In GW’s lifetime the Grymes family of most prominence in Virginia descended from John Grymes (1691–1748), grandson of Charles Grymes the immigrant. John, who was receiver general of Virginia, 1723–48, bought Brandon in Middlesex County, which became the Grymes family seat. At the time of this diary entry two of John’s three sons were still living: Benjamin Grymes (1725–c.1776), of Smithfield, Spotsylvania County, which he represented in the House of Burgesses 1766–71; and Ludwell Grymes (b. 1733), of Gloucester County and by 1771 of Burlington, Orange County. John Grymes’s eldest son, Philip, died in 1754; Philip’s sons were Peyton, Benjamin, Charles, John (who was at Eton in 1760), and Philip Ludwell Grymes (1746–1805) of Brandon, a burgess for Middlesex County, 1769–70.