William Grainge (25 January 1818 – 29 September 1895) was an English antiquarian and poet, and a historian of Yorkshire. He was born into a farming family in Dishforth and grew up on Castiles Farm near Kirkby Malzeard in the North Riding of Yorkshire, where he studied the archaeological site beneath the farm buildings, now known as Cast Hills settlement. Although he left school at age 12, he educated himself well enough to become a clerk to a solicitors' firm in Boroughbridge. He later established a bookshop in Harrogate and published numerous books on local history and topography, besides publishing a number of anonymous poems and discourses about local natural history.
Grainge befriended the young John Farrah, and taught him botany and other natural history. Farrah was a grocer and an amateur botanist, who went on to become a Fellow of The Linnean Society and chairman of Yorkshire Naturalists' Union. After Grainge died, Farrah gave a lecture about Grainge's life and works, and later wrote a tribute to him. Most of what we know about Grainge's life comes from Farrah.
Life
Castiles
On Monday 2 December 1895, soon after William Grainge died, the Harrogate Field Naturalists' and Camera Club met to hear a lecture by their past president, Yorkshire naturalist John Farrah (1849–1907), about the man's life and career. Farrah said that although Grainge was born at Dishforth on 25 January 1818 his parents (farmer Thomas Grainge (c.1771 – Stokesley 1841 or 1845) and Elizabeth Chapman (Hutton Rudby c.1778 – Ripon 1867)) had taken over the family property, Castiles Farm near Kirkby Malzeard, by the following March. Grainge was the youngest heir of that family, and Castiles was where he grew up, and where his once-yeoman family had farmed for three centuries. Grainge attended Kirkby Malzeard village school, leaving at age 12 to work on the farm for fifteen years. He was otherwise self-taught. While working "he employed every moment of his leisure time gathering scientific knowledge". He would carry pocket volumes of Dove's Classics; "when those around him rested or slept, he read".
Boroughbridge
Grainge's father Thomas died in 1841 or 1845. By 1851 Grainge was a solicitor's writing clerk, living with his widowed mother Elizabeth in Minskip. In 1845, at the age of 27 Grainge became clerk to Boroughbridge solicitor Mr Hirst (later Hirst & Capes), remaining there for fourteen years and producing his first publication, The History of Aldborough and Boroughbridge, in 1853, although he was not credited as author, because "his modesty would not permit of it". This was followed by three more works written at Boroughbridge: Battles and Battlefields (1854), Castles and Abbeys (1855) and Vale of Mowbray (1859).
Harrogate
Grainge married Mary Chapman (Minskip c.1829 – Harrogate 1908) in 1855 at Great Ouseburn. They had three children all born in Minskip: Elizabeth (born c.1856) who assisted in the stationery shop; Thomas (born c.1858) a railway clerk; and Ann Bentley nee Grainge (born c.1860) a dressmaker. The 1861 and 1871 censuses find the family living at 1 Cheltenham Place, Harrogate. In 1881 Grainge and his family were living in Chapel Street, Harrogate. However, according to Farrah, in 1860 Grainge opened a shop in Baker Lane (later Walker Road) in Harrogate, selling books and stationery. He later opened a shop in Chapel street, converting the Walker Road shop into a private house called Ripon House. There he wrote what he believed to be the first History of Harrogate and the Forest of Knaresborough (1871), published, like many of his other local histories, by subscription. Although Grainge had left Hirst & Capes, he remained able to act in a legal capacity. In 1886 he was granted letters of administration in respect of the will of Isabella Mason (died 1885) and Isabella's sister Jane Deighton.
Death
Grainge died in number 12 Chapel Street, Harrogate, on 29 September 1895. "For a month previous he had been confined to the house, but the glorious sunshine tempted him out. During the day he continued to feel better, but after returning at night his heart failed, and he passed away peacefully." He was buried in Grove Road Cemetery, Harrogate.