Welcome (Home)
UK Family Origins
Introduction
In The Beginning
Penn Parish Records
Manorial Records
Stonehouse
Watercroft
Grove Graves in the UK
Sir George Grove
Letter Extracts
Family Tree
Groves in America
Introduction to America
The American Adventure
Groves in Australia
Introduction to Australia
The Australian Family
Acknowledgements
Author and Researchers
Technical
Extract from Life and Letters of Sir George Grove CB
An extract from Chapter 1 of the Life and Letters of Sir George Grove CB by Charles Graves published by Macmillan & Co in 1903 states: "The origin of the Grove family is to be found in Prior's Memoirs of Edmund Burke, vol.ii, pp 355-6 in a passage treating of the Emigrant School at Penn founded by Burke. Prior writes:- The family of Grove trace an uninterrupted descent from the Conquest as proprietors of the same estate. Mr Edmund Grove of Stonehouse died in June 1823, at the advanced age of ninety-four; and being well known in this part of the country as a fair specimen of the ancient English yeoman, may be worth noticing. When young he had been the play-fellow of the late Viscount Curzon, and of John Baker Holroyd, who died Earl Sheffield, and was known to most of the surrounding nobility and gentry by the name of Yeoman Grove, a name now disused for the more assuming appelation of Esquire, but formerly applied to those who farmed their own estates. Yeoman Grove was likewise known to his late Majesty, who permitted him an unusual freedom. Whenever they met in the street at Windsor, which was not infrequent on market-day, he would grasp the royal hand with fervour and in a way peculiarly his own, inquire "How does your Majesty do? How is the Queen? How are all your children?" which commonly occasioned the Royal Personage a hearty good humoured laugh."
The author of the same book notes that he received a letter from Mr Walter Grove, Sir George Grove's eldest son dated 27th May 1901, explaining that Grove's Plat (where Stonehouse, the old family house, now stands) and that freely means freehold. Grove's Plat is mentioned frequently in the Court Rolls of the Manor of Penn. Walter Grove continues: We can only conclude that Grove's Plat is Stonehouse, as the meadow adjoining the house is called Grove's Plat.