Author: Grenville, George Nugent
Biography:
GRENVILLE, George Nugent (1788-1850: ODNB)
A younger son of George Nugent Temple Grenville (1753-1813), marquess of Buckingham and lord lieutenant of Ireland, and his wife Lady Mary Elizabeth Nugent (d 1812), he was born at Kilmainham, Dublin. ODNB gives his birth date as 30 Dec. 1788 but on the memorial plaque where he is buried at All Saints, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, it is given as 31 Dec. 1789. He was brought up with his sister, Mary, in the family estate at Stowe, Bucks., before matriculating at Brasenose College, Oxford, on 25 Apr. 1804. He had a very successful academic career and his Essay on Duelling (1807) won the chancellor’s medal. Grenville was created DCL on 6 July 1810. His preference was for the military and he briefly served with the 2nd Bucks. yeomanry, but in deference to his father’s wishes he entered parliament in 1810 to represent first Buckingham and, from 1812, Aylesbury. With his mother’s death in 1812 he became Baron Nugent of Carlanstown, Ireland. On 6 Sept. 1813 he married Anne Lacy Poulett at Addington, Bucks.; they had two children but both were stillborn. They established a country estate at Lilies, in the parish of Hardwick with Weedon, Bucks. In parliament Nugent supported liberal causes including civil liberties, religious freedom, abolition, and parliamentary reform. In 1830 he was made lord of the Treasury but, with his own finances in disarray, he applied to become lord high commissioner of the Ionian islands in 1832. Nugent was made a knight of the Order of St. Michael and St. George in 1832. He returned to England in 1834 and stood again for election but was unsuccessful until 1847 when he was returned for Aylesbury. He died at Lilies on 26 Nov. 1858; his wife had died in 1848. His other publications include Memorials of John Hampden (1831), Legends of the Library at Lilies (1831, written with Lady Nugent), and Lands Classical and Sacred (1845). In 1847 he published Tract Entitled True and Faithful Relation of a Worthy Discourse Between Colonel John Hampden and Colonel Oliver Cromwell, purporting to be by the Rev. Dr William Spurstowe, rector of Great Hampden. (ODNB 20 Nov. 2024; ancestry.co.uk 20 Nov. 2024; Alumni Oxonienses)
Other Names:
- George N. Grenville
- Lord George Grenville
- Lord Granville