Grenville, Sir Richard, son of Sir Roger Grenville, and his wife Thomasine, daughter of Thomas Cole, Esq., of Slade, in Devonshire, was born in 1540, and at an early age acquired much distinction in fighting the Turks;
member of parliament for Cornwall, 1571, and for Launceston, 1572-83;
knighted at "Windesore," in 1577;
sheriff of Cornwall, 1578;
became greatly interested in foreign discoveries;
aided Raleigh in sending out Amidas and Barlow to America, 1584;
member of parliament for Cornwall, 1584-85, and served on committee for conferring Raleigh's patent of colonization;
took the first colony to Virginia, April to October, 1585;
went on a second voyage bringing supplies, April to December, 1586;
took Spanish prizes on each voyage;
member of council of war to resist the Spanish Armada, 1587, and fought in the great sea fight 1588;
1591, vice-admiral of the fleet under Sir Thomas Howard, and lost his life in a sea fight near the Azores, in which his single ship withstood for many hours five Spanish galleons supported at intervals by ten others. An old chronicler asserts that it was "the stoutest sea fight ever waged."
He married Mary, daughter of Sir John St. Leger, and their eldest son was Bernard Grenville.