John Bargrave

[3] Bargrave's uncle Isaac was a strong supporter of the monarchy and thus the Cavaliers and at the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642 he was imprisoned.

He experienced, first-hand, the power of the Roman Inquisition and was privy to the goings-on of the papal court in Rome; its cardinals, secular leaders and scandals.

[5] Immediately after this promotion he departed with Archdeacon Selleck on the dangerous errand of ransoming English captives at Algiers, for whose redemption ten thousand pounds had been subscribed by the bishops and clergy.

The profiles were originally designed to illustrate a collection of portraits of the pope and cardinals published by Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi in 1657 called The Effigies.

His cabinet of curiosities, complete with riding boots and a miniature of him and his young travelling tutees, Raymond and Alexander Chapman, by Matteo Bolgnini, survives intact in the Canterbury Cathedral Library.

Arms of Bargrave: Or, on a pale gules a sword erect argent pomel and hilt of the field a chief azure charged with three bezants [ 1 ]
Detail of a page from John Bargrave's travel diary, showing the French wine-producing hilltop town of Sancerre in the centre, the Loire River on the right and the village of Saint-Thibault on the left.