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The entry which says that Grindal was born at Hensingham cannot be supported by the evidence shown in the article published in the Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society;"Archbishop Grindal's birthplace: Cross Hill, St Bees, Cumbria" By JOHN TODD AND MARY TODD, 1999 vol XCIX
The opening paragraphs set the scene;
"... the house wherein I was born, and the lands pertaining thereto, being a small matter, under twenty shillings rent, but well builded at the charges of my father and brother.
So wrote Edmund Grindal, on the point of promotion from bishop of London to archbishop of York, to Sir William Cecil, Secretary of State to Elizabeth 1, in 1570. But where was this house? Antiquarians have been undecided, but it is now possible to say that the house wherein Archbishop Grindal was born still stands on Cross Hill in the village of St Bees, otherwise known as 19 and 20 Finkle Street. As will be shown, Grindal's letter also enables us to give a date for its construction or rebuilding, namely between 1500 and 1520. ........................
Edmund Grindal's early biographer, Strype, believed that the Archbishop's birthplace was at Hensingham, which was formerly within the parish of St Bees. Local tradition puts it either at the former farm known as Chapel House, or at Overend Farm, where stones with the initials W. G. and W. R. G. were thought to refer to William Grindal, Edmund's father. In the last century William Jackson doubted Strype's opinion. Professor Patrick Collinson, Grindal's modern biographer, shared those doubts. New evidence from the building on Cross Hill, and from the court book of the manor of St Bees, shows that the doubts were well founded."
Later it is stated.....
"Thanks to the records of the governors' manor court, which show changes of leaseholders and sales from one to another, it is possible to piece together the subsequent history of "Grindal's tenement", or Cross Hill as it came to be known, up to the present day, so proving that this was indeed the house in which the future archbishop was born."
It is therefore proposed that the reference to Hensingham be omitted, as having no supportable credibility in the light of the research done in connection with the article cited above. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dougsim (talk • contribs) 17:34, 6 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
