Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/263

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Grimshaw
255
Grimston

systems. Though he was a Calvinist, his friendship with John Wesley was never interrupted. His labours extended far beyond the limits of his own parish. People used to come from a great distance to hear him preach at Haworth, and some of them requested him to come and preach to them. Thus originated his itinerant labours, which by degrees extended through Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cheshire, and North Derbyshire. His plan seems to have resembled that of his friend John Wesley. He established societies in the various places, presided over by leaders, with whom he used to hold conferences. Some of the parochial clergy objected to this interference of a brother clergyman, entirely unauthorised, in their parishes. One of these, the Rev. George White, perpetual curate of Colne and Marsden in Lancashire, published a sermon, preached in 1748, against the methodists in general and Grimshaw in particular. He is also said to have stirred up a mob in Colne, who handled both Grimshaw and John Wesley very roughly. But on the whole the ecclesiastical authorities treated Grimshaw with great forbearance. His own diocesan, the Archbishop of York, called him to account, but fully recognised his good work. A charge preferred against him for having preached in a licensed meeting-house at Leeds fell through. His success was probably in part owing to the homeliness of his language and illustrations. Many anecdotes of his eccentric conduct are recorded, some probably apocryphal, and none bearing specially upon his work. Grimshaw was held in the highest esteem among his co-religionists, and strong testimonies to his worth and usefulness are given, among others, by William Romaine, Henry Venn, and John Newton. He died, 7 April 1763, in the fifty-fifth year of his age, in his own house at Haworth, of a putrid fever, caught when he was visiting a sick parishioner. By his own desire he was buried by the side of his first wife in the chancel of Luddenden Church, near Haworth. He was twice married, first to Sarah, daughter of John Lockwood of Ewood Hall, Brecknockshire, and then to Elizabeth daughter of H. Cockcroft of Mayroyd, both of whom he survived. He had two children, a son and a daughter, both by his first wife. The daughter died young at Kingswood, the school founded and supervised by Grimshaw's friend, John Wesley. The son was wild in his youth, and caused his father much anxiety; but after his father's death he became a changed man. Grimshaw's published work consists merely of (1) a short 'Reply' to White's attack in his sermon (1748);(2) a document which he terms his 'Covenant with God,' wherein he affirms his solemn resolution to lead a strictly religious life; (3) an address or letter 'to certain Christians in London,' and (4) a 'Creed' or 'Summary of Belief,' sent by him in 1762, only four months before his death, to Mr. Romaine.

[Spencer Hardy's Life of Rev. W. Grimshaw; Funeral Sermon by Henry Venn, 1763; Ryle's Christian Leaders of the Last Century; Middleton's Biographia Evangelica; Works of John Newton.]


GRIMSHAWE, THOMAS SHUTTLEWORTH (1778–1850), biographer, the son of John Grimshawe, solicitor, and five times mayor of Preston, was born at Preston in 1778. He entered Brasenose College, Oxford, 9 April 1794, and proceeded B.A. in 1798, and M.A. in 1800. He was vicar of Biddenham, Bedfordshire, from 1808 to 1850, and with this living he held the rectory of Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire, from 1809 to 1843. His first publication was 'The Christian's Faith and Practice,' &c. (Preston, 1813); followed by 'A Treatise on the Holy Spirit' (1815). In 1822 he wrote a pamphlet on 'The Wrongs of the Clergy of the Diocese of Peterborough,' which was noticed by Sydney Smith in the 'Edinburgh Review' (article 'Persecuting Bishops'). In 1825 he issued 'An Earnest Appeal to British Humanity in behalf of Indian Widows.' His 'Memoir of the Rev. Legh Richmond,' a religious biography, was first published in 1828, and it reached an eleventh edition by 1846. His best book is the 'Life and Works of William Cowper,' 8 vols. 1835, and several times subsequently republished, the last edition bearing the imprint 'Boston, U.S., 1853.' He published also a small volume of 'Lectures on the Future Restoration and Conversion of the Jews,' 1843, and several occasional sermons. He died on 17 Feb. 1850, and was buried in the chancel of Biddenham Church, where there is a monument to his memory. He married Charlotte Anne, daughter of George Livius of Caldwell Priory, Bedfordshire; and their son, Charles Livius Grimshawe, was high sheriff of that county in 1866.

[Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. xii. 86; Foster's Lane. Pedigrees; Foster's Alumni Oxonienses, ii. 571; Allibone's Dict. of Authors, i. 743; Brit. Mus. Cat.]


GRIMSTON, EDWARD (1528?–1599), comptroller of Calais, born about 1528, was the son of Edward Grimston, by his wife Anne, daughter of John Garnish of Kenton, Suffolk. For a while he studied at Gonville Hall, Cambridge, but did not graduate. He was a commissioner in 1552 for the sale of church goods in Ipswich. On 28 Aug. in that year he was appointed comptroller of Calais