GRANTHAM, THOMAS ROBINSON, 1st Baron (c. 1695-1770), English diplomatist and politician, was a younger son of Sir William Robinson, Bart. (1655-1736) of Newby, Yorkshire, who was member of parliament for York from 1697 to 1722. Having been a scholar and minor fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Thomas Robinson gained his earliest diplomatic experience in Paris and then went to Vienna, where he was English ambassador from 1730 to 1748. During 1741 he sought to make peace between the empress Maria Theresa and Frederick the Great, but in vain, and in 1748 he represented his country at the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle. Returning to England he sat in parliament for Christchurch from 1749 to 1761. In 1754 Robinson was appointed a secretary of state and leader of the House of Commons by the prime minister, the duke of Newcastle, and it was on this occasion that Pitt made the famous remark to Fox, “the duke might as well have sent us his jackboot to lead us.” In November 1755 he resigned, and in April 1761 he was created Baron Grantham. He was master of the wardrobe from 1749 to 1754 and again from 1755 to 1760, and was joint postmaster-general in 1765 and 1766. He died in London on the 30th of September 1770.
Grantham’s elder son, Thomas Robinson (1738-1786), who became the 2nd baron, was born at Vienna on the 30th of November 1738. Educated at Westminster School and at Christ’s College, Cambridge, he entered parliament as member for Christchurch in 1761, and succeeded to the peerage in 1770. In 1771 he was sent as ambassador to Madrid and retained this post until war broke out between England and Spain in 1779. From 1780 to 1782 Grantham was first commissioner of the board of trade and foreign plantations, and from July 1782 to April 1783 secretary for the foreign department under Lord Shelburne. He died on the 20th of July 1786, leaving two sons, Thomas Philip, who became the 3rd baron, and Frederick John afterwards 1st earl of Ripon.
Thomas Philip Robinson, 3rd Baron Grantham (1781-1859). in 1803 took the name of Weddell instead of that of Robinson. In May 1833 he became Earl de Grey of Wrest on the death of his maternal aunt, Amabell Hume-Campbell, Countess de Grey (1751-1833), and he now took the name of de Grey. He was first lord of the admiralty under Sir Robert Peel in 1834-1835 and from 1841 to 1844 lord-lieutenant of Ireland. On his death without male issue his nephew, George Frederick Samuel Robinson, afterwards marquess of Ripon (q.v.), succeeded as Earl de Grey.
GRANTHAM, a municipal and parliamentary borough of Lincolnshire, England; situated in a pleasant undulating country on the river Witham. Pop. (1901) 17,593. It is an important junction of the Great Northern railway, 105 m. N. by W. from London, with branch lines to Nottingham, Lincoln and Boston; while there is communication with Nottingham and the Trent by the Grantham canal. The parish church of St Wulfram is a splendid building, exhibiting all the Gothic styles, but mainly Early English and Decorated. The massive and ornate western tower and spire, about 280 ft. in height, are of early Decorated workmanship. There is a double Decorated crypt beneath the lady chapel. The north and south porches are fine examples of a later period of the same style. The delicately carved font is noteworthy. Two libraries, respectively of the 16th and 17th centuries, are preserved in the church. At the King Edward VI. grammar school Sir Isaac Newton received part of his education. A bronze statue commemorates him. The late Perpendicular building is picturesque, and the school was greatly enlarged in 1904. The Angel Hotel is a hostelry of the 15th century, with a gateway of earlier date. A conduit dating from 1597 stands in the wide market-place. Modern public buildings are a gild hall, exchange hall, and several churches and chapels. The Queen Victoria Memorial home for nurses was erected in 1902-1903. The chief industries are malting and the manufacture of agricultural implements. Grantham returns one member to parliament. The borough falls within the S. Kesteven or Stamford division of the county. Grantham was created a suffragan bishopric in the diocese of Lincoln in 1905. The municipal borough is under a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Area, 1726 acres.
Although there is no authentic evidence of Roman occupation, Grantham (Graham, Granham in Domesday Book) from its situation on the Ermine Street, is supposed to have been a Roman station. It was possibly a borough in the Saxon period, and by the time of the Domesday Survey it was a royal borough with 111 burgesses. Charters of liberties existing now only in the confirmation charter of 1377 were granted by various kings. From the first the town was governed by a bailiff appointed by the lord of the manor, but by the end of the 14th century the office of alderman had come into existence. Finally government under a mayor and alderman was granted by Edward IV. in 1463, and Grantham became a corporate town. Among later charters, that of James II., given in 1685, changed the title to that of government by a mayor and 6 aldermen, but this was afterwards reversed and the old order resumed. Grantham was first represented in parliament in 1467, and returned two members; but by the Redistribution Act of 1885 the number was reduced to one. Richard III. in 1483 granted a Wednesday market and two fairs yearly, namely on the feast of St Nicholas the Bishop, and the two following days, and on Passion Sunday and the day following. At the present day the market is held on Saturday, and fairs are held on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday following the fifth Sunday in Lent; a cherry fair on the 11th of July and two stock fairs on the 26th of October and the 17th of December.
GRANTLEY, FLETCHER NORTON, 1st Baron (1716-1789), English politician, was the eldest son of Thomas Norton of Grantley, Yorkshire, where he was born on the 23rd of June 1716. He became a barrister in 1739, and, after a period of inactivity, obtained a large and profitable practice, becoming a K.C. in 1754, and afterwards attorney-general for the county palatine of Lancaster. In 1756 he was elected member of parliament for Appleby; he represented Wigan from 1761 to 1768, and was appointed solicitor-general for England and knighted in 1762. He took part in the proceedings against John Wilkes, and, having become attorney-general in 1763, prosecuted the 5th Lord Byron for the murder of William Chaworth, losing his office when the marquess of Rockingham came into power in July 1765. In 1769, being now member of parliament for Guildford, Norton became a privy councillor and chief justice in eyre of the forests south of the Trent, and in 1770 was chosen Speaker of the House of Commons. In 1777, when presenting the bill for the increase of the civil list to the king, he told George III. that parliament has “not only granted to your majesty a large present supply, but also a very great additional revenue; great beyond example; great beyond your majesty’s highest expense.” This speech aroused general attention and caused some irritation; but the Speaker was supported by Fox and by the city of London, and received the thanks of the House of Commons. George, however, did not forget these plain words, and after the general election of 1780, the prime minister, Lord North, and his followers declined to support the re-election of the retiring Speaker, alleging that his health was not equal to the duties of the office, and he was defeated when the voting took place. In 1782 he was made a peer as Baron Grantley of Markenfield. He died in London on the 1st of January 1789. He was succeeded as Baron Grantley by his eldest son William (1742-1822). Wraxall describes Norton as “a bold, able and eloquent, but not a popular pleader,” and as Speaker he was aggressive and indiscreet. Derided by satirists as “Sir Bullface Doublefee,” and described by Horace Walpole as one who “rose from obscure infamy to that infamous fame which will long stick to him,” his character was also assailed by Junius, and the general impression is that he was a hot-tempered, avaricious and unprincipled man.
See H. Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of George III., edited by G. F. R. Barker (1894); Sir N. W. Wraxall, Historical and Posthumous Memoirs, edited by H. B. Wheatley (1884); and J. A. Manning, Lives of the Speakers (1850).