Grandison History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

The surname Grandison was first found in Somerset where Otho de Grandissono was listed at Glastonbury in 1280. Years later, Peter de Grandisson was listed in Warwickshire in 1335 and Roger Graundisson was a Freeman or York in 1397. 1

John Grandiston (1292?-1369), was "Bishop of Exeter, second son of William de Grandison (d. 1335), who was summoned to parliament 1299-1325, and Sybil (d. 1334), younger daughter and coheiress of John de Tregoz, also a Baron by writ, and granddaughter of Juliana, sister of Thomas de Cantelupe, Bishop of Hereford, was born at Ashperton or Ashton in Herefordshire, about 1292." 2

Another source claims his name was John de Grandisson and was also spelt Grandison. "At Radway, in Bishopsteignton, [Devon] are the ruins of the palace and chapel of the Bishops of Exeter, with whom the ' Bishop's-town-on-Teign ' was for ages a favourite retreat. This ' fair house ' was built by Bishop Grandisson in the early part of the fourteenth century. There is little left now to indicate the character of what the bishop himself, in a letter to Pope John XXII., called a beautiful structure, and described in his will as convenient and costly buildings." 3

The Granson, Grayneson or Grandison variant has an interesting entry: "the first of the descendants of this Norman adventurer whom we find to have attained public eminence, was Sir Otho de Grandison, Secretary to King Edward I., and at one time Ambassador to Rome. He received summons to Parliament as a baron in 1299, but died without issue, when the title became extinct. From his brother, William, derived the subsequent Barons Grandison." 4