GRENVILLE, RT. HON. THOMAS
Arms.—Vert., on a cross arg., 5 torteaux. A crescent for difference. Grenville.
[Tristan, Chlr. de la Table Ronde. Paris.]
Thomas Grenville (born 31st December 1755, died 17th December 1846) was the second son of George Grenville of Wotton Hall, Bucks, and was educated at Oxford. He served for a short time in the army. In 1780 Grenville was Member of Parliament for Buckinghamshire, and interested himself much in political matters. In 1790 he was Member for Aldborough, and in 1794 he was Minister Extraordinary at Vienna. His younger brother William, Baron Grenville, was Premier in 1806.
Grenville was a Member of the Privy Council, and in 1799 Ambassador to Berlin, and was the last person to hold the office of Chief-Justice in Eyre south of Trent. He was for a time First Lord of the Admiralty. In 1818 Grenville left public life. He was always an eager collector of fine books, and bequeathed his magnificent library to the nation. It is now kept at the British Museum, of which Mr. Grenville was a Trustee, in a room especially kept for it, and known as the Grenville Room.
Among the Grenville books are still a few fine old bindings, but the majority have been rebound by George Lewis, one of the most eminent of the later English trade binders.
