# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Grimshaw, William

​GRIMSHAW, WILLIAM (1708–1763), incumbent of Haworth, Yorkshire, was born at Brindle, Lancashire, on 3 Sept. 1708. He was educated at the grammar schools of Blackburn and Hesketh, and at the age of eighteen went to Christ's College, Cambridge. In 1731 he was ordained deacon, and became curate of Rochdale, but in the same year removed to Todmorden, which is a chaplaincy in the patronage of the vicar of Rochdale. At Todmorden he led at first a careless life; but in 1734 and the following years he passed through a long and severe spiritual struggle. The death of his wife, to whom he was deeply attached, is thought to have been the turning-point in his career. It does not appear that he was even aware of the similar change which was going on at about the same time in the Wesleys, Whitefield, and others. He was, however, much affected by the writings of the puritans of the preceding century, especially by Thomas Brooks's 'Precious Remedies against Satan's Devices' (1652), and 'Owen on Justification.' Some time before he left Todmorden he became a changed man, and when in 1742 he was appointed perpetual curate of Haworth, he entered upon his work in his new parish with the fervour characteristic of the early evangelicals. Haworth is a desolate parish on the Yorkshire moors. It is now famous as the home of the Brontes. Grimshaw had become acquainted with the leading methodists, and joyfully welcomed in his pulpit the two Wesleys, Whitefield, Romaine, and Henry Venn. He also became intimate with John Nelson, the stonemason, one of the most remarkable of John Wesley's lay-preachers. Grimshaw became in his own person a most successful evangelist. The effects which he produced in his own parish were marvellous. He raised the number of communicants from twelve to twelve hundred, and acquired so much influence in the place that he was able to put a stop to Haworth races, to enforce the strictest observance of the Lord's day, and bring his people to church whether they would or not. Though he was eccentric to the verge of madness, no one could help respecting 'the mad parson.' His earnestness, his self-denial, his real humility, his entire absorption in one great object, and the thorough consistency of his life with his principles, were patent to all. He was also most charitable, both in the ordinary and in the highest sense of the term. In the hot disputes between Calvinists and Arminians he lived in perfect amity with the adherents of both ​systems. Though he was a Calvinist, his friendship with John Wesley was never interrupted. His labours extended far beyond the limits of his own parish. People used to come from a great distance to hear him preach at Haworth, and some of them requested him to come and preach to them. Thus originated his itinerant labours, which by degrees extended through Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cheshire, and North Derbyshire. His plan seems to have resembled that of his friend John Wesley. He established societies in the various places, presided over by leaders, with whom he used to hold conferences. Some of the parochial clergy objected to this interference of a brother clergyman, entirely unauthorised, in their parishes. One of these, the Rev. George White, perpetual curate of Colne and Marsden in Lancashire, published a sermon, preached in 1748, against the methodists in general and Grimshaw in particular. He is also said to have stirred up a mob in Colne, who handled both Grimshaw and John Wesley very roughly. But on the whole the ecclesiastical authorities treated Grimshaw with great forbearance. His own diocesan, the Archbishop of York, called him to account, but fully recognised his good work. A charge preferred against him for having preached in a licensed meeting-house at Leeds fell through. His success was probably in part owing to the homeliness of his language and illustrations. Many anecdotes of his eccentric conduct are recorded, some probably apocryphal, and none bearing specially upon his work. Grimshaw was held in the highest esteem among his co-religionists, and strong testimonies to his worth and usefulness are given, among others, by William Romaine, Henry Venn, and John Newton. He died, 7 April 1763, in the fifty-fifth year of his age, in his own house at Haworth, of a putrid fever, caught when he was visiting a sick parishioner. By his own desire he was buried by the side of his first wife in the chancel of Luddenden Church, near Haworth. He was twice married, first to Sarah, daughter of John Lockwood of Ewood Hall, Brecknockshire, and then to Elizabeth daughter of H. Cockcroft of Mayroyd, both of whom he survived. He had two children, a son and a daughter, both by his first wife. The daughter died young at Kingswood, the school founded and supervised by Grimshaw's friend, John Wesley. The son was wild in his youth, and caused his father much anxiety; but after his father's death he became a changed man. Grimshaw's published work consists merely of (1) a short 'Reply' to White's attack in his sermon (1748);(2) a document which he terms his 'Covenant with God,' wherein he affirms his solemn resolution to lead a strictly religious life; (3) an address or letter 'to certain Christians in London,' and (4) a 'Creed' or 'Summary of Belief,' sent by him in 1762, only four months before his death, to Mr. Romaine.
[Spencer Hardy's Life of Rev. W. Grimshaw; Funeral Sermon by Henry Venn, 1763; Ryle's Christian Leaders of the Last Century; Middleton's Biographia Evangelica; Works of John Newton.]
J. H. O.