Family and Education

b. aft. 1536, 3rd surv. s. of Vincent Grantham^† of St. Katherine’s, Lincoln, being 1st s. by his 3rd w. Bridget, da. of Sir William Hansard of South Kelsey. educ. ?L. Inn 1565. m. da. of one Dighton, 4s. 2da.

Offices Held

Escheator, Lincs. 1575-6; j.p. Lincs. (Lindsey) from c.1591.

Biography

Grantham is a shadowy figure among a number of relatives in the county and city of Lincoln. Probably he was the Thomas Grantham who was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn in 1565 and named as an alternative master of the revels ten years later. His mother married as her second husband Thomas Taylor, who in her right held land in the city of Lincoln. Grantham’s own father-in-law was, in all probability, either Robert Dighton, a well-known figure in Lincoln, or Gilbert Dighton, gentleman, who had had land dealings with the Grantham family in 1557. Possibly his own connexions were enough to account for his one return to Parliament. However, he may have owed this to his brother-in-law Thomas St. Poll, who represented Grimsby in the previous Parliament. Grantham died intestate 20 Feb. 1592, letters of administration being granted on 1 June of that year to his nephew Nicholas Saunderson, who sat for Grimsby in 1593.

Lincs. Peds. (Harl. Soc. li), 421-3; J. W. F. Hill, Tudor and Stuart Lincoln, 63; CPR, 1557-8, p. 334; C142/230/8; Cal. Lincoln Admons. (Lincoln Rec. Soc. xvi), 58.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: W.J.J.

Notes