Benjamin Griffin, rector of Buxton and Oxnead in Norfolk, and chaplain to the Earl of Yarmouth.
At this house he remained until 1721, playing many parts, including Don Lopez in his own farce, Humours of Purgatory, 3 April 1716, and 26 Jan. 1720 Sir John Indolent in his own Whig and Tory.
His success in characters of choleric and eccentric old men was such that Drury Lane, though possessing Norris and Johnson, both in his line, engaged him, for the sake of avoiding rivalry.
… It was not in nature to resist bursting into laughter at the sight of him, his ridiculous distressful look, followed by a lamentable recital of his misfortunes."
When he died he left effects very acceptable to his sister and her children, and what is more uncommon, a good character" (Hist.
Davies contrasts his "affected softness" with the "fanatical fury" of Ben Johnson the actor, when they were playing Tribulation and Ananias in the Alchemist (Dramatic Miscellanies, ii.
A portrait of the actors in these parts by Vanbleek or Van Bluck [q. v.] of Covent Garden, furnishing striking likenesses of both, was "taken off in mezzotinto, and is now published" (General Advertiser, 5 April 1748).