described in Whyte Melville's 'Digby Grand.' He was an adept, too, at swimming, and saved a drowning man at Oxford, afterwards swimming across the river to escape the applause of the bystanders.
Grimston proceeded B.A. in 1838, and the same year began the study of law in the chambers of A. R. Sidebottom, London, subsequently reading with Mr. Wood, a special pleader. He was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1843, and went the home circuit; but he was not adapted for the law, and practically gave up the profession in 1852, and devoted himself to the then novel enterprise of electric telegraphy. Grimston had many successes in the cricket field. He was one of the first members of I Zingari, and held the post of honorary treasurer. He was also a member of the M.C.C., and for some time president; he frequently played in matches at Lord's, and preserved his interest in the game till his death. In 1846 he assisted in the formation of a Surrey county eleven, which began playing in Kennington Oval, then a market garden. Grimston was an excellent judge of horses, and rode in steeplechases. He broke his leg on one occasion while hunting with Baron de Rothschild's hounds. He was removed on a gate, and the North- Western train being stopped by signal he was put into the guard's van, and by his own request taken to St. George's Hospital.
Grimston joined the board of the Electric Telegraph Company in 1852, and he also became connected with the International Telegraph Company, which laid the two cables between Lowestoft and Scheveningen, near the Hague. On the death of Robert Stephenson he became chairman of the latter company, and held that office until the Electric and International Company was transferred to the government under the acts of parliament 1868-70. About 1867 Grimston accepted a seat on the board of the Atlantic Telegraph Company, and when that company was amalgamated with the Anglo-American Telegraph Company he was transferred to the latter as a director, and took an active part in its management until his death. In 1868 he was appointed chairman of the Indo-European Telegraph Company, which opened up a telegraph route to India through Germany, Russia, and Persia, and through the Persian Gulf to Kurrachee, in connection with the lines of the Indo-European Government Telegraph administration. In these business relations he exhibited great shrewdness and application.
On 7 April 1884, while at Gorhambury, he was found dead in his chair. Grimston was a tory. He was averse to change of all kinds, and was tenacious of his opinions, but made full allowance for the conscientious dissent of others. He was a chivalrous friend, and was charitable towards the distressed. He severely condemned betting and gambling.
[Life of the Hon. Robert Grimston, by Frederick Gale, 1885.]
GRIMSTON, Sir SAMUEL (1643–1700), politician, the second and only one of the six sons of Sir Harbottle Grimston [q. v.] who survived him, was born 7 Jan. 1643. His mother was Sir Harbottle's first wife, Mary, daughter of Sir George Croke [q. v.] He was elected member of parliament for St. Albans at a by-election in May 1668. He was not returned to the parliament of 1678, but was re-elected in 1679 and 1680. During the reign of James II he remained in private life, being, it is said, much disliked by the king, who expressly excepted him from pardon in the manifesto he issued when he contemplated landing in England (1692). Grimston succeeded to his father's baronetcy in 1683, and was returned a member of the convention of 22 Jan. 1689. From that time till May 1699 he sat continuously for his old borough. He married first Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Heneage Finch, earl of Nottingham, by whom he was father of a daughter, Elizabeth (d. 1694), who became first wife of William Savile, second marquis of Halifax. Grimston's second wife was Lady Anne, sixth daughter of John Tufton, earl of Thanet. By her he had a son and daughter, but both died young, and on his death, which occurred in October 1700, the Grimston baronetcy became extinct. Grimston left the family estates, which he had increased by the purchase of the manor of Windridge from Henry Osbaston, to his great-nephew, William Luckyn [see Grimston, William Luckyn], second son of Sir William Luckyn of Messing Hall, Essex, who was son of Sir Capel Luckyn, by Mary, the eldest sister of Sir Samuel Grimston.
[Lodge's Baronetage of Ireland; Collins's Peerage, ed. Brydges, viii. 218; List of Members of Parliament; Cussans's Hertfordshire, Hundred of Cashio, iii. 255.]
GRIMSTON, WILLIAM LUCKYN, first Viscount Grimston (1683–1756), born in 1683, was the second son of Sir William Luckyn, by Mary, daughter of William Sherrington, and was adopted as heir by his great-uncle, Sir Samuel Grimston [q. v.] On Sir Samuel's death in 1700 William Luckyn succeeded to the Grimston estates, and assumed the surname. In 1710 he was returned as
