GRENVILLE

grenville, george (1712-1770), english statesman, second son of richard grenville and hester temple, afterwards countess temple, was born on the 14th of october 1712. he was educated at eton and at christ church, oxford, and was called to the bar in 1735. he entered parliament in 1741 as member for buckingham, and continued to represent that borough till his death. in parliament he was a member of the "boy patriot" party which opposed sir robert walpole. in december 1744 he became a lord of the admiralty in the pelham administration. he allied himself with his brother richard and with william pitt in forcing their feeble chief to give them promotion by rebelling against his authority and obstructing business. in june 1747 he became a lord of the treasury, and in 1754 treasurer of the navy and privy councillor. as treasurer of the navy in 1758 he introduced and carried a bill which established a less unfair system of paying the wages of the seamen than had existed before. he remained in office in 1761, when his brother lord temple and his brother-in-law pitt resigned upon the question of the war with spain, and in the administration of lord bute he was entrusted with the leadership of the house of commons. in may 1762 he was appointed secretary of state, and in october first lord of the admiralty; and in april 1763 he became first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer. the most prominent measures of his administration were the prosecution of wilkes and the passing of the american stamp act, which led to the first symptoms of alienation between america and the mother country. during the latter period of his term of office he was on a very unsatisfactory footing with the young king george iii., who gradually came to feel a kind of horror of the interminable persistency of his conversation, and whom he endeavoured to make use of as the mere puppet of the ministry. the king made various attempts to induce pitt to come to his rescue by forming a ministry, but without success, and at last had recourse to the marquis of rockingham, on whose agreeing to accept office grenville was dismissed july 1765. he never again held office, and died on the 13th of november 1770. the nickname of "gentle shepherd" was given him because he bored the house by asking over and over again, during the debate on the cider bill of 1763, that somebody should tell him "where" to lay the new tax if it was not to be put on cider. pitt whistled the air of the popular tune "gentle shepherd, tell me where," and the house laughed. though few excelled him in a knowledge of the forms of the house or in mastery of administrative details, his tact in dealing with men and with affairs was so defective that there is perhaps no one who has been at the head of an english administration to whom a lower place can be assigned as a statesman. in 1749 he married elizabeth, daughter of sir william wyndham, by whom he had a large family. his son, the second earl temple, was created marquess, and his grandson duke, of buckingham. another son was william, afterwards lord grenville. another, thomas grenville (1755-1846), who was, with one interval, a member of parliament from 1780 to 1818, and for a few months during 1806 and 1807 president of the board of control and first lord of the admiralty, is perhaps more famous as a book-collector than as a statesman; he bequeathed his large and valuable library to the british museum. _the grenville papers, being the correspondence of richard grenville, earl temple, k.g., and the right hon. george grenville, their friends and contemporaries_, were published at london in 1852, and afford the chief authority for his life. but see also h. walpole's _memoirs of the reign of george ii._ (london, 1845); lord stanhope's _history of england_ (london, 1858); lecky's _history of england_ (1885); and e. d. adams, _the influence of grenville on pitt's foreign policy_ (washington, 1904). grenville (or greynvile), sir richard (c. 1541-1591), british naval commander, was born of an old cornish family about 1541. his grandfather, sir richard, had been marshal of calais in the time of henry viii., and his father commanded and was lost in the "mary rose" in 1545. at an early age grenville is supposed to have served in hungary under the emperor maximilian against the turks. in the years 1571 and 1584 he sat in parliament for cornwall, and in 1583 and 1584 he was commissioner of the works at dover harbour. he appears to have been a man of much pride and ambition. of his bravery there can be no doubt. in 1585 he commanded the fleet of seven vessels by which the colonists sent out by his cousin, sir walter raleigh, were carried to roanoke island in the present north carolina. grenville himself soon returned with the fleet to england, capturing a spanish vessel on his way, but in 1586 he carried provisions to roanoke, and finding the colony deserted, left a few men to maintain possession. he then held an important post in charge of the defences of the western counties of england. when a squadron was despatched in 1591, under lord thomas howard, to intercept the homeward-bound treasure-fleet of spain, grenville was appointed as second in command on board the "revenge," a ship of 500 tons which had been commanded by drake against the armada in 1588. at the end of august howard with 16 ships lay at anchor to the north of flores in the azores. on the last day of the month he received news from a pinnace, sent by the earl of cumberland, who was then off the portugal coast, that a spanish fleet of 53 vessels was then bearing up to the azores to meet the treasure-ships. not being in a position to fight a fleet more than three times the size of his own, howard gave orders to weigh anchor and stand out to sea. but, either from some misunderstanding of the order, or from some idea of grenville's that the spanish vessels rapidly approaching were the ships for which they had been waiting, the "revenge" was delayed and cut off from her consorts by the spaniards. grenville resolved to try to break through the middle of the spanish line. his ship was becalmed under the lee of a huge galleon, and after a hand-to-hand fight lasting through fifteen hours against fifteen spanish ships and a force of five thousand men, the "revenge" with her hundred and fifty men was captured. grenville himself was carried on board the spanish flag-ship "san pablo," and died a few days later. the incident is commemorated in tennyson's ballad of "the revenge." the spelling of sir richard's name has led to much controversy. four different families, each of which claim to be descended from him, spell it granville, grenville, grenfell and greenfield. the spelling usually accepted is grenville, but his own signature, in a bold clear handwriting, among the tanner mss. in the bodleian library at oxford, is greynvile. grenville (or granville), sir richard (1600-1658), english royalist, was the third son of sir bernard grenville (1559-1636), and a grandson of the famous seaman, sir richard grenville. having served in france, germany and the netherlands, grenville gained the favour of the duke of buckingham, took part in the expeditions to cadiz, to the island of rhe and to la rochelle, was knighted, and in 1628 was chosen member of parliament for fowey. having married mary fitz (1596-1671), widow of sir charles howard (d. 1622) and a lady of fortune, grenville was made a baronet in 1630; his violent temper, however, made the marriage an unhappy one, and he was ruined and imprisoned as the result of two lawsuits, one with his wife, and the other with her kinsman, the earl of suffolk. in 1633 he escaped from prison and went to germany, returning to england six years later to join the army which charles i. was collecting to march against the scots. early in 1641, just after the outbreak of the irish rebellion, sir richard led some troops to ireland, where he won some fame and became governor of trim; then returning to england in 1643 he was arrested at liverpool by an officer of the parliament, but was soon released and sent to join the parliamentary army. having, however, secured men and money, he hurried to charles i. at oxford and was despatched to take part in the siege of plymouth, quickly becoming the leader of the forces engaged in this enterprise. compelled to raise the siege he retired into cornwall, where he helped to resist the advancing parliamentarians; but he quickly showed signs of insubordination, and, whilst sharing in the siege of taunton, he was wounded and obliged to resign his command. about this time loud complaints were brought against grenville. he had behaved, it was said, in a very arbitrary fashion; he had hanged some men and imprisoned others; he had extorted money and had used the contributions towards the cost of the war for his own ends. many of these charges were undoubtedly true, but upon his recovery the councillors of the prince of wales gave him a position under lord goring, whom, however, he refused to obey. equally recalcitrant was his attitude towards goring's successor, sir ralph hopton, and in january 1646 he was arrested. but he was soon released; he went to france and italy, and after visiting england in disguise passed some time in holland. he was excepted by parliament from pardon in 1648, and after the king's execution he was with charles ii. in france and elsewhere until some unfounded accusation which he brought against edward hyde, afterwards earl of clarendon, led to his removal from court. he died in 1658, and was buried at ghent. in 1644, when grenville deserted the parliamentary party, a proclamation was put out against him; in this there were attached to his name several offensive epithets, among them being _skellum_, a word probably derived from the german _schelm_, a scoundrel. hence he is often called "skellum grenville." grenville wrote an account of affairs in the west of england, which was printed in t. carte's _original letters_ (1739). to this partisan account clarendon drew up an answer, the bulk of which he afterwards incorporated in his _history_. in 1654 grenville wrote his _single defence against all aspersions of all malignant persons_. this is printed in the _works_ of george granville, lord lansdowne (london, 1736), where lansdowne's _vindication_ of his kinsman, sir richard, against clarendon's charges is also found. see also clarendon, _history of the rebellion_, edited by w. d. macray (oxford, 1888); and r. granville, _the king's general in the west_ (1908).