Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Grinfield, Edward William
GRINFIELD, EDWARD WILLIAM (1785–1864), biblical scholar, was the son of Thomas Grinfield and Anna Joanna, daughter of Joseph Foster Barham of Bedford, and brother of Thomas Grinfield [q. v.] He was born in 1785, and was a schoolfellow of Thomas de Quincey [q. v.] at Winkfield, Wiltshire. He entered Lincoln College, Oxford, proceeded B.A. 1806, M.A. 1808, and was ordained in the same year by the Bishop of Lincoln. After studying in the Temple he became minister of Laura Chapel, Bath; afterwards he removed to London, where he occasionally preached at Kensington, and wrote many pamphlets, articles, and reviews, all favouring extreme orthodoxy. In 1859 he founded and endowed a lectureship at Oxford on the Septuagint. Grinfield died at Brighton on 9 July 1864, and is buried in Hove churchyard. His works are: 1. ‘Reflections on the Connection of the British Government with the Protestant Religion,’ 1807. 2. ‘The Crisis of Religion,’ 1811, and with ‘Strictures on Mr. Lancaster's System of Popular Education,’ 1812. 3. ‘Reflections upon the Influence of Infidelity and Profaneness on Public Liberty, with a Plan for National Circulating Libraries,’ 1817. 4. ‘Connection of Natural and Revealed Theology,’ 1818. 5. ‘Cursory Observations upon the Lectures in Physiology, Zoology, and Natural History of Man, by Mr. Laurence,’ 2nd edition, 1819. 6. ‘Sermons on the Parables,’ 1819. 7. ‘The Researches of Physiology,’ 1820. 8. ‘Thoughts on Lord Brougham's Education Bill,’ 1821. 9. ‘Vindiciæ Anglicanæ, Letter to Dr. Copleston on his Inquiry into the Doctrine of Necessity and Predestination, with a second part,’ 1822. 10. ‘Sermon on Paley's Exposition of the Law of Honour,’ 1824. 11. ‘The Doctrinal Harmony of the New Testament,’ 1824. 12. ‘A Reply to Mr. Brougham's Practical Observations upon the Education of the People,’ 1825. 13. ‘The Nature and Extent of the Christian Dispensation with reference to the Salvability of the Heathen,’ 1827. 14. ‘A Scriptural Inquiry into the Nature and Import of the Image and Likeness of God in Man,’ 1830. 15. ‘Sketches of the Danish Mission on the Coast of Coromandel,’ 1831. 16. ‘Christian Sentiments suggested by the Present Crisis; or, Civil Liberty founded upon Self-Restraint,’ 1831. 17. ‘Reflections after a Visit to the University of Oxford,’ on the proceedings against R. D. Hampden [q. v.], 1836. 18. ‘The Chart and Scale of Truth,’ 1840. 19. ‘Novum Testamentum Græcum. Editio Hellenistica,’ 1843. 20. ‘Scholia Hellenistica in Novum Testamentum,’ &c., 1848. 21. ‘An Expostulatory Letter to the Right Rev. Bishop Wiseman on the Interpolated Curse in the Vatican Septuagint,’ 1850. 22. ‘An Apology for the Septuagint,’ 1850. 23. ‘The Jesuits: an Historical Sketch,’ 1851, 1853. 24. ‘The Christian Cosmos: the Son of God the revealed Creator,’ 1856.
[Hist. of Preaching, ed. R. Eden, 1880; Page's De Quincey, i. 43, ii. 305, 343; Walford's Men of the Time, 1862, 5th edition; Letters from C. V. Grinfield (his nephew) and H. Coxwell (his son-in-law); Brit. Mus. Cat.; various newspaper cuttings.]