The seal attached after the signature of “John Nock” bears, not the arms of the signatory, as given by Whittle, but insignia analogous to the arms of Preston, which we presume were those of the trading company to which Mr. Nock belonged, a lamb passant, supporting a pennon charged with the emblem of the cross. According to Peter Whittle, the arms borne by John Nock, of Preston, in 1751 were – “Or, on alfess table, between three leopards faces gules, as many crowns of the field.” One of the witnesses to the Bond is “Dorothy Nock” – the wife, doubtless of Mr. John Nock. In the printed Grimshaw Pedigree in the History of Whalley the surname of the wife of Thomas Grimshaw and her father is misspelt “Nocks,” for the signatures of “John Nock” and “Dorothy Nock” before us clearly prove that the name was “Nock,” not “Nocks.” The document is endorsed – “28^th Sept., 1739, Mr. Nocks Bond for £200;” and the words are added, in the handwriting of Nicholas Grimshaw, Esq., “As the Marriage Portion of my Mother.” Immediately after the date of this instrument the marriage ceremony took place. The undertaking in the Bond that the father of the bride should provide for “Thomas Grimshaw and Mary his intended wife, meat, drink, washing, and lodging, for the space of one year next ensuing,” suggests to us that young Mr. Grimshaw was not, up to the date of his marriage, established in a house of his own, but that after his marriage he resided for a time under the roof of his father-in-law. It may have been at the house of Mr. Nock that Mrs. Grimshaw gave birth to her first son John, who was born within the year from the marriage – in the month of July, 1740. By this marriage Thomas Grimshaw had three younger children, two sons and a daughter. The sons were Nicholas, who died in early youth; and a second Nicholas – the Nicholas Grimshaw of Preston civic fame – who was born on the 14^th October, 1757. There was an interval of seventeen years between the birth of John Grimshaw, the first son, and of the youngest son, Nicholas. The one daughter was Mary Grimshaw, who became the wife of Lieut. Naylor, Garter King of Arms. The mother, Mrs. Mary Grimshaw, died in April, 1762, when her youngest son Nicholas was only between four and five years old.

The professional career of Mr. Thomas Grimshaw supplies no remarkable incidents. He evidently prospered steadily as a solicitor, and in course of time became a considerable personage in the town of his adoption. Between 1750 and 1760 he first appears as taking part in the towns business. We find his name in the record of burgesses who subscribed the oaths of allegiance and abjuration in the years 1754, 1756, 1760, 1768, and 1769. He served the Corporate office of Bailiff in 1754. He was a councillor of Preston Corporation some years before 1768, when, on 1^st of August in that year, he was elected an alderman in the place of Thomas Starkie, gent., who had died on the 4^th of July previously, and at the same time his son, John Grimshaw, gent., was elected a councillor in the place of his father. Thomas Grimshaw, gent., was elected Mayor of Preston in the latter end of 1768, and served for the year 1768-9. He was again chosen Mayor for the year 1775-6; and at the Guild of 1782 he served the office of Steward. He lived to see both his sons, John and Nicholas, assuming honourable positions in the borough, and he died in July 1787, in the 79^th year of his age.

In The Guardian of next Saturday will be given a notice of John Grimshaw, Esq. Four times Mayor of Preston, and his family.

Article 3. September 15, 1877

John Grimshaw, eldest son of Mr. Thomas Grimshaw of Preston, was born, as previously mentioned, at Preston, in the month of July, 1740. After his education, which probably was at the Grammar School in Preston, he entered his father’s office, being destined for the paternal profession of the law. On reaching manhood he commenced to practice at Preston as a solicitor on his own account. In the year 1762, at the age of 22, Mr. John Grimshaw served as one of the Bailiffs of the Borough of Preston at the Guild in that year. This was his first corporate appointment. In 1761 he took the prescribed oaths of allegiance and abjuration; and we find him again taking the oaths in 1763, and in 1768, at a session of the Borough Court, held Jan. 11^th, at the house of William Dawson of Preston, innkeeper, the name of John Grimshaw occurs among those who took the new oaths of allegiance and abjuration imposed by the Government in 1766. John Grimshaw, gent., was elected a Councillor of the Borough on the 1^st August, 1768, in the place of his father, who was at the same time elevated to the bench of Aldermen. At the Guild of 1782, Mr. John Grimshaw appears in high civic office as an Alderman of Preston; and shortly after the close of the Guild, on the termination of the term of office of Mr. Richard Atherton, Guild Mayor in that year, Alderman John Grimshaw was for the first time elected Mayor of Preston for the year 1782-3 He was then aged 42. From this date he was a chief Member of the Corporation during fifty years. After the lapse of six years, John Grimshaw, Esq., was appointed Mayor a second time in October, 1788. He fulfilled the office on this, as on the former occasion, with dignity and credit; and eleven years subsequently, in October 1799, Alderman John Grimshaw was for the third time elected Mayor of Preston. At the Guild of 1802, when his younger brother Nicholas was Mayor, John Grimshaw, Esq., officiated as one of the Stewards of the Guild. The fourth and last occasion of Alderman John Grimshaws fulfilment of the office of Mayor was in the year 1806-7. He completed his 67^th year during his last term of the Mayoralty. He still continued to serve the office of Alderman for a good many years after that date; until, about the year 1820, having reached the age of eighty, John Grimshaw, Esq., resigned the office of Alderman and withdrew from the Civic Council. He sustained, before his resignation, the venerated position of Father of the Corporation, being considerably the oldest member of the Council, in which he had held a place without intermission during more than fifty years. Not long after his resignation, the Mayor and Council, in order to mark their high estimation of one who had served the borough so long and so well, subscribed a handsome sum, with which was purchased a valuable piece of plate, the presentation of which to Mr. John Grimshaw was made in January, 1821. This testimonial was inscribed as follows:-

“To John Grimshaw, Esquire, late Senior Alderman of the Corporation of Preston, and one of his Majestys Justices of the Peace for that Borough; who, for a long series of years, supported the rights and interests of the body corporate, and promoted the peace and welfare of the borough in general, with equal ability, integrity, and zeal, this Cup is presented as a token of gratitude for his public services, and of esteem and regard for his private character, by the Mayor, Aldermen, and capital Burgesses of the Borough, in Common Council assembled.”

The veteran Burgess did not long survive the receipt of this tribute by the Mayor and Council to his worth and his service to the town. John Grimshaw died in his 81^st year, on the 12^th of March, 1821.

Mr. John Grimshaw married Penelope, daughter of Mr. Edmund Shuttleworth of Horrocksford, near Clitheroe. By her he had issue two sons and four daughters. His first son was born in 1777, and was christened Thomas Shuttleworth Grimshaw, taking for his second name the maternal surname. Of this son a further notice is given below. The second son was named John Nock Grimshaw, the second of his names being the surname of his grandmother, Mary Nock. Mr. John Nock Grimshaw died, it is stated, without issue, in the year 1836. He held the office of Bailiff of the borough in the same year (1806) in which his father was last time Mayor. The daughters of John Grimshaw, Esq., were, Penelope, wife of Lieut. Col. Sir Joseph Brook, Bart.; Anne, first wife of Charles Greenway, Esq., of Ardwick and Darwen. (Her obituary occurs:- “1827. April 26. Ann, wife of Charles Greenway, Esq., and daughter of the late John Grimshaw Esq., of Preston, aged 39.”) Dorothea, third daughter, married Mr. Charles Walker; and the fourth daughter, Loiusa Grimshaw, became the wife of Charles Butler Cole of Kirkland, Esq.

Thomas Shuttleworth Grimshaw, eldest son of John Grimshaw, Esq., and born in Preston in the year 1777, was a clergyman of considerable repute as an author and a scholar. He took the degree of M.A. at the University (I do not note whether it was Oxford or Cambridge), and entering holy orders, was beneficed at Biddenham, Co. Bedford, in the yar 1808. Soon after he obtained, without
resigning Biddenham, the rectory of Burton Latimer, Co. Northampton, Rev. Thomas Shuttleworth Grimshaw (he adopted the final “e” at the end of his surname) was a prominent member of what was called the “evangelical” section in the Church of England in the first half of the present century. His first essays in authorship were two or three pamphlets, of which the one which attracted the most notice was the following, which arose out of a dispute the writer had with the Bishop of Peterborough (Marsh), respecting the appointment of a curate:-.

“The Wrongs of the Clergy of the Diocese of Peterborough stated and illustrated. By the Rev. T.S. Grimshaw, M.A., Rector of Burton, Northamptonshire, and vicar of Biddenham, Bedfordshire.” London, Seeley. 1822. 8 vo

This pamphlet elicited a retort, entitled “A Refutation of Mr. Grimshawes Pamphlet,” &c., wherein it is mentioned that the curate nominated by Mr. Grimshawe in June, 1820, had been refused a license by Bishop Marsh on his refusal to submit to examination, upon which Mr. Grimshawe threatened to petition Parliament, &c. There was a very sharp dispute between Mr. Grimshawe and his diocesan on this matter. One of the Rev. T.S. Grimshawes pamphlets was printed in Preston, by T. Walker, entitled “An Exposition of the Principles of the Established Church, defined and explained according to the doctrine and principles of Dr. Calvin.” His larger publications were biographical, and were “Memoirs of the Rev. Legh Richmond, A.M.,: &c., 8 vo., pp. 662; and – “The Works of William Cowper. The Life and Letters by W. Hayley, Esq.; now first completed by the Introduction of Cowpers Private Correspondence. Edited by Rev. T.S. Grimshawe, M.A..” 8 vols. 1835-6.

Rev. Thomas Shuttleworth Grimshaw married Charlotte Anne, daughter of George Livius, Esq., of Caldwell Priory, Co. Bedford. (This lady survived him only a few months, and died June 28^th, 1851.) He had issue two sons; the first, Mr. John Barham Grimshawe, died unmarried, at Trinity College, Cambridge, in the year 1835; the second, Charles Livius Grimshawe is again named hereafter. Rev. Thomas Shuttleworth Grimshaw had also several daughters, to whom the eldest, Augusta Emily, married, Feb. 22^nd, 1848, the Rev. Bolingbroke Seymour, only son of Eyre Seymour, Esq., of Eyres Court, Galway; and the second daughter, Georgina, married, Oct. 30^th, 1849, Legh Richmond, Esq., of Riversdale, Ashton-under-Lyne, the son, I believe, of the celebrated clergyman and author, Rev. Legh Richmond, whose memoir had been written by the Rev. T.S. Grimshaw. The latter clergyman died at Biddenham, Feb 17^th, 1850. The subjoined obituary sketch of the character of the Rev. T.S. Grimshawe was published in The Gentlemans Magazine for May, 1850:- Feb. 17^th, 1850 died at the Vicarage, Biddenham, Besds., in his 73^rd year, the Rev. Thomas Shuttleworth Grimshawe, A.M., R.S.A., and M.B.S., Vicar of Biddenham (from 1808) , and late Rector of Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire (1809). This gentleman was a native of Preston, in Lancashire, and eldest son of the late John Grimshawe, Esq., many years senior alderman and several times Mayor of the Borough. A clergyman for many years distinguished by his pious zeal and activity in the Jewish and Church Missionary cause, he was the esteemed friend of the Rev. Charles Simeon, Edward Bickersteth, and Dr. Marsh. His characteristic interest in the conversion of the Jews impelled him, at the age of 60 years, to visit Palestine; and his subsequent addresses at the public meetings of his favourite societies derived a peculiar charm from his graphic, earnest recital of the incidents which accompanied his tour. He was universally loved, respected, and esteemed, not only by his own parishioners, amongst whom he laboured with unceasing zeal and affection; but by every one who had the pleasure of being acquainted with him. But it was in the deep interest and untiring efforts manifested in behalf of those societies having for their object the propagation of the Gospel, and the spread of Evangelical truth, that Mr. Grimshawe, especially signalised himself. His favourite society was that for promoting Christianity among the Jews; and it is well known how he laboured for the peace of Israel, and for making known to that remarkable people those saving truths which were his stay and support through life. He was the author of (1) The Life of the Rev. Legh Richmond, (2) The Life and Works of William Cowper, Esq. In 8 volumes, 1835-6. This work was reviewed in our vol. III., p. 568, vol. IV., 339-345, 601-3, and its literary defects plainly pointed out; but though immediately followed by the more aspiring criticisms of Southey, it is said to be now in its third edition. Mr. Grimshawe undertook the task, regarding the object of his labours as The Poet of Christianity; and his edition has probably been supported by purchasers who have wished to view their favourite with the same partial and confiding admiration. The following notice of Mr. Grimshawe was read at the last meeting of the Syro-Egyptian Society:- At this society, we had to deplore the loss of one of our earliest patrons, John Barker, Esq., of Aleppo, formerly the Consul-General of Syria, and we have on this occasion to regret the decease of one of our learned members, the Rev. Thomas Shuttleworth Grimshawe, an accomplished scholar, who was respected by every person who had the honour and pleasure of his acquaintance. He was a gentleman of much literary attainment, of pure classic taste. Possessing much refinement of mind, he attached a high degree of importance to ancient history, and to those branches of knowledge, and of science, which proceed from those countries to which the attention of this society is more particularly directed. And a few years ago, with much spirit, at the age of about 70 years, he undertook a voyage to Egypt, and as ended the Nile to Thebes, and subsequently visited Jerusalem and the adjacent parts of the Holy Land; and he was accustomed to speak of the chronological and architectural wonders, and of the objects of natural history, which he had seen in his travels, with delight and enthusiasm. He was a man of great brilliancy of thought, and liberal in his opinions on matters relating to the ordinary subjects of life; and of enlightened views, of elegant manners, and most courteous in his demeanour. A large circle of relations and friends and neighbours now lament his decease. “

The present representative of the branch of Grimshaws of Preston descending from John Grimshaw, Esq., of Preston, who died in 1821, is his grandson, the son of Rev. T.S. Grimshawe, described in the family record as Charles Livius Grimshawe, of Tottington Hall, Co. Lancaster, and of Goldington and Aspley Guise, Co. Bedford, J.P., and served the office of High Sheriff of Bedfordshire in 1866. That gentleman married, first, Jemima Lucy, daughter of Thomas Ward Broughton Leigh, of Brownsover, Co. Warwick (she died without issue), and, secondly, Emily Mary, daughter of Sir Charles Gillies Payne, Bart., of Blackburn House, Co., Bedford, by whom he has had issue, sons, Charles Barham Fitz Payne Grimshaw, Edmund Salusbury Payne Grimshawe, and Arthur Grimshargh Cecil Grimshawe; and a daughter, Emma Geraldine Effie.

The street in Preston called Grimshaw street, which branches out of Church street on the south side a short distance to the east of the Parish Church, is certainly named after one member of the Grimshaw family we are noticing, but we are unable to say as to whether it was in compliment to John Grimshaw, Esq., or to his brother, Nicholas Grimshaw, Esq., that the street was named Grimshaw street. Perhaps the compliment was meant for both the brothers, or for the family collectively, including their sire, Thomas Grimshaw, Esq. It may be, also, that some reader of these sketches can supply the year in which Grimshaw street was opened out. It was, we think, before the end of the last century. The first Independent Chapel was build in Grimshaw street in 1808, and the street was then almost destitute of houses built to its front, from which we infer that the street had not then been very long constructed.

In The Guardian of next Saturday, Sept. 15^th; the account of the Grimshaw Family will be continued, with a sketch of Nicholas Grimshaw, Esq., Guild Mayor of Preston in 1802 and 1822.

(Webpage Editor’s note: The date of Sept. 15 noted in the conclusion above must be in error, as that is the date of this installment, and the next Saturday was the 22^nd; the fourth and final installment was indeed published on the 22^nd.)

Article 4. September 22, 1877

 We have now to complete our account of this Important local Family by a notice of its most conspicuous member, Nicholas Grimshaw, Esq., who sustained the office of Mayor of Preston no fewer than seven times, including two Guild years. Nicholas Grimshaw was the youngest son of Thomas Grimshaw, gent., attorney-at-law, of this town, and was born at Preston the 4^th October 1757. Young Nicholas Grimshaw doubtless received the elements of his education at the Preston Grammar School, which was a Corporate dependant. But the records of that School have never yet been made accessible for publication, and we cannot state the time of the assumed admission of this scholar. The Preston School, however, was not one of much repute for the quality of the learning it imparted in the middle of the last century, and the father of Nicholas Grimshaw appears to have concluded that a better education would be obtained at the Manchester Grammar School, whither his younger son was sent in the beginning of the year 1779. The entry of his admission in the Register of the Manchester Grammar School runs:- “Nicholas, son of Thomas Grimshaw, attorney,, Preston, Lancashire,” admitted Jan 12^th, 1773. Nicholas was then in his 16^th year, so that he must have had some prior years of schooling elsewhere. Several years after his departure from the Manchester School as a scholar, Nicholas Grimshaw kept up a connection with the school, and the editor of the School Register notes that his signature appears to resolutions passed at the meeting in 1781, for the establishment of the anniversary festivals. Like his elder brother John, Nicholas Grimshaw was taken by his father into his own profession as a lawyer, and after remaining with his father a few years, opened up a legal practice of his own, which was continued over half a century. About 1780 he received appointment to the office of Acting Cursitor to the County. The father, Mr. Thomas Grimshaw, being actively associated with municipal affairs in the town, it was to be expected that the son would interest himself therein. In 1782, he was in corporate office as one of the bailiffs, and as that was the year of the Guild, the subordinate function of bailiff was of more consequence than in ordinary years. The Rev. Thomas Wilson, of Clitheroe, in a poetical letter humorously describing the Guild o f1782, refers to the Bailiffs, Robinson Shuttleworth and Nicholas Grimshaw, Esqrs., in the following couplet:-

What dignity shone in the steps of each Bailiff,

With the look of command the pomp of a Caliph!

In 1790, at the age of 33, Mr. Nicholas Grimshaw was elected a common councillor of Preston. Between 1795 and 1805, Mr. Grimshaw took a leading part in the local organisation of Volunteer Corps to defend the country against apprehended invasion by Napoleon. His service as a volunteer officer will be further noticed hereafter. He was elected an Alderman of Preston, in the place of Mr. John Horrocks, in the year 1801. In October of that year he was elected Mayor of Preston for the first time. His year of mayoralty covered the Guild Celebration of 1802. The position of Guild Mayor has always been esteemed in Preston one of honour and responsibility, to which the most accomplished member of the Municipality should be appointed. Mr. Nicholas Grimshaw had all the needful qualifications for the office – energy, address, dignity, sanvity, and a thorough knowledge of all local civic forms and usages. Mr. Grimshaw, as Mayor in 1802, spared no trouble to make the celebration brilliant and successful. Among other matters, he negotiated with Mrs. Billington, the most celebrated English singer of that time, and offered to pay her whatever terms she pleased; but Mrs. Billington, for some reason of her own, did not come to the Guild. The Earl and Countess of Derby led the fashionable county coterie who supported the Mayor at this Guild. The Town Council were so well pleased with the conduct of Mr. Grimshaw as Guild Mayor, that after the Guild was past they voted a sum of fifty guineas for a service of plate for presentation to the Mayor and Mayoress, which bore, besides the borough arms and the arms of Grimshaw, the inscription:- “The Corporation of the Borough of Preston, in Common Council assembled, impressed with a deep sense of the services rendered by Nicholas Grimshaw, Esq. and his Lady, as Mayor and Mayoress, during the Guild Merchant, 1802, offers this testimony of approbation and esteem.” Mr. Nicholas Grimshaw’s next turn in the Mayoralty was in 1808-9; and his third term was for the year 1812-13. His fourth year of Mayoralty was in 1817-18, and when the Guild of 1822 approached, it was resolved, at the election of Mayor in October, 1821, to set aside the ordinary rota of succession of the civic chair in order to secure to the town the advantage of Mr. Grimshaw’s experienced services as Guild Mayor for the second occasion. The Guild of 1822 has been considered a memorable one for the perfection of its arrangements and grandeur of its pageantry. The Guild Mayor, Mr. Nicholas Grimshaw, was now 65 years of age; and his municipal experience and social repute enabled him to command the resources of the town in any proposal he made that was designed to give eclat to the Guild. His son, Mr. Edmund Grimshaw, fulfilled the office of Mayor’s Bailiff at this Guild. The Mayor’s own enjoyment at the great event was sadly dashed by the fatality which, early in the year 1822, deprives Mr. Grimshaw of his two younger sons (as mentioned below.) In consequence of this bereavement, the Mayoress could not participate in the public proceedings of the Guild, and the place of Mrs. Grimshaw was taken in the ceremonies by her daughter, Mrs. Atkinson. At the Fancy Ball of the Guild, on September 6^th, 1822, we read that – “the Lady Mayoress’s representative, Mrs. Atkinson, was elegantly dressed in white, adorned with silver and pearls, and a Spanish hat. The Mayor was present in his usual full dress.” The Mayor’s sons, “Mr. Nicholas Grimshaw, was a fine old English gentleman; Mr. Samuel Grimshaw was splendidly attired in the costume of Richard III.” At the grand Masquerade which was presented on another evening (Sept. 13^th) during the Guild of 1822, it is chronicled that “the dignified and respected Mayor and the amiable and the beautiful Mayoress [Mrs. Atkinson] appeared without masks; the former in evening full dress, the latter in a white gauze dress, tastefully ornamented with bugles, a Spanish hat with a superb plume of feathers and diamonds, diamond necklace and armlets. They took their station oat the top of the great room, and most of the company paid characteristic respects to them during the evening. Mr. Atkinson, in evening full dress, Mr. Samuel Grimshaw, in the splendid dress-uniform of the 10^th Lancers, and Miss Grimshaw, in an elegant fancy dress, were attached to the Mayor’s party and unmasked.” Respecting the Mayoress’s Procession, on Sept. 3^rd, we read:- “At ten o’clock, Mrs. Atkinson, the lady of Richard Atkinson, Esq., of Stodday Lodge, and daughter of the Guild Mayor and Lady Mayoress, and who personated her mother on this occasion, proceeded in her carriage to the Guild Hall. Carriages followed in rapid succession, filled with the most charming of the sex,
decorated in the full costume of the ball-room, who entered the hall to pay their respects to the Lady Mayoress, to accompany her to Church, and to join in the subsequent procession.” At the Church, “Mrs. Atkinson led the magnificent train up the centre aisle; she was followed by the Countess of Derby, the Countess of Wilton, Lady Hoghton, Miss Hoghton, the Hon. Misses Stanley, and a retinue of at least 160 other ladies of the first distinction, the splendour of whose costume was only equalled by the attractive beauty of their personal charms,’ &c. Various other incidents might be reprinted of the share taken by the Mayor and the Grimshaw family in this brilliant celebration. As a memorial of this Guild a handsome silver medal was struck; upon the obverse is a profile bust in relief of the Guild Mayor, vested in the civic robes, with the words “N. Grimshaw, Esq., Mayor of Preston at the Guilds of 1802 and 1822.” On the reverse are two oval shields, bearing respectively the arms of Preston, and the arms of Grimshaw impaled with those of Haigh (the family of Mrs. Grimshaw). Surrounding the shields are the words “Insignia Ville de Preston.”

Mr. Nicholas Grimshaw continued to lead the councils of the Municipality, and in the year 1825-6 he served the office of Mayor for the sixth time. Five years subsequently, in October, 1830, he was elected Mayor of Preston for the seventh and last time. Between thirty and forty years consecutively he was an Alderman of the Borough, and for many years before his death he had been senior Alderman and “Father of the Corporation,” as his brother Alderman John Grimshaw had been before his decease in 1821. We have stated that Mr. Grimshaw was in his time the first authority on all questions of municipal law and usage – matters that in old boroughs could only be understood thoroughly by one who was master of the contents of the town’s charters and muniments, and minutely conversant with all the facts of its corporate history, as the manuscript notes Mr. Nicholas Grimshaw left behind him, some of which are in possession of the proprietor of The Guardian prove that gentleman to have been. Mr. Grimshaw was likewise a diligent searcher into the historical antiquities of the town and district, and we recently printed in these “Sketches” as a note, a letter from Mr. Edward Baines, the author of the “History of Lancashire,” to Mr. Nicholas Grimshaw, written in 1835, in which acknowledgement is made of the county historian’s large indebtedness to Mr. Grimshaw for information in the composition of his chapter on the history of Preston Parish. The collection of valuable papers and documents made by Mr. Grimshaw ought to have been secured entire for our local Shepherd Library, but they have recently been disposed of by auction sale, and have passed into the hands of several private purchasers. Such of them as have been secured for the Editor’s Library at The Guardian office have already been to some extent drawn from for documentary material illustrating local and family history, for the benefit of readers of this journal interested in such matters, and more of the same manuscripts may hereafter be utilised by citation in these columns.

Mr. Grimshaw had a good private practice as a solicitor in this town. He entered into a partnership in the law business with Mr. Richard Palmer, many years Town Clerk of Preston, and the name of Mr. Grimshaw’s younger son, Mr. Samuel Grimshaw, was added to the firm, which in 1823 appears with the style of “Grimshaw, Palmer, and Grimshaw,” practising as attorneys, at 10, Winckley street, Preston. It has before been named that Mr. Niocholas Grimshaw held from 1780 or thereabouts the public appointment of Acting Cursitor of the County of Lancaster; and from 1801 or 1802 until his death he had the appointment of Clerk to the Magistrates. he and his partner, Mr. Palmer, were jointly Clerks to the Commissioners for the Improvement of Preston. Mr. Grimshaw himself was placed in the Commission of the Peace for the County. During the shrievalty of several High Sheriffs he served the county as Under Sheriff. When he died he was the senior legal practitioner in Lancashire. The business of the legal firm was continued after his death by his son, Mr. Samuel Grimshaw; and altogether by three generations of the Grimshaws the practice of the law was maintained in Preston nearly a century and a half.

Next to his able and lengthened service of highest civic office, the zealous efforts of Mr. Nicholas Grimshaw in the patriotic rising for the defence of the country in the last years of the last century, and first years of the present century, was the sphere of his activity in which he won most laurels. He was chiefly instrumental in raising the powerful corps embodied as the “Royal Preston Volunteers” in the year 1797; and he was commissioned successively as captain commandant, major, and lieut.-colonel of this corps. The corps was kept up in an increasing condition of strength and efficiency for more than four years. At the close of the war the corps was disbanded in the year 1802. At a vestry meeting held on the 20^th of April, 1802, “Lieut.-Col. Nicholas Grimshaw, of the Royal Preston Volunteers, attended on behalf of himself and corps now about to be disbanded in consequence of the happy termination of the war, and stated that he had already obtained permission from the Vicar and Churchwardens to place his colours (being a present from the Ladies of the town) on the east end of the [Parish] Church, on each side of the arch leading into the chancel, and also to put up along with them either a new painting of the King’s arms or some suitable device in lieu thereof, and requested the sanction of the Vestry for these purposes.” The request was acceded to, and the flags with the royal arms were fixed in the Preston Parish Church accordingly. On the dissolution of the corps, the officers presented the wife of their Lieut. Col. with a full length portrait of Mr. Grimshaw, painted by Allen. Afterwards a military corps was raised, which was called the “Amounderness Local Militia,” and Mr. Grimshaw was again commissioned as Lieut.-Colonel. This corps was in turn disbanded in 1818, when a piece of silver plate was presented by the officers to Lieut. Colonel Grimshaw, inscribed:- “Presented by his brother officers to Lieut.-Col. Grimshaw, of the Amounderness Local Militia, and formerly of the Royal Preston Volunteers, in testimony of their sincere regard, and of the high sense entertained by them of his patriotic zeal, gentlemanlike conduct, and military ability, so eminently displayed by him in a twenty years’ command of the above corps, and in a season of imminent peril, during which a generous sacrifice was made of private interest and convenience to the cause of his country.”

Nicholas Grimshaw, Esq., married Miss Esther Mary Haigh (this lady survived him nearly sixteen years, and died the 20^th December, 1853). By her he had issue, sons, William; George henry, died in infancy; Edmund; Samuel; Nicholas Charles, and George Henry. The eldest son, William Grimshaw held a commission in the 70^th Regiment, with which he was serving in Canada when he was killed in the year 1815, dying in early manhood, unmarried. The third son was Mr. Edmond Grimshaw, barrister-at-law, of Preston and Cadeley Co. Lancaster, afterwards of Pierremont, Co. Kent. The fourth son was Mr. Samuel Ridings Grimshaw, of Preston, barrister-at-law (before named as sometime in partnership with his father) he died on the 26^th July, 1866. The fifth and sixth sons, Nicholas Charles and George Henry Grimshaw, lost their lives in youth by drowning, in the river Ribble, on the 24^th of April, 1822, the year in which the father was Guild Mayor for the second time. A notice of this sad event, in which two other youths perished, states that on the day named, four or five youths, two of them sons of Nicholas Grimshaw, Esq., Mayor of Preston, and the other two the sons of Henry Hulton, Esq., Treasurer of the County, and of Mr. James Kay, manufacturer, embarked on the Ribble in a small sail-boat on an excursion of pleasure; after amusing themselves for some time, a sudden gust of wind upset their boat in the middle of the river, a little below Penwortham Bridge, and they were all drowned before any assistance could be afforded to them. The local newspapers of the period give taken of the public lamentation called forth by this fatal accident. The bodies of the drowned youths were recovered. On the north wall of the chancel of Preston parish Church was affixed a chaste marble tablet, bearing the following inscription:-

“In memory of Henry William Hulton, aged 21 years; Nicholas Charles Grimshaw, aged 20 years; George Henry Grimshaw, aged 17 years; and Joseph Kay, aged 20 years; who, in a moment of youthful enjoyment, were drowned in the River Ribble, by the upsetting of a boat, on the 24^th day of April, A.D. 1822. Several of their friends and companions have united to erect this monument, in testimony of their deep concern, and with a desire to perpetuate the salutary impression of this truly awful dispensation.”

Some lines of poetry follow this inscription. The daughters of Nicholas Grimshaw, Esq., were – Mary, wife of John Troughton, Esq.; Frances, wife of Richard Atkinson, Esq., of Ellel Grange, Co. Lancaster; and Eleanor, wife of Rev. Francis Brandt.

Nicholas Grimshaw, Esq., died suddenly, at his residence in Preston, Jan. 17^th, 1838, in his 81^st year. He had preserved until the last his native intellectual acumen; and had not shown much physical debility. His funeral was an occasion of public mourning. His remains were interred in the family vault in Preston Parish Churchyard, on Thursday, January 25^th. In honour of the rank the deceased held as Colonel of the Preston Volunteer, and of the Amounderness Local Militia, the flag was hoisted on the church tower half-mast high; and all the shops were closed in the line of the procession, in which the following gentlemen marched as bearers, on either side of the hearse:- Mr. E. Gorst, Mr. W. Clayton, Mr. German, Mr. Shuttleworth, Mr. W. Shawe, Col Austen, Mr. Addison, Mr. Cross, Mr. Pedder, General Whitehead, Mr. R. Newsham, Mr. Shawe, Mr. Jacson, Mr. Miller, Mr. S. Gorst, Mr. Marshall, Mr. Lowe, Mr. Hulton, Capt. Woodford, and Mr. Barstow. The chief mourners were:_ Mr. S. Grimshaw, Rev. T.S. Grimshaw, Mr. Grimshaw, Rev. F. Brandt, Mr. J. Troughton, junr., Mr. Atkinson, Mr. J. Haigh, Mr. C. Palmer, Mr. George Palmer, Mr. Charles Grimshaw. The Vicar
of Preston, Rev. Roger Carus Wilson, read the burial service.

The residence of Nicholas Grimshaw, Esq., for many years was No. 8, Winckley-square, the house now occupied by William Pollard, Esq.

Two or three portraits of Mr. Nicholas Grimshaw had been painted and engraved;- one, painted by Allen, presented to Mrs. Grimshaw, has been mentioned. Another portrait, painted by Lonsdale, was engraved by Scriven. A copy of the latter engraving is in the original edition of Baines’s “History of Lancashire,” vol. iv., p. 352.

We have pleasure in adding the following item from a kind communication by a lady who is grad-daughter of John Grimshaw, Esq., of Preston – Mrs. Louisa Dorothy Congreve, wife of Rev. John Congreve, B.A. (one of the Congreves of Congreve, Co. Stafford). Mrs. Congreve’s mother was Anne, daughter of John Grimshaw, Esq., who married Charles Greenway, Esq., of Darwen and Ardwick, as before stated. This lady writes:- “My uncle and godfather, John Nock Grimshaw was Captain in the 103^rd Regiment of the line, and one who returned from the ill-fated expedition to Walcheren. The last surviving grandson of Nicholas Grimshaw, Esq., Mayor of Preston in 1822, is the Rev. Richard Atkinson of Cockerham, who, by the Will of his uncle Edward, assumes the name and arms of Grimshaw.”

In the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1789 appears an obituary of Thomas Grimshaw, Esq., father of John and Nicholas Grimshaw:- “At Preston, Co. Lancaster, Thomas Grimshaw, Esq., many years senior Alderman and father of the Corporation and formerly an eminent attorney there.”

References

¹W.A. Abram, 1877, Sketches in Local History: Memorials of Old Lancashire Families – the Grimshaws of Pendle Forest and of Preston: Preston, Lancashire, England, The Preston Guardian, September 1, 1877, 2nd Sheet, p. 1.

²W.A. Abram, 1877, Sketches in Local History: Memorials of Old Lancashire Families – the Grimshaws of Pendle Forest and of Preston (Second Paper): Preston, Lancashire, England, The Preston Guardian, September 8, 1877, 2nd Sheet, p. 1.

³W.A. Abram, 1877, Sketches in Local History: Memorials of Old Lancashire Families – the Grimshaws of Pendle Forest and of Preston (Third Paper): Preston, Lancashire, England, The Preston Guardian, September 15, 1877, 2nd Sheet, p. 1.

⁴W.A. Abram, 1877, Sketches in Local History: Memorials of Old Lancashire Families – the Grimshaws of Pendle Forest and of Preston: Preston, Lancashire, England, The Preston Guardian, September 22, 1877, 2nd Sheet, p. 1.

Webpage History

Webpage posted September 2000, updated October 2000. Updated April 2007 with addition of W.A. Abram as author.