Thomas Grenville

This article is about the British politician. For other uses, see Thomas Grenville (disambiguation).

The Right Honourable Thomas Grenville PC
Thomas Grenville (picture)
President of the Board of Control
In office 1806–1806
Monarch	George III
Prime Minister	The Lord Grenville
Preceded by	The Earl of Minto
Succeeded by	George Tierney
First Lord of the Admiralty
In office 1806–1807
Monarch	George III
Prime Minister	The Lord Grenville
Preceded by	The Earl Grey
Succeeded by	The Earl of Mulgrave
Member of Parliament for Buckinghamshire
In office 1779–1784
Preceded by	The Earl Verney The Marquess of Buckingham
Succeeded by	The Lord Grenville Sir John Aubrey, 6th Baronet
Member of Parliament for Aldeburgh
In office 1790–1796
Preceded by	William Champion Crespigny Samuel Salt
Succeeded by	Sir John Aubrey, 6th Baronet Michael Angelo Taylor
Member of Parliament for Buckingham
In office 1796–1801
Preceded by	Sir George Nugent, 1st Baronet The Lord Bridport
Succeeded by	Parliament of the United Kingdom
In office 1813–1818
Preceded by	Parliament of Great Britain
Succeeded by	The Lord Braybrooke The Lord Nugent
Member of Parliament for Buckinghamshire
In office 1813–1818
Preceded by	The Duke of Buckingham and Chandos William Selby Lowndes
Succeeded by	William Selby Lowndes The Duke of Buckingham and Chandos
British Minister to France
In office 1782–1782
Preceded by	Vacant due to American Revolutionary War Title last held by The Earl of Mansfield
Succeeded by	The Lord St Helens
Justice in Eyre south of the Trent
In office 1800–1846
Preceded by	The Lord Sydney
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Personal details
Born	(1755-12-31)31 December 1755 Wotton Underwood, Buckinghamshire, England
Died	17 December 1846(1846-12-17) (aged 90) Piccadilly, London, England
Political party	Whig
Parents	George Grenville Elizabeth Wyndham
Relatives	William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville (brother) George Nugent-Temple-Grenville, 1st Marquess of Buckingham (brother)
Alma mater	Eton College

Thomas Grenville by Giovanni Battista Comolli, British Library, London

The arms of Thomas Grenville (Vert on a cross argent five torteaux, a crescent for difference) are the arms of the Grenville family, with a crescent as a mark of cadency, to signify him as the second son.

Thomas Grenville PC (31 December 1755 – 17 December 1846) was a British politician and bibliophile.

Background and education

Grenville was the second son of Prime Minister George Grenville and Elizabeth Wyndham, daughter of Sir William Wyndham, 3rd Baronet. George Nugent-Temple-Grenville, 1st Marquess of Buckingham, was his elder brother and William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, his younger brother. He was educated at Eton.

Career

In 1778, he was commissioned ensign in the Coldstream Guards and in 1779 promoted a lieutenant in the 80th Regiment of Foot, but resigned his commission in 1780. He was, with one interval, a member of parliament from 1780 to 1810, and for a few months during 1806 and 1807 President of the Board of Control (1806) and then First Lord of the Admiralty (1806–1807). In 1798, he was sworn of the Privy Council.

On 1 February 1799 Grenville and a party were travelling on HMS Proserpine when she was wrecked near Scharhörn off the Elbe. She was trying to deliver Grenville and his party to Cuxhaven, from where they were to proceed on a diplomatic mission to meet Frederick William III of Prussia in Berlin during the War of the Second Coalition. Proserpine was stuck in ice in worsening weather. At 1:30, on 2 February, all 187 persons on Prosperine left her and started the six-mile walk to the island Neuwerk, in freezing weather and falling snow. Seven seamen, a boy, four Royal Marines, and one woman and her child died; the rest made it to safety in the tower of Neuwerk. The diplomatic party reached Cuxhaven on 6 February to continue to Berlin via Hamburg and return to London on 23 March.

Library

He began collecting books from at least his early twenties, and by his death had amassed 20,240 volumes containing 16,000 titles. The collection is notable for its many editions of Homer, Aesop and Ariosto, for early travel books, and for literature in the Romance languages. Rare volumes include a vellum copy of the Gutenberg Bible, which Grenville bought in France in 1817 for 6,260 francs, a Mainz Psalter and a Shakespeare First Folio. There are also 59 manuscripts. Grenville liked his books to be in excellent condition, and would often have books washed or rebound, as well as seeking out relevant pages to add to any incomplete copies he owned. He lent books widely, Barry Taylor describing his library as apparently "semi-public". He bequeathed the collection to the British Museum, of which he had become a trustee in 1830, and it is now housed in the King's Library Tower in the British Library.

Personal life

Thomas Grenville

Grenville died at Piccadilly, London, in December 1846, aged 90. He never married.

Styles from birth to death

• Mr. Thomas Grenville (1755–1779)
• Mr. Thomas Grenville, MP (1779–1784)
• Mr. Thomas Grenville (1784–1790)
• Mr. Thomas Grenville, MP (1790–1798)
• The Rt. Hon. Thomas Grenville, MP (1798–1810)
• The Rt. Hon. Thomas Grenville (1810–1813)
• The Rt. Hon. Thomas Grenville, MP (1813–1818)
• The Rt. Hon. Thomas Grenville (1818–1846)

References

• British Historical Facts 1760–1830, by Chris Cook and John Stevenson (The Macmillan Press 1980)
• Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650–1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN 0-948864-30-3.

Further reading

• Payne, J.T., Foss, H. and Rye, W.B. Bibliotheca Grenvilliana. London, 1842–72. Catalogue of Thomas Grenville's library. Copies held by many major scholarly libraries.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Thomas Grenville
• Biography
• British Library's description of the Grenville Library
• The Grenville Library copy of the Gutenberg Bible. Select the 'vellum copy' option to see images of the Grenville Library copy.