FOOTPATH TO GRINDON, STAFFORDSHIRE
Sherton is also called Shenton in old texts (see Gregory King’s ‘Staffordshire Pedigrees’ – based on Dugdale’s ‘Visitation’, 1663/4), and was home to a family of Grindon/Grendon. Colonel Thomas Grendon’s will was probated in London, December 15, 1678, in which he described himself as ‘of St. James Duke Place, London, citizen and draper’, and gave his son Thomas Grendon, ‘now in Virginia’ lands in Sherton Co., Stafford and to his daughter Hannah (Grendon) Duke, ‘now in Virginia’ property there. (See Colonial Surry, John B. Boddie, 1959). This is a wholly typical scenario – the wealthy yeoman class educating their sons and finding them a position in the London ‘trades’. A family’s place of origin was often of less importance than their connection to London, and its lucrative trade links to America.
The Grendons of Virginia almost certainly took their name from Grindon: ‘Grindon is an ancient manor, which was possessed by Robert de Stafford, in the 20th year of the reign of William the Conqueror. In the reign of Henry the Third, it was held, with Blore, by William Audley, of the Baron of Stafford. In the 9th of Edward the Third, Joanna le Strange was lady of this manor; she was afterwards married to Sir Henry Brailiford, whose daughter and heir, Joan, married Sir John Bassett, descended from the Bassetts, of Cheadle. In this family it continued till the close of the seventeenth century, when it devolved to Christopher, Duke of Albemarle’ (William Pitt, A Topographical History of Staffordshire, p. 239, 1817).
The legal documents which follow almost certainly record the family of Grendon of Virginia. I can not determine the origins of John Harris or Richard Bird, nos. 8,9.
- Roland Frith v. John Silvester, Wm. Grindon, senr.: Manor of Shenston. How long was plaintiff bailiff there? Touching value of the heriots during the time he was bailiff, during the time the manor was in the hands of the late Earl or Countess of Warwick.Election of thirdboroughts for town of Footherley. Waste of timber. Trees in part of the demesnes called Sandalles, used by defendant to enclose Ogley Common. Survey. Customs of manor.: Stafford. E 134/5Jas1/Trin6.
5 Jas 1 1607.
2. Grindon v Lloyd. Plaintiffs: Thomas Grindon. Defendants: Priamus Lloyd and another. Subject: property in Burton, Staffordshire. C 3/352/37. 1621-1625.
3. Grindon v Burton. Plaintiffs: Thomas Grindon. Defendants: William Burton and another. Place or subject: property in Warslow, Staffordshire. C 7/145/43. 1649.
4. Will of Marye Grindon, Widow of Saint Martin in the Fields, Middlesex. PROB 11/217/704. 25 July 1651.
5. Will of Thomas Grindon, Yeoman of Shenstone, Staffordshire. PROB 11/266/367. 28 July 1657.
6. Rogers v Grindon. Plaintiffs: Edward Rogers. Defendants: Thomas Grindon, William Tilden, Rebecca Tilden his wife and John Parker. Subject: messuage in the Great Sanctuary, Westminster, Middlesex. C 6/288/53. C 6/288/53. 1672.
7. Thornton v Collyer. Plaintiffs: William Thornton, James Silvester, Thomas Grindon, Thomas Cotterill, John Browne, George Silvester, James Silvester, William Smith, Nicholas Allen, James Fletcher, Roger Adams, Ann Priest, Thomas Kennall and John Birch and others. Defendants: John Collyer [Collier] and others. Place or subject: property in Shenstone and Little Aston, Staffordshire etc. C 7/345/140. 1661.
8. Harris v Panter (possibly Payntor). Plaintiffs: John Harris and others. Defendants: Roger Panter. Place or subject: property in Grindon, Staffordshire. C 7/578/78. 1679.
9. Panter v Stubbs. Plaintiffs: Panter. Defendants: Stubbs, Smith and Stubbs. Documents: depositions concerning Grindon, Staffordshire. DL 4/124/1687/6. 1687.
10. Bird v James. Plaintiffs: Richard Bird. Defendants: Joseph James and John Harrison. Subject: lands and personal estate of the deceased Ruth Stubbs, in Butterton, Grindon, Alstonefield, Wetton, and Hope, Staffordshire. C 6/329/67. 1696.
The connection to a Harris family is adduced from the following:
Robert Harrys. Edward Burton of Carshalton held that manor in 1507, and his son conveyed it to John Scott. John Scott died in 1558, seised of two-thirds of the manor of Woodmansterne. “Robert Harrys, or Harris, had an interest in this manorial estate” (Brayley et al., A topographical history of Surrey, Volume 4, p. 47, 1850). From him descended Robert Herys, esq. master in chancery (ob. 1653). His dau., Katherine Harris, mar. William Paynter, who conveyed the manor of Woodmansterne, the site of the manor, and lands here, to Sir Edmund Bowyer of Camberwell. Their son,Thomas Paynter, mar. sister of Nowell Bassano. Nowell Bassano. ‘After noe little trouble we have at last disposed of my Brother Painter’s untoward sonn — (Nowell Bassano was Thomas Poynter’s brother-law) —- he is consigned to a verry Eminent Merchant (Thomas Grendon) in Virginia’ (D-X464/3/9 8 Aug. 1682).
‘The advowson of Woodmanstone was given to the priory of St. Mary Overy, in Southwark, by Nigel de Mowbray, early in the twelfth century; but it appears from the Valor of the 20th of Edward the First, that the monks of Bec, in Normandy, derived a pension of 30*. from its revenues. It was then valued at 13 marks; and in the King’s books, at 11/ 7 s. 6d.; paying 8s. 9d. for procurations and synodals. It is a rectory in the deanery of Ewell. The Registers commence in 1566, but are not complete’ (Brayley, ibid.).
copyright m stanhope 2016
Walter FitzGilbert de Hamilton 