Grindlay family

 The Grindlay family (Old English: [compound] "Grynde"/"Grēne" + "Leā"/"Leāh") is an ancient knightly family of England, whose ancestry can be traced back to the 9th century.
Originating in Northumberland, the family now has two primary branches, one in the English Midlands and the other in the Scottish Lowlands, with a small presence in Ireland, America, New Zealand and South Africa. The family established themselves as landed lords, knights, and gentry, but more recently were prominent British bankers (see Grindlays Bank), officials, industrialists, soldiers, and freemasons during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.
As an armigerous family whose position arose from feudal manorial lordships and knightly service, the Grindlay family rank among the English minor nobility or "noblesse d'épée".
History.
Anglo-Saxon Lineage.
The family are reputed to be descended from the Anglo-Saxon knights, Harold and Athel Greenlee or Grēneleāh (c.850) of Green Chase, Northumberland. The brothers were awarded the demesne of Balsal Chase or Bordeshale, now Balsall Heath, in Warwickshire and its manors by King Alfred the Great for "heroic gallantry" during the Norfolk Campaign against the Danes. Control of these lands and the surrounding region in Northern Warwickshire, the then Kingdom of Mercia, established the family in the Midland Counties in addition to the North of England and the Scottish Lowlands, the then Kingdom of Northumbria.""Of an ancient family "thorough Anglo Saxon" named Greenlee, called in the Midland Counties of England "The Greenlees"...two knights of this family...were gifted by King Alfred to a demesne in the County of Warwick...where this branch lived in opulence and high respect"" – Archives of Aston Hall, Warwickshire
13th, 14th and 15th Centuries.
Originating from the combination of the Old English words "grynde" or "grēne" and "leā" or "leāh", meaning valley clearing or green clearing, the English spelling of the family name developed several variants over time, principally Greneleye, Grenlay and Grendleye or Grendeley. This is exemplified by the different ways the surname was recorded throughout this period, including Simon de Greneleye (c.1250), William de Grenlay (c.1275), and Richard de Grendeley (c.1390).
By the High Medieval Period, the family were established landowners of the English Midlands, primarily in Warwickshire and Staffordshire, and later in Nottinghamshire. They were involved in regional affairs of politics and administration as early as the 13th century onwards, such as Geoffrey de Greneleye or Grenleye, and his son William de Greneley or Grenleye (c.1328), a man-at-arms or knight, applying their warranty and seal to documents of the Chartulary of the Priory of St. Thomas near Stafford, and Thomas de Grenlay (c.1349), incumbent rector of St John the Baptist Church, Clarborough.
The Middle Ages saw several generations of the family take up arms against the French during the Hundred Years' War, most notably Sir William de Grenlay, William Greneleye or Guillaume Greenlee (c.1372). William, and his soldiers, fought alongside Thomas Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick, and Sir John Neville, heir apparent to the Earl of Westmorland, but was slain at the Siege of Harfleur, and posthumously knighted by King Henry V. His kinsmen, John Grenlay, Grenley or Greneley (c.1417), was also at the siege under the command of Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter, and subsequently garrisoned at Harfleur until it fell to the French in 1435, and Thomas Grenlay or Greneley (c.1424), fought at the Siege of Louviers in 1431 and afterwards became twice Vice Chancellor of Oxford University in 1436 and 1437.
During this same period, a cadet branch of the English arm of the family rose to prominence under William Gyrdeley, Gridley or Grindlay, who fought at the Battle of Agincourt as a member of the personal retinue of John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter, the then Earl of Huntingdon. One of his kinsmen, Robin Grynelay or Gyrdeley, saw fighting at Le Neubourg under Henry Bourchier, 1st Earl of Essex until it was lost to the French in April 1444. In 1425, William granted a portion of his lands in Ticehurst, Sussex to the Duke of Exeter, Sir Thomas Echyngham and others, while he and his heirs subsequently established themselves at Rothley Court in Leicestershire and Boarzell Manor in Sussex.
Throughout the late 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, the family were engaged in a number of notable land ownership disputes with neighbouring families, including those of de Denston, Bagot, Barons of Bagot's Bromley, Ferrers, Earls of Derby, Legh, Cheshire and Warwickshire gentry and aristocracy, and others, regarding their lands in Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire. The family also frequently acted as arbiters for issues of succession for several others, including the Lyot, Purley and Wolaston (see William Wollaston) families of Staffordshire and Leicestershire.
The close resemblance between the family name and those of several settlements in the surrounding area, such as Grindley in Staffordshire, Grindley Brook in Shropshire, Tushingham cum Grindley in Cheshire, and Little Gringley, formerly spelt both Greneleye and Grenlay, in Nottinghamshire, reflects the longstanding presence of the family in the region.
16th and 17th Centuries.
Around the early 16th century, part of the family moved south west into the neighbouring county of Herefordshire, where they established landholdings near Kington. In 1525, the estate of Woodhallhill Manor in Staunton on Arrow (formerly spelt Stanton) was granted to John Greneleye and his heirs, and the country house remained the seat of his successors thereafter.
In the mid 16th century, the family were granted additional lands and estates in Ireland, near the city of Limerick, Munster, by Queen Elizabeth I and Thomas Wentworth, 1st Baron Wentworth and Lord Chamberlain, to establish various armouries for small arms and culverin cannon. As committed Presbyterians, the family line that settled in Ireland were subjected to religious persecution during the reign of King William III, and their lands and Hall were destroyed in response to the ongoing religious turmoil of the 16th and 17th centuries, particularly that surrounding the Battle of the Boyne.
The family were invited into the protection of Trevor Hill, 1st Viscount Hillsborough and Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire and member of parliament for Warwick, but largely decided to leave Ireland and emigrate to America at the beginning of the 18th century.
Throughout the late 16th and 17th centuries, the family continued to expand their possessions, particularly in the North Midlands and Cheshire, where several areas are eponymously named, such as Grindleyes Feeld (c.1593) or Grindleys Green (c.1604), now Grindley Green in Newhall, Cheshire.
18th, 19th and 20th Centuries.
The contemporary spellings of the family surname, themselves the result of further variation, are namely Grinley, Greenly, of Titley Court, and Grindley or Grindlay, of Parkfields Manor and others.
From the end of the 18th century onwards, the family actively participated in the closing stages of the Industrial Revolution, the expansion of the British Empire, and the global conflicts of WW1 and WW2, both civically and militarily. Their involvement included distinguished military service, the growth of the British financial system, wartime government leadership, and the development of pioneering industrial operations.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, a number of the family became prominent Freemasons, acting as members, officers, masters and founders of multiple Masonic lodges across the country, but particularly in Warwickshire and the wider English Midlands.
Notable modern members of the English branch of the family include Captain Robert Melville Grindlay, the soldier, painter and founder of Grindlays Bank, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Robert Grindlay, A.Q.M.G, of Her Majesty's 21st Hussars, decorated veteran of the First and Second Anglo-Sikh Wars, Alfred Robert Grindlay, the founder of Grindlay Peerless and Lord Mayor of Coventry during World War II, Major Henry Hugh Grindley, Royal Field artilleryman and overseas railway pioneer, and William Harry Grindley, the 19th century ironstone industrialist and founder of the eponymous W H Grindley.
Wider Family.
Family Branches.
The Scottish branch of the family is an ancestral sept of Clan Home and Clan Wedderburn, with the arms of Grindlay and Wedderburn sharing the motto 'Non Degener' (Not Degenerated). The family principally resided near the ancient town of Grinnla, now Greenlaw, in the Scottish Borders, where the spelling of the family name alternated between Greenlee, Greenlaw, Grenlay and Grindlay. The familial connection is illustrated by the congruent arms of Greenlees and Greenlaw, the progenitors of Clan Home (see Sir Patrick de Greenlaw, descendant of Cospatric I, the Earl of Northumbria).
More contemporary members of this line include George and William Grindlay, the 18th and 19th century leather magnates and landowners of the former Orchardfield Estate in Edinburgh, Thomas Grindlay, master of Trinity House of Leith, Walter Grindlay, the Edinburgh and Liverpool shipping grandee, and father of Lady Janet Grindlay Simpson, (see Simpson Baronets of Strathavon and Edinburgh), and The Right Honourable Lord Grindley of Rannoch.
Another branch of the family exists in the United States (see James G Grindlay), who became highly decorated Unionist participants in the American Civil War following emigration from the United Kingdom during the 19th Century.
Broader Relations.
The Grindal family (see Edmund Grindal, Archbishop of Canterbury during the 16th century) are held to be close associates and possible relations, with their near synonymous heraldry believed to stem from this connection. So too are the Gridley family (see Barons of Stockport), the evidence of whose decent is more ambiguous, due to the near interchangeable medieval spellings of the Grelley, Gresley and Grindlay families in the North Midlands.
Direct ancestral ties to both the noble Norman families of Grelley, formerly spelt Gredley, Greidley and Gredleye, decedents of Albertus Greslet or 'Albert 'd'Avranches' de Greslé' (c.1050 - c.1100), avowed Viscount of Avranches, and the 1st Baron of Manchester (see House of Grailly), and Gresley, formerly spelt Greseleye, Baronets of Drakelow Hall and decedents of Robert de Stafford (see House of Tosny), have been presented by a number of 19th century historians, though are still the subject of research.
Coats of Arms.
Senior Branch.
Although the family had been using seals and insignia from the beginning of the 14th century, the first known record of arms are from Sir William de Grenlay, William Greneleye or Guillaume Greenlee (c.1372) of Edgebaston, Warwickshire, who was commended for martial valour at the Siege of Harfleur, in Normandy, France, during the Hundred Years' War. He was dubbed the "Knight of the Royal Guards" by King Henry V, and as a reward, the family were entitled to have their armorial bearings topped with an additional crest (a green mound with sprig of oak) and motto (Fortes et fidelis). The existing family coat of arms at that time was recorded as:"Armorial Quartering...angular bars on the shield; the ermine, above Bar; and a square thereon..."The "Armorial Quartering" refers to the division of the field into 4 square quarters, the "angular bars on the shield" to early pheons, and the "ermine, above Bar" to the tincture adjoining the central ordinaries, all of which are exhibited in the arms to this day. This 14th century emblazoned escutcheon is regarded as an early form of the arms now bourn by the Grindlay family, with the current coat of arms adopted at some point during the 16th or 17th centuries, to differentiate their immediate familial line from their wider ancestral lineage.
The arms of the related but distinct lines of the Grindlay family, are identifiable by their differing heraldic crests, which among them include a buffalo, a peahen and a dove.
Examples of the recorded arms of Grindlay and Grindley, illustrating their relatively fluid interchangeability up until the 19th century, are as follows:
Cadet Branches.
The Warwickshire line of the family gave rise to two separate cadet branches, one in Nottinghamshire and then a second in Leicestershire and Sussex. Both cadet branches attained arms in their own right.
Nottinghamshire.
The Nottinghamshire cadet branch adopted arms as early as the 14th century, attributed to William, son of John de Grenleye (c.1374) of the County of Nottingham. First documented in the "Catalogue of Seals" of the Department of Manuscripts of the British Museum 1894, and later in the "Dictionary of British Arms – Medieval Ordinary Vol I", the armorial bearings are described as:"A bend bretessed, between three crescents"
Identified by Walter de Grey Birch, the arms were recovered from a gothic panel and described as dark red but indistinct in colour, indicative of a gules escutcheon and likely faded argent charges, due to the tendency for silver paint to oxidise and darken over time (see Tincture: Argent).
Leicestershire and Sussex.
The arms of the Leicestershire and Sussex cadet branch of the family were first recorded in Wriothesley's Chevrons (c.1525) by Sir Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton (1505 – 1550). The armorial bearings are described in this and later works, including the "Dictionary of British Arms – Medieval Ordinary Vol II", as:"Azure a chevron engrailed argent between 3 fleurs de lis or"The arms of this cadet branch illustrate a number of parallels with those of Clan Kinninmont of Kinninmoth near Fife in Scotland, an area where the Grindlay family are known to have settled. The close resemblance extends to the clan crest and badge which feature an oak tree or sprig of oak.
Houses and Estates.
Notable family residences:
Other prominent residences of the wider family:
Residences of broader relations: