Barton Grindrod (25 April 1834 – 23 May 1895) was an English
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
er. He played two
first-class cricket
First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...
matches for
Victoria between 1858 and 1860.
Background
Barton was born in Liverpool. His mother, Margaret Barton (1805-1852) was the daughter of a Liverpool Iron Master. His father, John Grindrod (1801-1856), was a physician working in the Liverpool Royal Southern and Toxteth Park Hospitals. He was also a keen yachtsman, a member of the Royal Thames Yacht Club, and the first commodore of the Royal Mersey Yacht Club. Honorary members of this club included Prime Minister
Sir Robert Peel. Barton's uncle, naval architect and engineer Jonathan Grindrod (1804-1896), was also involved with the Royal Mersey Yacht Club, being the Rear-Commodore. He was responsible for the initial design work on the ill-fated clipper ''
Royal Charter
A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, bu ...
''. The ship was subsequently purchased whilst still in construction and redesigned as a steam-auxiliary by
William Patterson.
Barton Grindrod was the fifth of six children. He and his older brother, William (1832-1894), were educated at Cheltenham College as boarders. Barton left when he was fifteen years old in 1849. His brother William, who later became a Church of England minister, left in 1851 aged nineteen and continued his education at
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...
, where he was awarded a B.A. in 1855.
[William's grandson was Sir John Basil Rowland Grindrod, Primate of Australia, 1982-1989] Barton's four sisters married into families involved with mercantile businesses in Liverpool.
Australia
By 1857 Barton Grindrod was living in Melbourne, Australia. He was a member of the business community, being elected to the Chamber of Commerce in about June of that year. He imported two "cases" of furniture in 1857, but in December 1858 he was selling "the whole of the modern and useful furniture, and effects" by auction from his residence in Hawthorne.
Sri Lanka (Ceylon)
At some period after this date Barton took up residence in Sri Lanka (Ceylon), from where he operated in partnership with other merchants for about twenty years. Their businesses were described as “Colonial Merchants and Commission and Insurance Agents” They had some involvement with the tea trade, and in a letter to the editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, 30 January 1884, Barton also made claim to the export of eleven elephant to New York in 1871.
Rameswaram Island shipping canal
Barton Grindrod and his two partners (Elliott Bradbridge & Henry Jenkins) became involved with a proposal to cut a shipping canal through
Rameswaram Island. This was in order to provide a continuously navigable sea route via the shallows of the
Palk Strait
The Palk Strait ( ta, பாக்கு நீரிணை ''Pākku Nīriṇai'', si, පෝක් සමුද්ර සන්ධිය ''Pok Samudra Sandhiya'') is a strait between the Tamil Nadu state of India and the Jaffna Distric ...
that separates India from Sri Lanka. An agreement was drafted between the partners and the Secretary of State for India for the construction and management of the canal, following a route proposed by
Sir John Coode. In 1887 shares were offered in the ''South India Ship Canal, Port and Coal Station Limited'' to finance the project. However, the canal was not constructed and agreement has still to be reached on how best to provide a deep water shipping channel through the Palk Strait; see article
Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project
Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project () is a proposed project to create a shipping route in the shallow straits between India and Sri Lanka. This would provide a continuously navigable sea route around the Indian Peninsula. The channel would b ...
.
Marriage
In 1881 Barton married Margaret Drysdale (Duncan) Lawrance (1837-1910) in
St James Westminster
Westminster St James (or St James Piccadilly) was a civil parish in the metropolitan area of London, England. The creation of the parish followed the building of the Church of St James, Piccadilly, in 1684. After several failed attempts, the ...
. She was from Aberdeen, Scotland, the daughter of Helen Drysdale Douglass (1815-1890) and
advocate
An advocate is a professional in the field of law. Different countries' legal systems use the term with somewhat differing meanings. The broad equivalent in many English law–based jurisdictions could be a barrister or a solicitor. However, ...
John Duncan (1801-1874). In 1870 Margaret married
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...
surgeon-major, Edward Alexander Lawrance, M.R.C.S.(1836–1873), a widower with one child. He died in Sri Lanka in 1873 aged 37 and was interred in Colombo Galle Face Burial Ground.
Bankruptcy
Barton Grindrod was also in partnership with other merchants and these included Charles Durham, Vernon Cochrane and William Hector. They traded in Manchester and London under the firm of Durham and Company, at Rio de Janeiro under the firm of Charles Durham and Company, and at Colombo under the firm of Durham, Grindrod, and Company. In 1880 the businesses were unable to meets their financial commitments. The partners attempted to reach an agreement with their creditors, offering ten shillings in the pound. One creditor (the Merchant Banking Company) believed that the offer should be twelve shilling and six pence in the pound. The case went to court and eventually to appeal. Barton and his partners were declared bankrupt.
Final years
The 1891 census shows him living with his widowed sister, Sarah (Grindrod) Pearce, in Crosby, Liverpool. Barton died on 23 May 1895 at Stanley House, Cosby, Liverpool aged 61 years. His funeral service was on Monday 27 May 1895 at St Luke's Church, Crosby.
See also
*
List of Victoria first-class cricketers
Notes
Bibliography
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grindrod, Barton
1834 births
1895 deaths
English cricketers
Victoria cricketers
Cricketers from Liverpool
Melbourne Cricket Club cricketers
Gentlemen of the North cricketers