Early Grimshaw Family Lines — Three of the Most Prominent

As many as 30 to 35 potential lines of Grimshaws could have spun off the earliest recorded Grimshaw line started by Walter in about 1250. Three lines in particular have emerged as particularly prominent in Grimshaw family history:

  1. The Oakenshaw line, which was the earliest recorded to “emanated” from the Clayton Hall Line about 1400 A.D.

  2. The Pendle Forest line, which also emanated from the Clayton Hall line, in the late 1500s

  3. The “Irish” line, which emerged from the Pendle Forest line and emigrated to Ireland in the second half of the 1700s.

A high percentage of living Grimshaws trace their roots back through one of these lines. The three lines were first described in Whitaker. Each line is provided its own page on this website.

References

5Whitaker, Thomas Dunham, 1872, An History of the Original Parish of Whalley, and Honor of Clitheroe (Revised and enlarged by John G. Nichols and Ponsonby A. Lyons): London, George Routledge and Sons, 4th Edition; v. I, 362 p.; v. II, 622 p. Earlier editions were published in 1800, 1806, and 1825.

Webpage History

Webpage posted July 2000. Banner replaced April 2011.