GRIMSTON, Samuel (1644-1700), of Gorhambury, Herts.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

15 May 1668
Oct. 1679
1698 - 17 Oct. 1700

Family and Education

b. 7 Jan. 1644, 6th but o. surv. s. of Sir Harbottle Grimston, 2nd Bt. educ. Clare, Camb. 1663; L. Inn 1668. m. (1) 14 Feb. 1670, Elizabeth (d. 6 Feb. 1672), da. of Heneage Finch, later 1st Earl of Nottingham, 1da. d.v.p.; (2) 17 Apr. 1673, Lady Anne Tufton (d. 22 Nov. 1713), da. of John, 2nd Earl of Thanet, 1s. 1da. d.v.p. suc. fa. as 3rd Bt. 2 Jan. 1685.1

Offices Held

Commr. for assessment, Essex, Herts. and St. Albans 1673-80, Mdx. 1679-80, Essex and St. Albans 1689, Herts. and Westminster 1689-90; j.p. and dep. lt. Herts. 1689-d.2

Biography

Gorhambury, purchased by the Grimstons in 1652, carried an important political interest at St. Albans, and Grimston was returned for the borough at a by-election in 1668. He Was described in Flagellum Parliamentarium as ‘a silly son to the master of the rolls’, and was entered on both lists of the court party in 1669-71 among those who had usually voted for supply. But he was inactive in the Cavalier Parliament, in which he was appointed to the committee of elections and privileges in three sessions, and to four other committees of secondary importance. He made no recorded speeches, but acted as teller on 16 Nov. 1675 for declaring it a breach of privilege to prick an MP as sheriff while the House was sitting, though, if so, it would have been his first wife’s father who would have had to take the constitutional responsibility for the offence. He was included in the working lists, and in 1676 Sir Richard Wiseman advised that his former father-in-law, the lord chancellor, should ‘conjure’ him. But Shaftesbury marked him ‘worthy’ in the following year. He stood unsuccessfully for Sudbury and St. Albans in February 1679, When Shaftesbury again classed him as ‘worthy’. At St. Albans he was said to have ‘appeared too late’ and ‘lost it by being too close-fisted’. He was returned for St. Albans to both the second and third Exclusion Parliaments, but was totally inactive.3

Grimston was a candidate again in 1685 and petitioned, but without success. He was returned to the Convention but left no trace upon its records. He continued to represent the borough as a country Whig for the rest of his life. He died on 17 Oct. 1700, the last of his family, bequeathing his estates to his great-nephew, the grandson of (Sir) Capel Luckyn, who assumed the name of Grimston and represented St. Albans as a Whig with one interval from 1710 to 1734.4

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: E. R. Edwards / Geoffrey Jaggar

Notes

  • 1. Cutterbuck, Herts. i. 96; Bulstrode Pprs. 131; CSP Dom. 1671-2, p. 128; G. C. Williamson, Lady Anne Clifford, 480; Collins, Peerage, viii. 219.
  • 2. Herts. Sessions Bks. vi. 522.
  • 3. Trans. St. Albans and Herts. Arch. Soc. (1933), 68; BL, M636/32, John Stewkeley to Sir Ralph Verney, 6 Feb., John Verney to Sir Ralph Verney, 10 Feb. 1679.
  • 4. CJ, ix. 722; Trans. St. Albans and Herts. Arch. Soc. (1927), 66, 102; (1933), 68; PCC 87 Dyer.