Lansdown Hill, then called Lansdowne Hill, in Charlcombe parish about 4 miles (6.4 km) north-west of the city of Bath, in Somerset, England. It was designated a Grade II* listed structure in 1956, and a scheduled monument in 1950.
Nicholas Monck was a Bishop of Hereford and Provost of Eton College, both royal appointments made by King Charles II following the 1660 Restoration of the Monarchy which was largely effected by his elder brother George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle (1608–1670), KG. Nicholas Monck was "a great assistant in the Restoration to his brother".
John Arundell, Esquire, of Trerice in Cornwall, later given the epithet "Jack for the King", was a member of an ancient Cornish gentry family, who as a Royalist during the Civil War served King Charles I as Governor of Pendennis Castle, Falmouth. In 1646 he retained the castle in a heroic manner during a five-month-long siege by Fairfax, during which his forces were reduced by hunger to eating their horses, and finally achieved an honourable surrender
Nicholas Duck, of Heavitree and of nearby Mount Radford in the parish of St Leonards, both next to Exeter in Devonshire, was an English lawyer who served twice as a Member of Parliament for Exeter, in 1624 and 1625. He was one of the Worthies of Devon of the biographer John Prince (1643–1723), whose wife was his great-niece.
John Upton of Lupton in the parish of Brixham in Devon, was four times elected a Member of Parliament for Dartmouth in Devon at various times between 1625 and 1641.
Sir John Davie, 1st Baronet (1588–1654) of Creedy in the parish of Sandford, near Crediton, Devon, was a member of the Devonshire gentry and served as Member of Parliament for Tiverton in 1621-2 and as Sheriff of Devon (1629–1630). He was created a baronet in 1641.
Sir Thomas Monck of Potheridge in the parish of Merton, Devon, was Member of Parliament for Camelford, Cornwall, in 1626. He was the father of George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle (1608–70), KG and of Nicholas Monck, Bishop of Hereford.
Sir Bernard Grenville was an English politician.
Sir Thomas Grenville II, K.B.,, lord of the manors of Stowe in Kilkhampton, Cornwall and Bideford, Devon, Sheriff of Cornwall in 1481 and 1486. During the Wars of the Roses, he was a Lancastrian supporter who had taken part in the conspiracy against Richard III, organised by the Duke of Buckingham. On the accession of King Henry VII (1485–1509) to the throne, Sir Thomas was appointed one of the Esquires of the Body to Henry VII. On 14 November 1501 upon the marriage of Prince Arthur to Katherine of Aragon, he was created a Knight of the Bath. He served on the Commission of the Peace for Devon from 1510 to his death in circa 1513.
Colonel John Giffard (1602–1665), of Brightley in the parish of Chittlehampton, Devon, England, was a Royalist leader during the Civil War. Giffard commanded the Devon Pikemen at the Battle of Lansdowne in 1643, in which his 3rd cousin the Royalist commander of the Cornish forces Sir Bevil Grenville (1596-1643) was killed in heroic circumstances. Giffard's loyalty to the Royalist cause led to him being proposed in 1660 as a knight of the intended Order of the Royal Oak. He was personally known to the biographer John Prince (1643–1723) who included him as one of his Worthies of Devon. He was buried in Chittlehampton Church, where his small kneeling effigy survives on the base of the monument he erected in 1625 to his grandfather.
The landed gentry and nobility of Devonshire, like the rest of the English and European gentry, bore heraldic arms from the start of the age of heraldry circa 1200–1215. The fashion for the display of heraldry ceased about the end of the Victorian era (1901) by which time most of the ancient arms-bearing families of Devonshire had died out, moved away or parted with their landed estates.
Sir Peter Prideaux, 3rd Baronet (1626–1705), of Netherton in the parish of Farway, near Honiton, Devon, was an English politician.
Potheridge is a former Domesday Book estate in the parish of Merton, in the historic hundred of Shebbear, 3 miles south-east of Great Torrington, Devon, England. It is the site of a former grand mansion house re-built by George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle (1608–1670) circa 1660 on the site of the former manor house occupied by his family since at the latest 1287. It was mostly demolished in 1734 after the death of the widow of his son Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle.
Orleigh is a historic manor in the parish of Buckland Brewer, situated 4 miles to the south west of Bideford, North Devon, England. The manor house is known as Orleigh Court.
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:
Bableigh is an historic estate in the parish of Parkham in North Devon, England. It is separated from the village of Parkham by the Bableigh Brook. It was the earliest recorded seat of the Risdon family in Devonshire, from which was descended the Devon historian Tristram Risdon.
Arthur Upton (1614-1662) of Lupton in the parish of Brixham in Devon, was a Member of Parliament for Devon in 1654 and 1656 during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell.