Family and Education

b. c.1544, 1st. s. of John Grimsditch of Budworth. educ. St. John’s, Camb. pens. 1560; I. Temple 1566.

Offices Held

Baron of the exchequer at Lancaster 1572-3, 1575-82; farmer of Preston rectory from at least 1573; under-steward of Enfield manor by 1583; bailiff and serjeant of Halton fee by 1587.1

Biography

Grimsditch, son of a keeper of the exchequer seal at Lancaster, was a legal official of the duchy of Lancaster and lessee of some duchy property. He sat in Parliament for two duchy boroughs and served on committees dealing with grants by corporations (30 May 1572), sheriffs (18 Feb. 1576), juries (5 Mar.), wharves and quays (13 Mar.), goldsmiths (13 Mar.), the clerk of the market (27 Jan. 1581), wrecks (30 Jan.), unlawful marriages (31 Jan., 16 Feb.), the excessive number of attorneys in the court of common pleas (17 Feb.), Coventry (24 Feb.) and land reclamation (8 Mar.). It is a little surprising that so active a committeeman is not named in the records of the 1584 Parliament. Grimsditch died by 1595 when administration of his estate was granted at Chester.2

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: M.N.

Notes

• 1. Somerville, Duchy, i. 485-6; Ducatus Lanc. iii. 6, 89, 105, 111, 182, 186,459, 460.
• 2. Somerville, i. 485; Ducatus Lanc. iii. 20, 94, 303; CJ, i. 99, 106, 111, 114, 115, 120, 121, 127, 129, 132; D’Ewes, 220, 262, 289, 290, 298, 300, 303, 477; Lancs. and Cheshire Wills (Chetham Soc. li), 77.