GRIFFITH, Edmund (c.1570-1637)

Griffith was described by Sir John Wynn^‡ of Gwydir (1553-1627), the factional enemy of Griffith’s family, as ‘a worthy gentleman in divinity’ from an ‘ancient house’.19 Wynne, 97. A younger son, he went into the Church and was appointed rector of a parish in his native Caernarvonshire in 1596. (A namesake, appointed rector of Newborough, in Anglesey in the same year, became chaplain to William Bourchier^*, 3rd earl of Bath, and died in 1617.)20 CPR, 1595-6 ed. S.R. Neal and C. Leighton (L. and I. Soc. cccxvii), 126; Dioc. of Bangor in the 16th Century, 34; DWB, 291; CCEd. In 1606 Griffith was appointed archdeacon of Bangor and, seven years later, became dean of Bangor Cathedral. However, another 20 years elapsed before he obtained further advancement.

In January 1620 Griffith was summoned before the Privy Council following a complaint from the bishop of Bangor, Lewes Bayly^*, that he had administered a modified version of the oath of allegiance to a recusant. However, the Council concluded that Bayly had presented them with a distorted version of events and had been motivated by ‘private malice’. Bayly was therefore instructed to ‘maintain better brotherhood and friendship’ with Griffith. This dispute seems to have been part of a wider local conflict between Griffith’s family and the Wynns, who were supported by Bayly. This conflict also manifested itself in the Caernarvonshire parliamentary election later that year, when Griffith was one of the signatories to the indenture which returned his brother, John^‡, for the county seat.21 APC, 1619-21, pp. 106, 139-40; K. Fincham, Prelate as Pastor, 82; HP Commons, 1604-29, ii. 554. In charges presented to the lower House in 1626 against Bayly by Sir Eubule Thelwall^‡ and Griffith’s brother, John, Bayly was accused of calling the Griffith ‘a sturdy knave’ and of assaulting Griffith’s wife while she was heavily pregnant. After the 1626 Parliament was dissolved, Bayly reportedly initiated a Star Chamber suit against Griffith and his other enemies, although the outcome is unknown.22 HP Commons 1604-29, vi. 506; SP16/30/8; HMC 5th Rep. 417-18; Procs. 1626, iv. 324.

Griffith’s elevation to the episcopate followed the death of Bayly’s successor, David Dolben^*, in November 1633. Dolben had only been appointed the previous year, when Griffith had evidently been passed over, suggesting that the latter was very much the second choice. Moreover, shortly before Griffith was nominated, one Henry Lloyd signed a declaration denying that Dolben had certified that Griffith was suitable to succeed him.23 CSP Dom. 1633-4, p. 318. Nevertheless, Griffith was consecrated in February 1634 at Lambeth Palace by William Laud^*, archbishop of Canterbury.24 CCEd. He was almost immediately embroiled in difficulties, for one Cheadle, possibly Rowland Cheadle, the treasurer of Bangor Cathedral, with whom he was in conflict over a living, presented a scandalous petition to the king. In May a committee of the Privy Council encouraged Griffith to prosecute Cheadle in Star Chamber, but whether he did so is unknown.25 PC2/43, p. 651; HEHL, EL7000; Le Neve, Fasti (1854), i. 118.

In August 1634 Laud instructed Griffith to conduct a detailed survey of his bishopric in order to prevent the concealment of Church lands.26 Works of Abp. Laud ed. J. Bliss, vi. 390; L. Bowen, Pols. of the Principality, 214-15. Griffith himself seems to have wished to improve diocesan administration; his visitation articles for 1634 were the first by a bishop of Bangor to be printed, presumably to enable them to be circulated more widely. Griffith used the visitation to combat the profane use of the altar as a table for writing or for other secular purposes, suggesting that he shared the Laudian veneration of holy communion.27 Vis. Articles and Injunctions of the early Stuart Church ed. K. Fincham (Church of Eng. Rec. Soc. v), 116-22; Bowen, 224n.68.

Early in 1635 Griffith was rebuked by Sir John Lambe, the dean of the Court of Arches, for overstepping his authority in suspending one of the clergy of his diocese.28 CSP Dom. 1634-5, p. 465. In January 1637 the parishioners of Bangor complained to Laud that Griffith had appointed churchwardens who had taxed the parish to pay for the upkeep of the cathedral’s fabric. However, it seems likely that Laud supported Griffith’s desire to maintain the cathedral. Shortly thereafter, another parish complained that Griffith had sent them a curate who was not a preacher and unable to read Welsh. Despite this latter complaint, Laud reported that Griffith was improving the quality of catechizing within his diocese.29 SP16/344/47; Cal. Wynn Pprs. 254; Works of Abp. Laud, v. 345.

Griffith served only three years as bishop, dying in May 1637. A late seventeenth-century transcript of the inscription on his funeral monument suggests that he expired on the 27th, but this had apparently ceased to be legible by the 1720s. Other sources state that he died on the 26th. No will or grant of administration has been found.30 Ath. Ox. ii. 890; B. Willis, Survey of the Cathedral Church of Bangor (1721), 26. Griffith, who was buried in his cathedral, never sat in Parliament.