Author: Grigg, Joseph
Biography:
GRIGG, Joseph (d 1768: ancestry.co.uk)
No birth record has been located for him and the names of his parents are not known. Grigg stated that he was a “mechanic” and born in humble circumstances. In 1743 he became assistant minister to the Rev. Thomas Bures of the Presbyterian church on Silver Street, London, and served in that capacity until the death of Bures in 1747. He married Mary Dry in St. Sepulchre, Holborn, on 11 Feb. 1747. (Some near-contemporary accounts of Grigg indicate that his wife, whose name is given as Drew, was a wealthy widow; that has not been corroborated by public records which indicate that Mary Dry was baptised under that name on 28 May 1723.) They moved to St. Albans where Grigg preached occasionally. He was living in St. Albans, Hertfordshire, at the time of his death on 29 Oct. 1768; his wife had predeceased him. His will, signed on 6 Apr. 1768 and proved on 7 Nov., indicates that he owned bank stock and property in London and Norfolk which he left to friends and to his nephew. Grigg’s other publications include sermons—one, The Young Chevalier: No God-Speed to Him was published in 1745—and a poem, The Saviour (1745), of which just the first of a promised two books was issued. Some of his hymns were published in two collections from 1756 and 1765. The collection listed in this bibliography was reviewed rather unfavourably by MR which stated that Grigg’s abilities “consisted not in versification.” (ancestry.co.uk 3 Oct. 2024; MR 52 [1807], 215; Josiah Miller, Our Hymns, Their Authors and Origin [1866])