#1026, Richard STRODE (VIII)

Richard's eldest son was William who will have been born about 1778 and who died unmarried in 1802.  The Rev. Richard and George Sidney we show on the tree.  Another son was Capt. Thomas Lear Strode (1787-1817) of the 43rd Regiment of Foot whose mural monument survives in St. Mary's Church, Plympton.

Richard, described as 'of Boterford, North Huish, Devon', is descended from William Strode (died 1579) of Newnham by his wife Elizabeth Courtenay, heiress of Loughtor.  He resided at Newnham Park and in 1788 sold his family's former seat of Boteford and another estate at Whitcombe to Thomas Palk.  One of his best known ancestors is William Strode, the Poet (1602-1645).  Here is an abridged version of his story:

Our starting point for this complex family is William III Strode (1512-1579) who lived at Newnham and married Elizabeth Courtenay who was the daughter of Sir Philip Courtenay of Molland, (died 1488). Philip was a descendent of Hugh Courtenay (1303-1377) 2^nd Earl of Devon. William and Elizabeth had a number of children, the eldest, Richard V Strode died in 1581. The sixth son was the Rev. Sampson Strode, born 1552 who became Rector of Dittisham, and is thought to be the great, great grandfather of Richard Strode (1750-1790) #1026 on the web family tree. Their fourth son was Philip Strode who died in June 1605 and was buried at St. Mary, Plympton. He had married Wilmot Houghton, their best-known child being William Strode (11^th Jan. 1602 – 10^th March 1645), the poet.

William was born in Devon and christened at Shaugh Prior. He was educated at Westminster School and went on to Christ Church, Oxford where he took his BA in 1621 and his MA in 1624. He was ordained priest in 1628 and gained a reputation as a preacher, becoming chaplain to his friend Bishop Corbett, formerly dean of Christ Church. The following year William was appointed public orator of the university, a post he held till his death.

When, in 1635 Charles I visited Woodstock Palace, near Oxford, William in his capacity as orator made a speech in the king’s honour; as a result, he was promised the next Christ Church canonry not linked to a specific chair that should fall vacant. The promised canonry was obtained in 1638 with the first of several benefices in the gift of the dean and chapter; he also became Doctor of Divinity. The canonry having conferred the right to marry he exercised it in July 1642 by marrying Mary, daughter of Doctor John Simpson, Prebend of Canterbury Cathedral. He had married into a family which shared his royalist and Laudian views (William Laud was Archbishop of Canterbury). Following Laud’s arrest and impeachment, Strode was called to account before a Parliamentary Committee for adulatory expressions he had applied to the archbishop though he was dismissed without any penalty. Nevertheless, the terms in which he had addressed Laud were produced in Laud’s trial as ‘proof’ that the archbishop had assumed papal power.

The outbreak of war in August 1642 found William deeply divided from his family. It is unsurprising to find many of his Devon relations fighting against the king; they were related to Thomas Bamfyld (later to be Speaker in Richard Cromwell’s Parliament) and by marriage to John Pym, and were known as ‘notoriously disaffected’, according to Clarendon (Edward Hyde, 1^st Earl of Clarendon PC JP, Chief advisor to Charles I). While his cousins – or their husbands – were on the battlefield, Strode remained in Oxford carrying out his normal duties, though when the King made the city his headquarters and Christ Church his residence, life must have become difficult. Two sermons he preached before the king at that time were published by royal command. Apart from the birth of his daughter Jane in 1643, little more is known about his life in the final years. That he left no will suggests his death came suddenly and unexpectedly; he died in Oxford on 10^th March 1645 and was buried in the Divinity Chapel of Christ Church Cathedral there, but surprisingly no memorial marks his grave. Uniquely the cathedral of the Diocese of Oxford also serves as the chapel to Christ Church College. His widow moved to Bedfordshire but his papers seem to have remained in Oxford where they eventually came into the possession of the famous Oxford bookseller, Richard Davis.

His works are too numerous for listing here but the authoritative collection edited by Bertram Dobell includes the following gem of early Strode history:

William Strode was a scion of a good old Devonshire family which traces its descent from one Adam, who in the reign of King Henry III (1218-1272) added Strode to his name because he then had an habitation so-called in the parish of Ermington, near Modbury in Devonshire. When King Edward I sent his heralds into Devonshire to summon gentlemen to his assistance in the war against the King of Scotland, Adam Strode, of Strode, Esq. as appears from the Rolls in the Tower, was amongst those who were summoned.

Anthony Cobbold 

July 2024