at Bradfield Hall, near Manningtree, on the 27th of January 1603. Educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, he became a barrister of Lincoln’s Inn, then recorder of Harwich and recorder of Colchester. As member for Colchester, Grimston sat in the Short Parliament of 1640, and he represented the same borough during the Long Parliament, speedily becoming a leading member of the popular party. He attacked Archbishop Laud with great vigour; was a member of the important committees of the parliament, including the one appointed in consequence of the attempted seizure of the five members; and became deputy-lieutenant of Essex after the passing of the militia ordinance in January 1642. He disliked taking up arms against the king, but remained nominally an adherent of the parliamentary party during the Civil War. In the words of Clarendon, he “continued rather than concurred with them.” Grimston does not appear to have taken the Solemn League and Covenant, but after the conclusion of the first period of the war he again became more active. He was president of the committee which investigated the escape of the king from Hampton Court in 1647, and was one of those who negotiated with Charles at Newport in 1648, when, according to Burnet, he fell upon his knees and urged the king to come to terms. From this time Grimston’s sympathies appear to have been with the Royalists. Turned out of the House of Commons when the assembly was “purged” by colonel Pride, he was imprisoned; but was released after promising to do nothing detrimental to the parliament or the army, and spent the next few years in retirement. Before this time, his elder brother having already died, he had succeeded his father as 2nd baronet. In 1656 Sir Harbottle was returned to Cromwell’s second parliament as member for Essex; but he was not allowed to take his seat; and with 97 others who were similarly treated he issued a remonstrance to the public. He was among the secluded members who re-entered the Long Parliament in February 1660, was then a member of the council of state, and was chosen Speaker of the House of Commons in the Convention Parliament of 1660. As Speaker he visited Charles II. at Breda, and addressed him in very flattering terms on his return to London; but he refused to accede to the king’s demand that he should dismiss Burnet from his position as chaplain to the Master of the Rolls, and in parliament he strongly denounced any relaxation of the laws against papists. Grimston did not retain the office of Speaker after the dissolution of the Convention Parliament, but he was a member of the commission which tried the regicides, and in November 1660 he was appointed Master of the Rolls. Report says he paid Clarendon £8000 for the office, while Burnet declares he obtained it “without any application of his own.” He died on the 2nd of January 1685. His friend and chaplain, Burnet, speaks very highly of his piety and impartiality, while not omitting the undoubted fact that he was “much sharpened against popery.” He translated the law reports of his father-in-law, the judge, Sir George Croke (1560–1642), which were written in Norman-French, and five editions of this work have appeared. Seven of his parliamentary speeches were published, and he also wrote Strena Christiana (London, 1644, and other editions). Grimston’s first wife, Croke’s daughter Mary, bore him six sons and two daughters; and by his second wife, Anne, daughter and heiress of Sir Nathaniel Bacon, K.B., a grandson of Sir Nicholas Bacon, he had one daughter.
Of his sons one only, Samuel (1643–1700), survived his father, and when he died in October 1700 the baronetcy became extinct. Sir Harbottle’s eldest daughter, Mary, married Sir Capel Luckyn, Bart., and their grandson, William Luckyn, succeeded to the estates of his great-uncle, Sir Samuel Grimston, and took the name of Grimston in 1700. This William Luckyn Grimston (1683–1756) was created Baron Dunboyne and Viscount Grimston in the peerage of Ireland in 1719. He was succeeded as 2nd viscount by his son James (1711–1773), whose son James Bucknall (1747–1808) was made an English peer as baron Verulam of Gorhambury in 1790. Then in 1815 his son James Walter (1775–1845), 2nd baron Verulam, was created earl of Verulam, and the present peer is his direct descendant. Sir Harbottle Grimston bought Sir Nicholas Bacon’s estate at Gorhambury, which is still the residence of his descendants.
See G. Burnet, History of My Own Time, edited by O. Airy (Oxford, 1900).
GRIMTHORPE, EDMUND BECKETT, 1st Baron (1816–1905),
son of Sir Edmund Beckett Denison, was born on the 12th of
May 1816. He was educated at Doncaster and Eton, whence he
proceeded to Trinity College, Cambridge, and graduated thirtieth
wrangler in 1838. He was called to the bar at Lincoln’s Inn
in 1841. Upon succeeding to the baronetcy in 1874 he dropped
the name of Denison, which his father had assumed in 1816.
From 1877 to 1900 he was chancellor and vicar-general of York,
and he was raised to the peerage in 1886. He was made a Q.C.
in 1854, and was for many years a leader of the Parliamentary
Bar. He devoted himself to the study of astronomy, horology
and architecture, more especially Gothic ecclesiastical architecture.
As early as 1850 he had become a recognized authority
on clocks, watches and bells, and in particular on the construction
of turret clocks, for he had designed Dent’s Great Exhibition
clock, and his Rudimentary Treatise had gone through many
editions. In 1851 he was called upon, in conjunction with the
astronomer royal (Mr, afterwards Sir, G. B. Airy) and Mr Dent,
to design a suitable clock for the new Houses of Parliament.
The present tower clock, popularly known as “Big Ben,” was
constructed after Lord Grimthorpe’s designs. In a number
of burning questions during his time Lord Grimthorpe took
a prominent part. It is, however, in connexion with the restoration
of St Albans Abbey that he is most widely known. The
St Albans Abbey Reparation Committee, which had been in
existence since 1871, and for which Sir Gilbert Scott had carried
out some admirable repairs, obtained a faculty from the Diocesan
Court in 1877 to repair and restore the church and fit it for
cathedral and parochial services. Very soon, however, the
committee found itself unable to raise the necessary funds,
and it was at this juncture that a new faculty was granted to
Lord Grimthorpe (then Sir Edmund Beckett) to “restore, repair
and refit” the abbey at his own expense. Lord Grimthorpe
made it an express stipulation that the work should be done
according to his own designs and under his own supervision.
His public spirit in undertaking the task was undeniable, but
his treatment of the roof, the new west front, and the windows
inserted in the terminations of the transepts, excited a storm of
adverse criticism, and was the subject of vigorous protests from
the professional world of architecture. He died on the 29th
of April 1905, being succeeded as 2nd baron by his nephew,
E. W. Beckett (b. 1856), who had sat in parliament as conservative
member for the Whitby division of Yorkshire from 1885.
GRINDAL, EDMUND (c. 1519–1583), successively bishop of
London, archbishop of York and archbishop of Canterbury,
born about 1519, was son of William Grindal, a farmer of Hensingham,
in the parish of St Bees, Cumberland. He was educated at
Magdalene and Christ’s Colleges and then at Pembroke Hall,
Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. and was elected fellow in
1538. He proceeded M.A. in 1541, was ordained deacon in 1544
and was proctor and Lady Margaret preacher in 1548–1549.
Probably through the influence of Ridley, who had been master
of Pembroke Hall, Grindal was selected as one of the Protestant
disputants during the visitation of 1549. He had a considerable
talent for this work and was often employed on similar occasions.
When Ridley became bishop of London, he made Grindal one
of his chaplains and gave him the precentorship of St Paul’s.
He was soon promoted to be one of Edward VI.’s chaplains
and prebendary of Westminster, and in October 1552 was one
of the six divines to whom the Forty-two articles were submitted
for examination before being sanctioned by the Privy Council.
According to Knox, Grindal distinguished himself from most of
the court preachers in 1553 by denouncing the worldliness of
the courtiers and foretelling the evils to follow on the king’s
death.
That event frustrated Grindal’s proposed elevation to the episcopal bench and he did not consider himself bound to await the evils which he had foretold. He abandoned his preferments
