[1] In 1651, Alexander Grigoriev was accepted to the Moscow Cannon Yard as a "bell person" (колокольное лицо) at the recommendation of a bellmaker Yemelyan Danilov and a number of Muscovite cannonmakers.
Many of Grigoriev's apprentices took part in this assignment, some of whom would become famous bellmakers themselves (Khariton Ivanov, Pyotr Stepanov, Fyodor Dmitriyev).
In 1656, Alexander Grigoriev and Feodor Motorin were sent to the Iversky Monastery in Valdai, where they would cast an 11.5-ton bell at the request of Patriarch Nikon.
The legend has it, however, that Alexander Grigoriev gave out the remaining bronze to his local assistants, giving birth to a tradition of making the now famous little Valdai bells (Валдайские колокольчики).
Upon Grigoriev's death, his nephew Grigory Yekimov (garnet master) inherited his household in the Pushkarskaya Sloboda, which he would later sell to Feodor Motorin.