Background
Grenville was the second son of Prime Minister George Grenville and Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Wyndham, 3rd Baronet.
Grenville was the second son of Prime Minister George Grenville and Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Wyndham, 3rd Baronet.
He was educated at Eton.
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. In 1798, he was sworn of the Privy Council. On 1 February 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 Berlin.
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 shore, in freezing weather and falling snow.
The diplomatic party reached Cuxhaven on 6 February to continue to Berlin via Hamburg. 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 6260 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 have 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 Tower in the British
Mr. Thomas Grenville (1755–1779)
Mr.
Thomas Grenville, Member of Parliament (1779–1784)
Mr. Thomas Grenville (1784–1790)
Mr.
Thomas Grenville, Member of Parliament (1790–1798)
The Rt.
Honorary Thomas Grenville, Member of Parliament (1798–1810)
The Rt. Honorary Thomas Grenville (1810–1813)
The Rt.
Honorary Thomas Grenville, Member of Parliament (1813–1818)
The Rt.
Honorary Thomas Grenville (1818–1846).
1st United Kingdom Parliament. 2nd United Kingdom Parliament. 3rd United Kingdom Parliament.
4th United Kingdom Parliament.
5th United Kingdom Parliament. 14th Parliament of Great Britain.
15th Parliament of Great Britain. 17th Parliament of Great Britain.
18th Parliament of Great Britain]
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).