Author: STONESTREET, George Griffin
Biography:
by
Ragaz, Sharon (SR)
STONESTREET, George Griffin (1744-1802: ancestry.co.uk)
George Griffin Stonestreet’s authorship of The Story of Tom Cole (1796) is established by a manuscript note listing his published works. Written by his son, George Stonestreet Griffin Stonestreet (q.v.), the note is in a copy of Stonestreet's (the father's) Reflections Occasioned by the Frequency of Fires in the Metropolis (1790). The attribution is confirmed by a note in the Yale copy of Tom Cole which gives the author’s date of death as 24 Aug. 1802—the date Stonestreet died in Clapham, Surrey. Baptised George Griffin on 17 Feb. 1744 at St. Olave’s, Southwark, London, he was the son of David Griffin of Ewell, Surrey, and his wife Anne Stonestreet. He may have apprenticed as a cooper but he came to work in the insurance business, founding both the Phoenix and the Pelican companies and serving as director. He married Mary Farmer on 24 June 1773; they had three daughters and one son (George, q.v.). Mary died in 1785 and on 3 June 1786 at North Mimms, Hertfordshire, he married Susannah Davies (d 1796). In 1794 by a condition of the will of his cousin Rebecca Stonestreet he adopted the surname Stonestreet by royal license, becoming known as George Griffin Stonestreet. He died on 24 Aug. 1802 at home in Clapham, Surrey, and was buried at St. Stephen Walbrook in the City of London where he is commemorated by a marble monument by John Bacon the Younger. His will left his freehold estate in Kingston upon Thames to his son who also received two chalices and a Bible; it also provides for his daughters. Stonestreet’s other works reflect his interest in trade and life in London; they include Prize Sugars not Foreign (1782), Eastward Ho!!! Or, Quoz’s Letters on the Wet Dock Bill (1796), The Portentous Globe (1800), and Domestic Union: Or, London as it Should be (1800). (ancestry.co.uk 6 May 2026; findmypast.co.uk 6 May 2026; National Archives UK PROB 11/1381/7) SR
Other Names:
- George Griffin