GRISWOLD, RUFUS WILMOT (1815-1857), American editor and compiler, was born in Benson, Vermont, on the 15th of February 1815. He travelled extensively, worked in newspaper offices, was a Baptist clergyman for a time, and finally became a journalist in New York City, where he was successively a member of the staffs of The Brother Jonathan, The New World (1839-1840) and The New Yorker (1840). From 1841 to 1843 he edited Graham’s Magazine (Philadelphia), and added to its list of contributors many leading American writers. From 1850 to 1852 he edited the International Magazine (New York), which in 1852 was merged into Harper’s Magazine. He died in New York City on the 27th of August 1857. He is best known as the compiler and editor of various anthologies (with brief biographies and critiques), such as Poets and Poetry of America (1842), his most popular and valuable book; Prose Writers of America (1846); Female Poets of America (1848); and Sacred Poets of England and America (1849). Of his own writings his Republican Court: or American Society in the Days of Washington (1854) is the only one of permanent value. He edited the first American edition of Milton’s prose works (1845), and, as literary executor, edited, with James R. Lowell and N. P. Willis, the works (1850) of Edgar Allan Poe. Griswold’s great contemporary reputation as a critic has not stood the test of time; but he rendered a valuable service in making Americans better acquainted with the poetry and prose of their own countrymen.
See Passages from the Correspondence and Other Papers of Rufus W. Griswold (Cambridge, Mass., 1898), edited by his son William McCrillis Griswold (1853-1899).
GRIVET, a monkey, Cercopithecus sabaeus, of the guenon group, nearly allied to the green monkey. It is common throughout equatorial Africa. The chin, whiskers and a broad band across the forehead, as well as the under-parts, are white, and the head and back olive-green. These monkeys are very commonly seen in menageries.
GROAT (adapted from the Dutch groot, great, thick; cf. Ger. Groschen; the Med. Lat. grossus gives Ital. grosso, Fr. gros, as names for the coin), a name applied as early as the 13th century on the continent of Europe to any large or thick coin. The groat was almost universally a silver coin, but its value varied considerably, as well at different times as in different countries. The English groat was first coined in 1351, of a value somewhat higher than a penny. The continuous debasement of both the penny and the groat left the latter finally worth four pennies. The issue of the groat was discontinued after 1662, but a coin worth fourpence was again struck in 1836. Although frequently referred to as a groat, it had no other official designation than a “fourpenny piece.” Its issue was again discontinued in 1856. The groat was imitated in Scotland by a coin struck by David II. in 1358. In Ireland it was first struck by Edward IV. in 1460.
GROCER, literally one who sells by the gross, a wholesale dealer; the word is derived through the O. Fr. form, grossia, from the Med. Lat. grossarius, defined by du Cange, Glossarium, s.v. Grossares, as solidae mercis propola. The name, as a general one for dealers by wholesale, “engrossers” as opposed to “regrators,” the retail dealers, is found with the commodity attached; thus in the Munimenta Gildhallae (“Rolls” series) ii. 1.304 (quoted in the New English Dictionary) is found an allusion to grossours de vin, cf. groser of fysshe, Surtees Misc. (1888) 63, for the customs of Malton (quoted ib.). The specific application of the word to one who deals either by wholesale or retail in tea, coffee, cocoa, dried fruits, spices, sugar and all kinds of articles of use or consumption in a household is connected with the history of the Grocers’ Company of London, one of the twelve “great” livery companies. In 1345 the pepperers and the spicers amalgamated and were known as the Fraternity of St Anthony. The name “grocers” first appears in 1373 in the records of the company. In 1386 the association was granted a right of search over all “spicers” in London, and in 1394 they obtained the right to inspect or “garble” spices and other “subtil wares.” Their first charter was obtained in 1428; letters patent in 1447 granted an extension of the right of search over the whole county, but removed the “liberties” of the city of London. They sold all kinds of drugs, medicines, ointments, plasters, and medicated and other waters. For the separation of the apothecaries from the grocers in 1617 see [Apothecary]. (See further [Livery Companies].)
See The Grocery Trade, by J. Aubrey Rees (1910).