King Charles I requested a new First Rate in June 1634. Admiral Sir John Penington supported the project, and her keel was laid down on 21st December 1635. Construction at Woolwich Dockyard was supervised by Peter Pett, guided by his father Phineas, and she was launched on 13th October 1637. Construction costs were £65,586, funded by Ship Money. She was adorned by gilded carvings designed by Anthony van Dyck. Armed with 102 bronze cannon made by John Browne, she was the most powerfully armed ship in the world. Dimensions: length 51.13 m (gundeck), 40m (keel), beam 14.63m, depth of hold 5.84m.

Built to bolster the standing of the English crown, she was involved in all great English naval conflicts against the United Provinces and France. The Dutch called her the Golden Devil (den Gulden Duvel).

In January 1696, at Chatham Dockyard a bosun on night watch left a candle burning unattended, and she was burnt to the water line. Several subsequent ships have been named HMS Royal Sovereign in her honour.

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2025 Annual General Meeting
The History Society’s 2025 AGM will take place on Tuesday, 25th March 2025 at 7 pm at Salcombe Rugby Club, Twomeads, Camperdown Road, Salcombe TQ8 8AX. The bar will be open.

AGM Agenda

• Welcome
• Apologies for Absence
• Minutes of 2024 AGM and Matters Arising
• Annual Accounts and Adoption
• Annual Report
• Any Other Business

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Maritime Aspects of the English Civil War with a focus on South Devon, a talk by Dr Elaine Murphy
We are delighted to welcome Dr Elaine Murphy, Associate Professor of Maritime and Naval History at the University of Plymouth, and co-author with Dr Richard Blakemore of The British Civil Wars at Sea 1638-53 (Boydell, 2018). Elaine is a leading expert on naval history and the British Civil Wars of the 1640s and 1650s, and it will be great to hear from her.

Free to members. Non-members £5.00.

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Dates for the Diary in 2025
Sunday, 4th May: Salcombe Crabfest: visit the History Society’s joint stand with Salcombe Maritime Museum midway along Island Street. There will be an extensive display of historic photos of Salcombe to view together with other artefacts, and local history books available to purchase.

Tuesday, 10th June: ‘Down Memory Lane”: our popular annual event at 7 for 7.30 pm at Salcombe Rugby Club, identifying People, Places and Events from Salcombe’s past.

Saturday, 9th and Sunday, 10th August: the History Society will have our usual stand in the Craft Tent at the annual South Hams Vintage Rally at Sorley Cross, Kingsbridge TQ7 4AF. We look forward to seeing you there.

Tuesday, 30th September: Rosemary Griggs will present ‘A Woman of Noble Wit’. 7 for 7.30 pm at Salcombe Rugby Club.

Devon produced some larger-than-life sixteenth century characters and the stories of men like Drake and Raleigh are well known. But behind those famous men stood wives, sisters, daughters, and mothers who also have a story to tell. In this presentation Rosemary will introduce Katherine Champernowne, the mother of both Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Humphrey Gilbert and discuss the research that underpins her historical novel of her life, ‘A Woman of Noble Wit’. For further information see: rosemarygriggs.co.uk.

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King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 27th March 1625 until his execution in 1649, “a man of contradictions and controversy”.

The chief tax Charles I imposed without reconvening Parliament was Ship Money, a feudal levy. Collection of Ship Money had previously been authorised only during wars, and just in coastal regions. Charles I argued there was no legal prohibition to collecting the tax for defence during peacetime and throughout the kingdom. Ship Money was paid directly to the Treasury of the Navy and raised £150-200,000 annually from 1634-38, after which yields declined.

On Charles II’s restoration in May 1660, Northumberland was appointed to the Privy Council, and served as Lord High Constable at Charles II’s coronation in April 1661.

Northumberland’s support for Parliament wavered when Parliament suffered setbacks in 1642–43. He was also disappointed that Parliament chose Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick not himself as the new Lord High Admiral. Following the execution of Charles I he withdrew from public life.

Admiral of the Ship Money 1636-37, appointed Lord High Admiral in 1638. Charles I removed him from the post in 1642. In the First English Civil War he became the highest-ranking member of Charles I’s government to side with Parliament.

 

Although the navy declared for Parliament, Penington soon took command of a revived Royalist navy. Following the capture of Bristol in July 1643, 18 Royalist navy ships supported by merchant ships, privateers and troop transports joined the Royalist cause. He remained in command of King Charles’ navy until mid 1645.

Rear Admiral of the Narrow Seas 1623-26, Commander-in-Chief, the Downs from 1626, Admiral of the Narrow Seas 1631-34, from 1635 Rear Admiral of the Fleet, from 1642 Lord High Admiral, “a very honest gentleman, and of unshaken faithfulness and integrity to the king” (Clarendon).

Penington served under Sir Walter Raleigh who described him as “one of the sufficientest gentlemen for the sea that England hath”.

 

The fort had a battery of six cannons facing the sea and a tower and a kitchen behind. On the first floor were domestic quarters, with a gun platform above. The landward side of the defences were strengthened in the Civil War by the addition of a second skin around the drum keep (R. W. Parker).

 

 

In 1642, after the Earl of Northumberland was dismissed as Lord High Admiral, Warwick was appointed Commander of the Fleet by Parliament. In 1648, he recaptured Walmer, Deal and Sandown Castles for Parliament. He failed to recapture the Royalist fleet in 1648 although it was mutinying against Prince Rupert in Hellevoetsluis.

When the House of Lords was abolished in 1649, he was dismissed from office and retired from public life. He remained close to Oliver Cromwell, whose daughter, Francis, married Warwick’s grandson and heir, also named Robert Rich, in 1657.

 

The ‘Naseby’ was a three-decker Second Rate authorised by the Commonwealth Council of State on 3rd July 1654. Construction was allocated to Woolwich Dockyard and design and build by Peter Pett II. She was named ‘Naseby’, in honour of Parliament’s decisive 1645 victory over Royalist forces. It was decided early on to alter her to become an 80 gun First Rate. Dimensions: length 39.9m (keel), beam 13m, depth of hold 5.5m.

In May 1660, she carried King Charles II and his brother James, Duke of York to Dover. They renamed her ‘HMS Royal Charles’. She took part in the Second Anglo-Dutch War, in 1665 fighting in the Battle of Lowestoft under the command of Lord High Admiral James Stuart, Duke of York.

On 12th June 1667, in the Dutch Raid on the Medway she was captured and removed to Hellevoetsluis, permanently dry-docked as a public attraction and auctioned for scrap in 1673. A mirror from the ship was returned to Britain in 2012.

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Images of ‘Sovereign of the Seas’ and King Charles I courtesy of National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Caird Collection. Images of Algernon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland, Admiral Sir John Penington, Oliver Cromwell, Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick and ‘Royal Charles’, public domain. Image of Fort Charles courtesy of Salcombe Maritime Museum.