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GRENVILLE, WILLIAM WYNDHAM GRENVILLE,...

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 582 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GRENVILLE, See also:WILLIAM See also:WYNDHAM GRENVILLE, See also:BARON (1759-1834) , See also:English statesman, youngest son of See also:George Grenville, was See also:born on the 25th of See also:October 1759. He was educated at See also:Eton and See also:Christ See also:Church, See also:Oxford, gaining the See also:chancellor's See also:prize for Latin See also:verse in 1779. In See also:February 1782 Grenville was returned to See also:parliament as member for the See also:borough of Bucking-See also:ham, and in the following See also:September he became secretary to the See also:lord See also:lieutenant of See also:Ireland, who at this See also:time was his See also:brother, See also:Earl See also:Temple, afterwards See also:marquess of See also:Buckingham. He See also:left See also:office in See also:June 1783, but in the following See also:December he became paymaster-See also:general of the forces under his See also:cousin, William See also:Pitt, and in 1786 See also:vice-See also:president of the See also:committee of See also:trade. In 1787 he was sent on an important See also:mission to the See also:Hague and See also:Versailles with reference to the affairs of See also:Holland. In See also:January 1789 he was chosen See also:speaker of the See also:House of See also:Commons, but he vacated the See also:chair in the same See also:year on being appointed secretary of See also:state for the See also:home See also:department; about the same time he resigned his other offices, but he became president of the See also:board of See also:control, and in See also:November 1790 was created a peer as Baron Grenville. In the House of Lords he was very active in directing the business of the See also:government, and in 1791 he was transferred to the See also:foreign office, retaining his See also:post at the board of control until 1793. He was doubtless regarded by Pitt as the See also:man best fitted to carry out his policy with reference to See also:France, but in the succeeding years he and his See also:chief were frequently at variance on important questions of foreign policy. In spite of his multifarious duties at the foreign office Grenville continued to take a lively See also:interest in domestic matters, which he showed by introducing various bills into the House of Lords. In February 18o1 he resigned office with Pitt because George III. would not consent to the introduction of any measure of See also:Roman See also:Catholic See also:relief, and in opposition he gradually separated himself from his former See also:leader. When Pitt returned to See also:power in 1804 Grenville refused to join the See also:ministry unless his See also:political ally, See also:Fox, was also admitted thereto; this was impossible and he remained out of office until February 1806, when just after Pitt's See also:death he became the nominal See also:head of a See also:coalition government. This ministry was very unfortunate in its conduct of foreign affairs, but it deserves to be remembered with See also:honour on See also:account of the See also:act passed in 1807 for the abolition of the slave trade.

Its See also:

influence, however, was weakened by the death of Fox, and in consequence of a See also:minute See also:drawn up by Grenville and some of his colleagues the See also:king demanded from his ministers an assurance that in future they would not urge upon him any See also:measures for the relief of Roman Catholics. They refused to give this assurance and in See also:March 18o7 they resigned. Grenville's attitude in this See also:matter was somewhat aggressive; his colleagues were not unanimous in supporting him, and See also:Sheridan, one of them, said " he had known many men knock their heads against a See also:wall, but he had never before heard of any man who collected the bricks and built the very wall with an intention to knock out his own brains against it." Lord Grenville never held office again, although he was requested to do so on several occasions. He continued, however, to take See also:part in public See also:life, being one of the chief supporters of Roman Catholic emancipation, and during the remaining years of his active political career, which ended in 1823, he generally voted with the Whigs, although in 1815 he separated himself from his colleague, See also:Charles See also:Grey, and supported the warlike policy of Lord See also:Liverpool. In 1819, when the marquess of See also:Lansdowne brought forward his See also:motion for an inquiry into the causes of the See also:distress and discontent in the manufacturing districts, Grenville delivered an alarmist speech advocating repressive measures. His concluding years were spent at Dropmore, See also:Buckinghamshire, where he died on the 12th of January 1834. His wife, whom he married in 1792, was See also:Anne (1772-1864), daughter of See also:Thomas Pitt, 1st Baron See also:Camelford, but he had no issue and his See also:title became See also:extinct. In 'Sag he was elected chancellor of Oxford university. Though Grenville's talents were not of the highest See also:order his straightforwardness and See also:industry, together with his knowledge of politics and the moderation of his opinions, secured for him considerable political influence. He may be enrolled among the See also:band of English statesmen who have distinguished themselves in literature. He edited Lord See also:Chatham's letters to his See also:nephew, Thomas Pitt, afterwards Lord Camelford (See also:London, 1804, and other See also:editions); he wrote a small vplume, NugaeMetricae(1824), being See also:translations into Latin from English, See also:Greek and See also:Italian, and an See also:Essay on the Supposed Advantages of a Sinking Fund (1828). The Dropmore See also:MSS. contain much of Grenville's See also:correspondence, and on this the See also:Historical See also:Manuscripts See also:Commission has published a See also:report.on that of his See also:father or See also:uncle, he both carried on business as a See also:merchant and acted in various matters as an See also:agent for See also:Henry VIII.

In 1544 he married the widow of William Read, a London merchant, but he still continued to reside principally in the See also:

Low Countries, having his headquarters at See also:Antwerp. When in 1551 the mismanagement of See also:Sir William Dansell, " king's merchant " in the Low Countries, had brought the English government into See also:great See also:financial embarrassment, See also:Gresham was called in to give his See also:advice, and chosen to carry out his own proposals. Their leading feature was the See also:adoption of various methods—highly ingenious, but quite arbitrary and unfair—for raising the value of the See also:pound See also:sterling on the " See also:bourse " of Antwerp, and it was so successful that in a few years nearly all King See also:Edward's debts were discharged. The advice of Gresham was likewise sought by the government in all their See also:money difficulties, and he was also frequently employed in various See also:diplomatic See also:missions. He had no stated See also:salary, but in See also:reward of his services received from Edward various grants of lands, the See also:annual value of which at that time was ultimately about £400 a year. On the See also:accession of See also:Mary he was for a See also:short time in disfavour, and was displaced in his post by See also:Alderman William Dauntsey. But Dauntsey's financial operations were not very successful and Gresham was soon reinstated; and as he professed his zealous See also:desire to serve the See also:queen, and manifested great adroitness both in negotiating loans and in See also:smuggling money, arms and foreign goods, not only were his services retained throughout her reign, but besides his salary of twenty shillings per diem he received grants of church lands to the yearly value of £200. Under Queen See also:Elizabeth, besides continuing in his post as financial agent of the See also:crown, he acted temporarily as See also:ambassador at the See also:court of the duchess of See also:Parma, being knighted in 1559 previous to his departure. By the outbreak of the See also:war in the Low Countries he was compelled to leave Antwerp on the 19th of March 1567; but, though he spent the See also:remainder of his life in London, he continued his business as merchant and financial agent of the government in much the same way as formerly. Elizabeth also found him useful in a great variety of other ways, among which was that of acting as jailer, to See also:Lady Mary Grey, who, as a See also:punishment for marrying Thomas Keys the sergeant See also:porter, remained a prisoner in his house from June 1569 to the end of 1572. In 1565 Gresham made a proposal to the court of aldermen of London to build at his own expense a bourse or See also:exchange, on See also:condition that they See also:purchased for this purpose a piece of suitable ground. In this proposal he seems to have had an See also:eye to his own interest as well as to the general See also:good of the merchants, for by a yearly rental of £700 obtained for the shops in the upper part of the See also:building he received a sufficient return for his trouble and expense.

Gresham died suddenly, apparently of See also:

apoplexy, on the 21st of November 1579. His only son predeceased him, and his illegitimate daughter Anne he married to Sir Nathaniel See also:Bacon, brother of the great Lord Bacon. With the exception of a number of small sums bequeathed to the support of various charities, the bulk of his See also:property, consisting of estates in various parts of See also:England of the annual value of more than £2300, was bequeathed to his widow and her heirs with the stipulation that after her decease his See also:residence in Bishopsgate See also:Street, as well as the rents arising from the Royal Exchange, should be vested in the hands of the See also:corporation of London and the Mercers' See also:Company, for the purpose of instituting a See also:college in which seven professors should read lectures—one each See also:day of the See also:week—on See also:astronomy, See also:geometry, physic, See also:law, divinity, See also:rhetoric and See also:music. The lectures were begun in 1597, and were delivered in the See also:original building until 1768, when, on the ground that the trustees were losers by the See also:gift, it was made over to the crown for a yearly See also:rent of £Soo, and converted into an See also:excise office. From that time a See also:room in the Royal Exchange was used for the lectures until in 1843 the See also:present building was erected at a cost of £7000. A See also:notice of Gresham is contained in See also:Fuller's Worthies and See also:Ward's Gresham Professors; but the fullest account of him, as well as of the See also:history of the Exchange and Gresham College is that by J. M. See also:Burgon in his Life and Times of Sir Thomas Gresham (2 vols., 1839). See also a Brief Memoir of Sir Thomas Gresham (1833); and The Life of Sir Thomas Gresham, Founder of the Royal Exchange (1845).

End of Article: GRENVILLE, WILLIAM WYNDHAM GRENVILLE, BARON (1759-1834)

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