Stacey Grimaldi was descended from the house of Grimaldi: he was the great-grandson of Alexander Grimaldi of Genoa, who quit that city after its bombardment by Louis XIV in 1684, and whose father of the same name had been doge of Genoa in 1671. He was born in the parish of St. James, Westminster, on 18 October 1790, and was the second son of William Grimaldi, miniature-painter, of Albemarle Street, London, by his wife Frances, daughter of Louis Barker of Rochester. Upon the death of his elder brother in 1835 the title of Marquis Grimaldi of Genoa and the claims on the family possessions in Genoa and Monaco became vested in him.
