GRIFFITH, EDMUND (1570-1637), bishop

Name: Edmund Griffith
Date of birth: 1570
Date of death: 1637
Spouse: Gwen ferch Morris ap Gruffydd
Parent: Griffith ap John Griffith
Gender: Male
Occupation: bishop
Area of activity: Religion

Born in 1570, the fourth son of Griffith ap John Griffith of Cefn Amwlch, Llŷn. Educated at Brasenose, Oxford (B.A. 1589; M.A. 1592; B.D. 1599), he became rector of Llandwrog 1596-1637, canon of Bangor 1600, sinecure rector of Llanfor, Meironnydd 1601, rector of Llanbedrog 1604, archdeacon of Bangor 1606, dean of Bangor 1613-33, and bishop of Bangor 1633-7. By his wife Gwen, daughter of Morris ap Gruffydd of Methlan, Llŷn [ J. E. Griffith, Pedigrees, 271], he had fifteen children. He died 26 May 1637.

As dean, his relations with bishop Lewis Bayly were strained. They quarrelled over the administration of Friars School, Bangor, and their many differences brought them before the star chamber and the privy council. Their enmity probably formed part of the greater feud between John Griffith of Cefn Amwlch, the dean's nephew, and Sir John Wynn of Gwydir, supported by the bishop (see under Sir John Wynn, and Griffith family of Cefn Amwlch). As bishop, he was accused by parishioners of Bangor in January 1637 of having appointed churchwardens who levied an illegal rate for the maintenance of the cathedral fabric and, in the same month, the parishioners of Beddgelert petitioned him against the appointment of a non-preaching and non- Welsh speaking curate. He held a synod of the clergy of his diocese in November 1636.

Bishop Edmund Griffith has been confused with EDMUND GRIFFITH (1559 - 1617) of Carreglwyd, Anglesey.

Sources

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
A. Ivor Pryce, The Diocese of Bangor in the sixteenth century being a digest of the registers of the bishops, A.D. 1512-1646 (1923), 30, 32, 34, 38, 63
J. E. Griffith, Pedigrees of Anglesey and Carnarvonshire Families (1914), 169, 271
Foster, Alumni Oxonienses: the members of the University of Oxford
Calendar of Wynn (of Gwydir) Papers, 1515–1690, in the National Library of Wales and elsewhere, 568, 980, 1040, 1080, 1151, 1166, 1417, 1425, 1592
Barber and Lewis, The history of Friars School, Bangor (1901)
Reports of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, 5th reprint, 417, 419
Acts of the Privy Council of England, 1619-21, 106, 123, 136-7, 139-40
Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, 1625-6 (355), 1628-9 (364), 1636-7 (375), Add. 1622-5 (543)
Anglesey Antiquarian Society & Field Club Transactions, 1929 (55); 1930 (89)

Additional Links

Wikidata: Q5339515

Published date: 1959