The Probert Encyclopaedia of People

WILLIAM GRENVILLE

William Wyndham Grenville was an English statesman. He was born in 1759 and died in 1834. The third son of George Grenville, in 1783 he was appointed paymaster-general of the army; in 1789 became speaker, and in the same year became secretary of state for the home department. In 1790 he was created Baron Grenville, and from 1791 until Pitt's resignation in 1801 held the post of foreign secretary. On the return of Pitt to office in 1804 he declined to join him, and continued in opposition until Pitt's death,when he became the head of a coalition ministry, including Fox and Grey, 1806. This ministry resigned in 1807, after having passed an act for the abolition of the slave-trade. He did not again take office.
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