GRIFFITH. [See also Griffin, Griffiths, and Gruffydd.]
GRIFFITH, ALEXANDER (d. 1690), divine, a Welshman, was educated at Hart Hall, Oxford, matriculating 27 Jan. 1614-15 (Oxford Univ. Reg., Oxford Hist. Soc. ii. 335). After proceeding B.A. on 12 June 1618 he returned to Wales, and there kept a school or held a small cure. On 10 Dec. 1631, being then beneficed in South Wales, he graduated M.A. (Wood, Fasti Oxon., ed. Bliss, i. 379, 460). During the civil war he was deprived of his livings on account of his loyalty. During this period he wrote ‘Strena Vavasoriensis; or, a New Year's Gift for the Welsh Itinerants. Or an Hue and Cry after Mr. Vavasor Powell, Metropolitan of the Itinerants, and one of the Executioners of the Gospel by Colour of the late Act for the Propagation thereof in Wales,’ 4to, London, 1654. In the same year there also appeared his ‘True and Perfect Relation of the whole Transaction concerning the Petition of the Six Counties of South Wales, and the County of Monmouth, formerly presented to the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England for a supply of Godly Ministers, and an Account of Ecclesiastical Revenues therein,’ 4to, London, 1654. He is supposed, too, to be the author, or part author, of a pamphlet entitled ‘Mercurius Cambro-Britannicus; or, News from Wales, touching the miraculous Propagation of the Gospel in those parts,’ 4to, London, 1652 (Wood, Athenæ Oxon., ed. Bliss, iii. 393). Upon the Restoration Griffith regained possession of his benefices, and was presented to the vicarage of Glasbury, Brecknockshire, in 1661 (Jones, Brecknockshire, vol. ii. pt. i. p. 389). He died in 1690.
[Authorities quoted; Robert Williams's Eminent Welshmen, 1852, p. 180.]
GRIFFITH, EDMUND (1570–1637), bishop of Bangor, was born at Cevnamlwch in Lleyn, the promontory of Carnarvonshire, in 1570. He was the fourth son of Gruffydd ab Sion Gruffydd of Cevnamlwch, 'of an ancient house' (Wynne, Gwydir Family, p. 97). His mother was Catrin, the daughter of Sir Richard Bulkeley of Baron Hill. Among his brothers was Hugh Griffith, ‘a very proper man, of a comely tall personage,’ who became in Sir John Wynne's partial eyes ‘the worthiest most valiant captain of any nation that was at sea’ (ib. p. 102).
Griffith was admitted as an exhibitioner of Brasenose College, Oxford, on 8 April 1587, having been before, in Wood's opinion, of Jesus College. He proceeded M.A. in 1592. In 1599 he became rector of Llandwrog, in 1600 canon of Bangor, and in 1604 rector of Llanbedrog, both livings being in the diocese of Bangor. On 10 March 1605 he was instituted archdeacon of Bangor (Le Neve, Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, i. 113), and resigned in 1613, on 9 Sept. of which year he was instituted dean of Bangor (ib. i. 112). On the death of Bishop Dolben he was elected bishop of Bangor on 31 Dec. 1633, confirmed on 12 Feb. 1634, consecrated on 16 Feb. at Lambeth by Archbishop Laud, and enthroned on 14 April (ib. i. 106). He died on 26 May 1637, and was buried in the choir of his cathedral, where a half-obliterated inscription marked his remains. Sir John Wynne describes him as ‘a worthy gentleman in divinity.’
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 888; Sir John Wynne's History of the Gwydir Family, 1878, pp. 97, 102; Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Angl. vol. i.; Williams's Dict. of Eminent Welshmen, p. 181; Browne Willis's Survey of Bangor, pp. 26, 111, 128, 134, 169.]
GRIFFITH, EDWARD (1790–1858), naturalist, son of William Griffith of Stanwell, Middlesex, was born in 1790. He entered St. Paul's School in 1800 and left it in 1806, entering the common pleas office as a clerk. He afterwards became a solicitor and a master in the court of common pleas. He was one of the original members of the Zoological Society, and a fellow of the Linnean (1822), Antiquaries, and Royal Societies. In 1821 he published the first part of what was designed to be an extensive work, ‘General and Particular Descriptions of the Vertebrated Animals,’ with excellent coloured plates. This first part deals only with the monkeys and lemurs. It may have been abandoned in favour of another work, which he was able to complete, viz. a translation of Cuvier's ‘Animal Kingdom,’ with considerable additions, in fifteen volumes. This work, which is described as containing ‘descriptions of all the species hitherto named and
