1. Grinling Gibbons was an Anglo-Dutch sculptor and wood carver known for his work in England, including Windsor Castle, the Royal Hospital Chelsea and Hampton Court Palace, St Paul's Cathedral and other London churches, Petworth House and other country houses, Trinity College, Oxford and Trinity College, Cambridge.
The name Grinling Gibbons is formed from sections of two family names.
Grinling Gibbons moved to Deptford, England, around 1667, and by 1693 had accepted commissions from the royal family and had been appointed as a master carver.
Grinling Gibbons's carving was so fine that it was said a pot of carved flowers above his house in London would tremble from the motion of passing coaches.
Grinling Gibbons was elected to the court and as a warden and then stood for election to be Master in 1718,1719, and 1720, losing to an alderman each time.
In 1682 King Charles II commissioned Grinling Gibbons to carve a panel as a diplomatic gift for his political ally Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.
In 1685, the new king James II asked Grinling Gibbons to carve a panel for another Italian ally, Francesco II d'Este, Duke of Modena, brother to his second wife Mary of Modena.
The Church of St Peter and St Paul, Exton, Rutland, has a fine marble tomb by Grinling Gibbons, dating from 1685, showing Baptist Noel, 3rd Viscount Campden with his fourth wife, Elizabeth Bertie, and carvings of his 19 children.
Grinling Gibbons was buried alongside his ancestors in the Beaufort Chapel in St George's Chapel, Windsor, but the monument was moved to Badminton in 1878.
The monument by Grinling Gibbons is on the north side of the chancel at St Michael and All Angels Church, Badminton, and consists of an effigy of the Duke in Garter robes, reclining on a sarcophagus and a plinth with relief of St George and the Dragon.
Grinling Gibbons made the monument for Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell, who was killed in the Scilly naval disaster of 1707.
Grinling Gibbons is believed to have invented the method of building up carvings through separate layers, each layer being nailed to the one beneath.