I am indebted to a recent very interesting biography of Sir Bevill by
Mr. Alfred R. Robbins (which I did not see until the chapter on the
Grenvilles had gone through the press) for information on the following
points, which had escaped my notice.
Sir Bevill gave a silver cup to Exeter College.
He secured the success of Eliot's election, no doubt on account of
strong personal friendship, as an anti-loan candidate about 1628.
Bagg wrote to the Duke of Buckingham that he desired to have Eliot,
Grenville, and John Arundell 'outlawed and put out of the House'
... 'for here we had Beville Grenville, John Arundell, and Charles
Trevanion coming to the election with five hundred men at each of their
heels.'
He was one of the executors named by Eliot in his will.
He was much encumbered with the debts of his ancestors, and sold
(amongst other property) Brinn, his birthplace, to Sir William Noye,
the Attorney-General.
He objected to the Bill of Attainder against Strafford, and wrote
to his fellow Cornishman, Sir Alexander Carew, 'Pray, sir, when it
comes to be put to the vote, let it never be said that any member of
our country (county) should have a hand in this fatal business; and
therefore pray ye give your vote against the Bill.' But this Carew
stoutly refused to do.
He refused the summons of the Parliament 'to attend the service of
the House,' pleading the King's special command to continue in his
county to preserve the peace thereof; whereupon a resolution was passed
disabling him from continuing to be a member.
His praises, after his death, were sung, not only by his old University
of Oxford, but also by Sir Francis Wortley in his 'Characters and
Elegies,' in 1646; by Robert Heath, in 1650; and by William Cartwright,
in 1651.