The Grill family are noted for their contribution to the Swedish iron industry and for exports of iron and copper during the 18th century. Starting as silversmiths and experts on noble metals the Grills became engaged in a wide range of businesses. After 1700 the family began its rise to prominence. They owned ironworks, while operating wharves, and importing material related to shipbuilding. The Grills benefited from mercantilist policy. With a positive balance on their account the Grills became engaged in banking, also in the Dutch Republic; around 1720 in the market for government liabilities and then mediating large credits and clearing international bills of exchange. The Grills had significant influence with the Swedish East India Company (SOIC); three members became directors of the SOIC and the Grill firm traded as members of the SOIC and privately. All the noted Grills were in some way connected to the main Grill Trading House and to each other. Some Grills married a relative, others helped their nephews into business. In this way the Grill name was kept and passed on through the generations. Origin On 29June 1571, Andreas Grill, burgher in Augsburg received burgher arms in letters patent from a count palatine of the Holy Roman Empire. The name Grill comes from the Italian Grillo, meaning cricket, while the family's coat of arms displays a crane holding a cricket in its bill. The family came to Sweden with the arrival of the silversmith Anthoni Grill (I) in 1659. For more than 25 years Anthoni had lived in Amsterdam, but moved to Stockholm when he was appointed as the Riksguardie (the national appraiser) responsible for the quality of alloys and the accuracy of weights and measures, and the stock of precious metals used in minting. He was succeeded at the Myntverket by his son Anthoni Grill (II). During the 18th century the family was described as members of the Skeppsbroadeln (the Skeppsbro Nobility). Abraham Grill had six sons who cooperated in business. The name referred to the wealthiest merchant families in Stockholm at that time, especially those who lived by the quays along the Skeppsbron. The family consisted of two branches —the Garphyttan branch, starting with Anthoni (IV) and the Godegård branch, with Jean Abraham Grill. Since 1911 the Grill family is included in the Ointroducerad Adels Förening (Association of the Unintroduced Nobility), an association for Swedish citizens whose family was ennobled in