George Grenville (14 October 1712 – 13 November 1770) was Prime Minister of Great Britain from 16 April 1763 to 13 July 1765, succeeding the Lord Bute and preceding Charles Watson-Wentworth.
Biography[]
George Grenville was born in Wotton Underwood, Buckinghamshire, England on 14 October 1712, the younger brother of Richard Grenville-Temple. He entered Parliament in 1741 as one of two MPs for Buckingham, and he represented that borough for 29 years. In 1744, he became a Lord of the Admiralty, and he became a Lord of the Treasury in June 1747. In 1754, he became Treasurer of the Navy and Privy Councillor, and Grenville, his brother, and William Pitt the Elder became prominent opposition Whigs during the 1750s. He once again served as Treasurer of the Navy during the Seven Years' War, and he was sent to negotiate an end to the war with France and Spain in 1762. From 1763 to 1765, he served as Prime Minister, authorizing the Stamp Act to tax American documents and newspapers in order to pay for the damages caused by the Seven Years' War and Pontiac's Rebellion. In 1765, King George III appointed Charles Watson-Wentworth as the new Prime Minister, and Grenville would return to Parliament. He advocated support for the Republic of Corsica against France in 1768, and he died two years later. He lent his name to the Grenvillites, an ultra-royalist faction of the Whigs that existed from the 1740s to 1817.