Role in the Civil War
At the start of the Civil War John Giffard was appointed one of the Commissioners of Array for Devon, under his near neighbour Henry Bourchier, 5th Earl of Bath of Tawstock, and was thus in part responsible for the unpopular task of raising troops in Devon for the royalists. On Tuesday 13 September 1642, with other fellow commissioners, he accompanied Bourchier to South Molton for the purpose of a public reading of the Commission to the townsfolk, which attempt was met with much hostility and resulted in an ignoble retreat. According to a letter written by an inhabitant of South Molton at the time, the party was met by an angry mob of over 1,000 persons armed with muskets, halberts, bills, clubs, pikes and poles who were "in a great rage with the mayor and his company for giving licence that they should enter and swore that if they did attempt anything there or read their commission of array they would beat them all down and kill them (even) if they were all hanged for it". Bourchier and Giffard were thus prevented from making any recruits in South Molton and withdrew.
On 23 or 24 September 1642 Hopton, lieutenant-general of Royalist forces in the West, on his march from Minehead in Somerset into Cornwall, before crossing the River Taw rested with his cavalry at Chittlehampton. 400 of his men were billeted in the parish It is possible that Giffard joined Hopton on his onward march as he was absent from the entertainment given on 22 December 1642 by Sir Hugh Pollard at King's Nympton to other of the royalist leaders in Devon, however it was said that he had absented himself from Brightley to avoid the expense of entertaining when his turn came. Hopton was later to emerge from Cornwall, strengthened by new recruits, to march up-country to Bath to engage the Parliamentarian forces at Lansdowne.
During the Civil War, by then a Colonel, Giffard commanded the Devon pikemen at the Battle of Lansdowne, fought on 5 July 1643, near Bath, Somerset. In that battle he served alongside his cousin Sir Bevil Grenville, who fell heroically having commanded the Cornish pikemen.
Following a setback to the Royalists Giffard claimed to have in 1644 "retired to live privately and peaceably in his own house". However at that time Brightley was garrisoned by 300 Royalist cavalry, watched closely from Brightley Bridge by the "Barnstaple Horse", a local troop of Parliamentarian cavalry. Giffard's younger brother George Giffard, a London merchant, sought advice from their cousin Walter Erle as to how John should make his surrender to Parliament. He was advised to take the earliest opportunity to do so, and thus following the departure of the royalist horse from Brightley, Giffard immediately sought an order of protection from Sir Thomas Fairfax, commander-in-chief of the Parliamentarian forces.
At the establishment of the Commonwealth, Giffard was sequestrated and imprisoned and paid a composition of £1,136. He had submitted to Parliament in mitigation of his actions a "humble petition" in which he stated that he had been persuaded by some of his relatives to take up arms against Parliament, and "did not clearly apprehend the drift of things"; he "...only acted very sparingly, doing what he was required to do to preserve his person, wife and children". These Royalist relatives of his were the Wyndhams, his wife's family, and the Grenvilles, lords of the manors of Bideford in Devon and Stowe, Kilkhampton in Cornwall, the head of which family was Sir Bevil Grenville, beside whom Giffard fought at Lansdowne.
The local population of Chittlehampton however disagreed. In a counter-petition they complained to Parliament that Giffard should not be permitted to compound for his delinquency, which refusal would therefore result in the confiscation of his estates. Twelve parishioners of Chittlehampton, all of whom claimed to have "always stood right and well affected to the Parliament", signed the counter-petition in which they called Giffard "a violent and active enemy to the state", who had persecuted them "with all eagerness and cruelty", and had caused them and others losses valued at five to six thousand pounds.
Giffard's petition was accepted by the local Commissioners of Parliament for Devon, namely Sir Samuel I Rolle (c. 1588 – 1647), MP, of Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe and Sir John Northcote, 1st Baronet (died 1676) of Newton St Cyres, and he was thus allowed to compound for the sum of £1,136, equating to three times his net annual income.
Following the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 Giffard was selected by King Charles II as one of the proposed fourteen Devonshire Knights of the Royal Oak. This honour was proposed for the Englishmen who had actively supported that king during his exile in France, but was abandoned before being formally established lest it might perpetuate dissension.
