Elizabeth Grimston

Elizabeth Grimston (also Grymeston or Grimeston; c. 1563 – c. 1603) was an English poet. Life She was born in North Erpingham, Norfolk, England, to parents Martin Bernye (Barney), Esquire of Gunton, Norfolk, and Margaret Flint. She was the fifth child in the family, with a younger sister Margaret. Elizabeth's father, a prominent lawyer, was the owner of a large amount of land in Gunton, Norfolk, including Gunton Hall and St. Andrew's Church in Gunton. She married Christopher, the youngest son of Thomas Grimston of Grimston, Yorkshire. Her married life appears to have been rendered miserable by the cruelty of her mother, whereby she became a chronic invalid. Reduced, as she described it, to the condition of "a dead woman among the living", she "resolved to break the barren soil of her fruitless brain," and devoted herself to the compilation of a moral guide-book for the benefit of her son Bernye Grymeston, the only survivor of her nine children. She died in 1603 before the publication of her work, which appeared under the title of Miscelanea : Meditations : Memoratives, by Elizabeth Grymeston, London, 1604, 4to. Marriage In 1584, when Elizabeth was about 21, she married Christopher Grymeston, son of Thomas Grymeston and Dorothy Thwaytes of Smeeton, Yorkshire. Their marriage was a struggling one that seemed to be subject to much scandal. On 17 December 1578, at the age of 14, Christopher Grymeston had been admitted as a pensioner to the Bachelor's table at Caius College in Cambridge. Christopher received his bachelor's degree in 1582–1583, and was admitted as a fellow-commoner in 1584 at the school. After he received his master's in 1586, he became a fellow of the college (1587–1592), serving as bursar in 1588.