Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Griffith, Edmund
GRIFFITH, EDMUND (1570–1637), bishop of Bangor, was born at Cevnamlwch in Lleyn, the promontory of Carnarvonshire, in 1570. He was the fourth son of Gruffydd ab Sion Gruffydd of Cevnamlwch, 'of an ancient house' (Wynne, Gwydir Family, p. 97). His mother was Catrin, the daughter of Sir Richard Bulkeley of Baron Hill. Among his brothers was Hugh Griffith, ‘a very proper man, of a comely tall personage,’ who became in Sir John Wynne's partial eyes ‘the worthiest most valiant captain of any nation that was at sea’ (ib. p. 102).
Griffith was admitted as an exhibitioner of Brasenose College, Oxford, on 8 April 1587, having been before, in Wood's opinion, of Jesus College. He proceeded M.A. in 1592. In 1599 he became rector of Llandwrog, in 1600 canon of Bangor, and in 1604 rector of Llanbedrog, both livings being in the diocese of Bangor. On 10 March 1605 he was instituted archdeacon of Bangor (Le Neve, Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, i. 113), and resigned in 1613, on 9 Sept. of which year he was instituted dean of Bangor (ib. i. 112). On the death of Bishop Dolben he was elected bishop of Bangor on 31 Dec. 1633, confirmed on 12 Feb. 1634, consecrated on 16 Feb. at Lambeth by Archbishop Laud, and enthroned on 14 April (ib. i. 106). He died on 26 May 1637, and was buried in the choir of his cathedral, where a half-obliterated inscription marked his remains. Sir John Wynne describes him as ‘a worthy gentleman in divinity.’
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 888; Sir John Wynne's History of the Gwydir Family, 1878, pp. 97, 102; Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Angl. vol. i.; Williams's Dict. of Eminent Welshmen, p. 181; Browne Willis's Survey of Bangor, pp. 26, 111, 128, 134, 169.]