Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Grey, Anchitell
GREY, ANCHITELL (d. 1702), compiler of 'Debates of the House of Commons,' belonged to the Greys of Groby, being the second son of Henry, first earl of Stamford [q. v.], by his wife, Anne Cecil, youngest daughter and coheiress of William, earl of Exeter (Collins, Peerage, ed. Brydges, iii. 359). He was a younger brother of Thomas, lord Grey of Groby (1623?-1657) [q. v.], and was therefore probably not born before 1624. He was one of the commissioners for the associated county of Dorset who attended upon Prince Charles at Bridgewater, Somersetshire, on 23 April 1645 (Clarendon, Hist. ed. 1849, iv. 21). He was elected for Derby on 16 Feb. 1664-5 in the place of Roger Allestry, deceased, was not returned at the election of 1685, but sat in the Convention of January 1688-9 and in the parliament of March 1689-90 (Lists of Members of Parliament, Official Return of, pt. i.) In 1681 he was deputy-lieutenant for Leicestershire. He acted as chairman of several parliamentary committees, and deciphered Edward Coleman's letters for the use of the house. He took notes of the debates for his own convenience, which were collected and printed as 'Debates of the House of Commons from 1667 to 1694,' 10 vols. 8vo, London, 1769.
Grey was present at nearly all the transactions which he describes. A few were communicated to him by members, whom he generally names. His work was mentioned with approbation from the chair of the House of Commons by Speaker Onslow, who had had occasion to refer to it when still in manuscript. Onslow, in a note in Burnet's 'Own Time' (Oxford ed. ii. 109), states that some part of the work 'was made by Mr. Richard May, recorder of and member for Chichester.' Grey died at Risley, Derbyshire, in June or July 1702 (Luttrell, Brief Historical Relation of State Affairs, 1857, v. 194), and was buried by his wife in the neighbouring church of Little Wilne. By his wife, Anne (d. 1688), widow of Sir Thomas Aston, bart., of Aston, Cheshire, and daughter and coheiress of Sir Henry Willoughby, bart., of Risley, Derbyshire, he had a son, Willoughby, who died unmarried in 1701, and a daughter, Elizabeth, who died, also unmarried, in 1721. Miss Grey largely increased in 1718 the endowment of the three schools at Risley founded by her ancestor, Sir Michael Willoughby, in 1583. She had previously supplied two residences, one for the Latin master and one for the English master (Lysons, Magna Britannia, v. 249-51; will proved in April 1722, P. C. C. 73, Marlborough).
[Nichols's Leicestershire, vol. iii. p. ii. p. 682; Kelly's Directory of Derbyshire, 1888, p. 53.]