Edward Griffin (attorney) explained

Edward Griffin
Office1:Attorney General
Term Start1:21 May 1552
Term End1:17 November 1558
Predecessor1:Henry Bradshaw
Successor1:Gilbert Gerard
Office2:Solicitor General
Term Start2:18 June 1545
Term End2:21 May 1552
Predecessor2:Henry Bradshaw
Successor2:John Gosnold
Death Date:16 December 1569
Resting Place:All Saints church, Dingley
Nationality:English
Children:with Elizabeth Palmer:with Anne Smith:with Elizabeth Chamber:
Parents:Sir Nicholas Griffin
Alice Thornborough
Residence:Dingley Hall
Profession:Lawyer

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. 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.

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

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. Elizabeth I came to Dingley from Collyweston on her progress on 3 August June 1566.[1]

Marriages and children

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

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

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:[2]

Death and burial

Edward Griffin died on 16 December 1569 and was buried near the chancel in the parish church at Dingley.[3] He was succeeded by his son, Edward, aged 20 years 5 months and 13 days. His widow married, by 28 August 1572, Oliver St John of Bletsoe. 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."

Sources

External links

Notes and References

  1. Elizabeth Goldring, Faith Eales, Elizabeth Clarke, Jayne Elisabeth Archer, John Nichols's The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth, 1 (Oxford, 2014), p. 453.
  2. John Harwood Hill, History of Market Harborough (Leicester, 1875), pp. 5–6.

  3. 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.

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