James Grenville, 1st Baron Glastonbury

James Grenville, 1st Baron Glastonbury, PC (6 July 1742-26 April 1825) was a United Kingdom politician, who was a member of both houses of Parliament during his career.

Grenville was the eldest son of James Grenville MP (12 February 1715-14 September 1783) and a first cousin of George Nugent-Temple-Grenville, 1st Marquess of Buckingham. The Grenvilles were the most prominent aristocratic family in the south-eastern English county of Buckinghamshire in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. For much of this time they supplied one of the two parliamentary representatives of Buckinghamshire and both of those from the town of Buckingham.

The family produced some prominent national political figures, including two Prime Ministers (George Grenville and William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville). They were also related to William Pitt the Elder and William Pitt the Younger.

Grenville was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford.

As a politician he generally followed his family connection up to 1801 and after 1806, but between those years he continued to support William Pitt the Younger instead of becoming closer to Charles James Fox as most of his politically active Grenville relatives did.

Grenville served as Member of Parliament for the Yorkshire borough of Thirsk 1766-1768. He sat for his family borough of Buckingham 1770-1790. He then represented the county seat of Buckinghamshire 1790-1797.

He held junior ministerial office as a Lord of the Treasury March 1782-March 1783. William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne offered to make Grenville Chancellor of the Exchequer or Secretary at War, but he declined these appointments. He was sworn of the Privy Council on 26 December 1783. He was a member of the Board of Trade from 1784 until his death.

On 20 October 1797 he was created Baron Glastonbury. Lord Glastonbury never married and the title became extinct on his death in 1825. He left his estate to Thomas Grenville, with a remainder to the Reverend George Neville of Windsor.

References

* "The House of Commons 1754-1790", by Sir Lewis Namier and John Brooke (HMSO 1964)
* "Political Change and Continuity 1760-1885: A Buckinghamshire Study", by Richard W. Davis (David & Charles 1972)
* "The Parliaments of England" by Henry Stooks Smith (1st edition published in three volumes 1844-50), second edition edited (in one volume) by F.W.S. Craig (Political Reference Publications 1973)

External source

* [http://www.dukesofbuckingham.org/index.htm] "Note: The information about the exact relationship to the 1st Marquess of Buckingham, marital status and to whom the estate was left were derived from the Dukes of Buckingham & Chandos website by Andy Boddington and are used under a copyleft license. Please refer to that license for the conditions of use before copying that information for another use (or modifying this note)."

*Rayment