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). 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, 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. The Exon 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. Gotshelm's 28 manors descended to the Honour of Gloucester, 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), 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. 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:
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.