Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Grantham, Thomas (d.1664)
GRANTHAM, THOMAS (d. 1664), schoolmaster, a native of Lincolnshire, was a nephew of Sir Thomas Grantham, knt., of Radcliffe, Nottinghamshire, who bequeathed to him the rectory of Waddington in the same county, and an inn called the Reindeer in Lincoln. He was educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he took the degree of M.A. in 1634, and was ordained (University Register). He is, however, undoubtedly identical with the Thomas Grantham who entered Hart Hall, Oxford, in 1626, and proceeded B.A. on 16 Dec. 1630 (Wood, Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 454). In 1641, when curate of High Barnet, near London, he published ‘A Marriage Sermon [on Gen. xxix. 25]. A Sermon called a Wife mistaken, or a Wife and no Wife; or Leah in stead of Rachel; a Sermon accused for railing against Women; for maintaining Polygamie, many Wives, for calling Jacob a Hocus-Pocus. A Sermon laught at more than a Play (by the Ignorant) for many such mistakes: Justified by the Wise,’ 4to, London; 4th edit. 1656. This specimen of clerical buffoonery was, according to the author, more disfigured by the press licenser ‘than Davids servants were by Hanun;’ he had therefore to print it secretly. It was republished at London in 1730, at Dublin in 1752, and in a collection of marriage sermons entitled ‘Conjugal Duty,’ London, 1732, &c. Grantham removed from High Barnet to become curate of Easton-Neston, Northamptonshire, where he composed a sensible little treatise, called ‘A Motion against Imprisonment, wherein is proved that Imprisonment for Debt is against the Gospel, against the good of Church, and Commonwealth,’ 4to, London, 1642. He seems to have derived substantial profit from his scheme for the speedy teaching of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. ‘He taught fourteen boys,’ says Wood, ‘and would have no more, and they learned but four hours in the day, then play'd, but spoke Latin.’ Corporal punishment was unknown at his school; if kindness failed, the pupil was sent home. He seems to have first imparted his method to the world in the introduction to his ‘Animadversions upon Cambdens Greek Grammar,’ in which he is very severe upon masters forcing boys to learn grammar by rote, and that by manual violence. By 1644 he had opened school in Bow Lane, London, but afterwards in Mugwell Street, near Barber Chirurgeons' Hall. Thence he issued as advertisements some diverting tracts; one is ‘A Discovrse in Derision of the Teaching in Free-Schooles, and other common Schooles,’ 4to [London, 1 July 1644]. Another, which he called ‘Mnēmophthoropaiktēs, The Brain-breakers-Breaker; or, The Apologie of Thomas Grantham for his Method in teaching; dwelling in Lothbury, London,’ 4to, appeared in London in 1644. J. S., who has been identified with James Shirley, approves Grantham's method in commendatory Latin verse. ‘The Brain-breakers-Breaker’ was reissued in a different form in 1650, when the author was located ‘over against Graies Inn Gate in Holborne, at Master Bulls.’ From this later edition we learn that Grantham commenced his crusade against the free schools by printing, about 1646, six queries addressed to the masters, which remained unanswered. He states that he had challenged the schools of London to an examination ‘seven against seven,’ and that his scholars had beaten ‘one of the primest schools in London.’ The ‘boys of Paul's school and others were ready to knock Mr. Grantham's boys on the head,’ and Grantham by way of retaliation ‘wrote a “mastix” against the schoolmaster’ (Wood, Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iv. 167). Grantham hastened to inform parents and guardians that he would teach boys in two months ‘to conster an Author in Latine and Greeke,’ and ‘make Greeke and Latine Verses and Orations,’ besides learning Hebrew. He would only take two shillings a day for himself, and give the rest in charity (Brain-breakers Breaker, p. 10). Soon after this Grantham held his classes at ‘Mr. Martins in the great Old Bayly, near the Ship.’ In the summer of 1656 he was ejected from his living of Waddington on the grounds of insufficiency, at the instance of ‘two or three ignorant lying men’ of the parish. His curate was also put out. He thereupon addressed ‘A Complaint to the Lord Protector … concerning the unjust and illegal ejecting of miserable Ministers,’ 12mo [London, 1656], which he caused to be extensively distributed, apparently without effect, on 25 June of that year. After the Restoration Grantham printed a translation in heroic couplets of the first three books of Homer's ‘Iliad’ (London, printed by L. Lock for the author, 1660). He added loyal verses to Charles II, Monck, and others. He similarly expressed his loyalty in a little pamphlet called ‘Charles the Second, Second to none,’ 4to, London, 1661. He was then teaching in the Barbican, at the sign of the Horseshoe. Under an agreement John Barnard held the rectory of Waddington during Grantham's life. Grantham died in the parish of St. Anne, Blackfriars, in March 1664 (Probate Act Book, P. C. C. 1664). He bequeathed his property to his landlord, John Tring, ‘of the Little old Bayly London schoolmaster,’ and Mary Tring, his wife, the latter of whom he constituted his sole executrix.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iv. 165–7; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Addit. (Cole) MS. 5870, f. 11; Collier's Bibliographical Catal. ii. 193–7 (where Collier wrongly ascribes to the schoolmaster ‘The Prisoner against the Prelate,’ by Thomas Grantham, 1634–1692 [q. v.])]