Edward Griffin
Attorney General
In office
21 May 1552  17 November 1558
Appointed by
Preceded byHenry Bradshaw
Succeeded byGilbert Gerard
Solicitor General
In office
18 June 1545  21 May 1552
Appointed by
Preceded byHenry Bradshaw
Succeeded byJohn Gosnold
Personal details
Died16 December 1569
Resting placeAll Saints church, Dingley
NationalityEnglish
Spouses
  • Elizabeth Palmer
  • Anne Smith
  • Elizabeth Chamber
Childrenwith Elizabeth Palmer:
  • Sir Edward Griffin
  • Grace Griffin
  • Jane Griffin
  • Margaret Griffin
  • Mary Griffin
with Anne Smith:
  • Anne Griffin
with Elizabeth Chamber:
  • Sir Rice Griffin
Parent(s)Sir Nicholas Griffin
Alice Thornborough
ResidenceDingley Hall
ProfessionLawyer

Edward Griffin (died 16 December 1569) of Dingley, Northamptonshire was an English landowner and lawyer. He was Solicitor General from 1545 to 1552 and Attorney General from 1552 to 1558.

He was the second son of Sir Nicholas Griffin (1476 – 1509) of Braybrooke, Northamptonshire and his second wife, Alice Thornborough, daughter of John Thornborough of Hampshire.[1] His elder brother was Sir Thomas Griffin (1496 – 1566) of Braybrooke who married Jane Newton, daughter of Richard Newton of Court of Wick, in Yatton, Somerset.[2]

Following a family tradition, he was admitted as a student to Lincoln's Inn and was Autumn Reader in 1537.[2][3] He was elected one of the Governors of Lincoln's Inn in 1540.[3] He was Solicitor General from 18 June 1545, during the reign of Henry VIII and Edward VI.[4] He was appointed Attorney General on 21 May 1552 and continued in that role under Mary I.[5] A devout Catholic, he was removed from office on the accession of Elizabeth I.[6]

Griffin acquired an existing house, a Preceptory of the Knights Hospitallers, at Dingley, Northamptonshire at the dissolution of the monasteries, and rebuilt it in the 1550s. The porch of Dingley Hall is carved with the date 1558 and the initials of Griffin and his second wife, and other inscriptions.[7][8]

Marriages and children

He married three times.[8][9]
First, in 1535, Elizabeth Palmer, daughter of Robert Palmer of Bowden, Northamptonshire, and Grace Coste, with whom he had a son and four daughters:[8]

Second: Anne Smith, daughter of John Smith, Baron of the Exchequer, with whom he had a daughter:[8][13]

Third: Elizabeth Chamber, daughter of Geoffrey Chamber of Stanmore, Middlesex, and widow of Sir Walter Stonor (d. 1551) and Reginald Conyers (d. 1560), with whom he had a son:[8][14][15]

  • Sir Rice Griffin of Bickmarsh, who married Margaret Throckmorton (d. 1615), daughter of Thomas Throckmorton of Coughton, Warwickshire:[16]
    • Edward Griffen (d. 1659) of Bickmarsh, father of Nicholas Griffin (d. 1644), who married Anne Lingen (d. 1660) of Stoke Edith.[9][17]

Death and burial

Edward Griffin died on 16 December 1569 and was buried near the chancel in the parish church at Dingley.[18][19] He was succeeded by his son, Edward, aged 20 years 5 months and 13 days.[9] His widow married, by 28 August 1572, Oliver St John of Bletsoe.[14] It is not known for whom the Griffin monument (dated c. 1565-70 by Pevsner) in Braybrooke church was erected in English renaissance style, "but it is a fine example of its kind."[20][21][22]

References

  1. 1 2 Nichols 1971, p. 592.
  2. 1 2 Cokayne & Gibbs 1929, p. 458–459.
  3. 1 2 Longmate & Collins 1784, p. 429.
  4. Foss 1848, p. 101, 284.
  5. Foss 1848, p. 284, 346.
  6. Foss 1848, p. 412.
  7. Gotch 1894, p. 42 and plate 55.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Metcalfe 1887, p. 24.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Burke & Burke 1846, p. 246.
  10. 1 2 Howard 1874, p. 416.
  11. Maddison 1903, p. 442.
  12. Longmate & Collins 1784, p. 430.
  13. 1 2 Yeatman 1896, p. 253.
  14. 1 2 Fuidge 1982.
  15. John Harwood Hill, History of Market Harborough (Leicester, 1875), pp. 5–6.
  16. Yeatman 1896, p. 246.
  17. Dingley & Nichols 1868, p. 93.
  18. Mayers & Walters 2017, p. 235.
  19. Yeatman 1896, pp. 252–254: Edward Griffin was not knighted. In his will, dated 11 August 1569, he refers to his wife by her superior courtesy title of Lady Stonor.
  20. Gotch 1894, p. 26 and plate 39.
  21. Cokayne & Gibbs 1929, p. 459, fn. b.
  22. Pevsner 2002, p. 51.

Sources

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