APPENDIX E (p. 109) ANTHONY PAYNE BY THE REV. PREBENDARY ROGER GRANVILLE According to the Episcopal Registers of the diocese of Exeter, a marriage license was granted on September 12th, 1612, to “Anthony Payne of Stratton, and Gertrude Deane of the same.” These were evidently the parents of the famous Cornish giant, who served as henchman to Sir Bevill Grenvile at Stowe. When the Civil War broke out, Anthony Payne followed Sir Bevill to the battlefield, and was doubtless present with him at the engagements of Bradock Down, Modbury, and Sourton, in the early months of 1643. On the 16th of May the battle scene had shifted to his own home at Stratton, where every inch of ground must have been perfectly familiar to him. The Earl of Stamford had occupied a strong position on a hill within a mile of the little town. From five in the morning till three in the afternoon the battle raged, and though the Parliamentarians had the superiority both of numbers and position, they could not prevail over the brave Royalists. At three word was brought to Hopton and Grenvile that their scanty stock of powder was almost exhausted. To retreat would have been fatal. A supreme effort had to be made. Trusting to pike and sword alone, the lithe Cornishmen pressed onwards and upwards, led, can we doubt it, by Anthony Payne? “His sword was made to match his size, As Roundheads did remember; And when it swung, ’twas like the whirl Of windmills in September.” The boldness of the attack seems to have struck their opponents with terror. Stamford’s Horse turned and fled, and in vain Chudleigh attempted to rally his Foot. He was surrounded and captured, and his men, left without a commander, at once gave way and retreated, and soon the victorious commanders embraced one another on the hard-won hill-top, thanking God for a success for which, at one time, they had hardly ventured to hope. The following July Anthony Payne was at the battle of Lansdowne, near Bath, where his brave master was mortally wounded. When Sir Bevill fell the fight would have been lost for the King, and in another moment the Cornish would have crowded down the hill. It was the quick nobility of Anthony Payne which won the battle, and the deed should give him an enduring place in history. “Catching his master’s horse, with a fine knightly impulse, he set little John Grenville, a lad of sixteen, who had followed his gallant father close, on the hacked and gory saddle, and led him to the head of his father’s troop. There was no more giving way after this sight, and the Cornish followed the lad up the hill like men possessed. By this time, too, the musketry had practically routed the Parliament Horse, which were already retreating; and so, while Sir Bevill lay dead on the hillside, his own regiment, led by his giant servant and his little son, gained the top.” (Norway’s “Highways and Byways in Devon and Cornwall,” p. 196.)