Edward Griffin (attorney)

Sir Edward Griffin (died 1569) was an English lawyer and landowner.

He was a son of Sir Nicholas Griffin and Alice Thornborough.[1]

He was Attorney General for England and Wales from 1552 to 1559.

Dingley Hall the porch built by Edward Griffin

Griffin Monument at Braybrooke

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. He built a monument in Braybrooke church in English renaissance style. The porch of Dingley Hall is carved with the date 1558 and the initials of Griffin and his second wife, and other inscriptions.[2][3]

He married three times. His first wife was Elizabeth Palmer. His second wife was Anne Smith, daughter of John Smith, baron of the Exchequer. His third wife was Elizabeth Chamber, a lady in waiting, and widow of Sir Walter Stonor (died 1551), and Reginald Conyers (died 1560).

His children included:

• Edward Griffin (d. 1612), who married Lucy Conyers at Wakerley in 1569,[4] Their children included:
  • Thomas Griffin (died 1615), and Edward Griffin (MP)
  • Frances Griffin, who married Sir Gregory Cromwell, a son of Henry Cromwell, 2nd Baron Cromwell
  • Elizabeth Griffin, who is said to have married Cecil Hall, son of Arthur Hall. He is also said to have married a daughter of Griffin Markham.
• Anne Griffin, daughter of Anne Smith, who married Sir William Villiers of Brooksby
• Rice Griffin (d. 1626) of Bickmarsh, a son of Elizabeth Chamber. The children of Rice Griffin include:
  • Robert Griffin of Bickmarsh
  • Edward Griffen of Bickmarsh, father of Nicholas Griffin (d. 1644), who married Anne Lingen (d. 1660) of Stoke Edith.[5]

Edward Giffin died in 1569. His widow Elizabeth Chamber married Oliver St John of Bletsoe.

References

1. John Nichols, History and antiquities of the county of Leicester, 2: 2 (London, 1798 repr. 1971), p. 592
2. John Alfred Gotch & Charles Latham, Architecture of the Renaissance in England, vol. 1 (London, 1894), p. 42 and plates.
3. Walter C. Metcalfe, Visitation of Northamptonshire (London, 1887), p. 24.
4. Joseph Jackson Howard, 'Parish Registers of Wakerley', Miscellanea genealogica et heraldica, new series, vol. 1 (London, 1874) p. 416.
5. John Gough Nichols, History from Marble, vol. 2 (London, 1868), p. 93.