Prime Ministers · 19th century

Lord Grenville

1759–1834 · British

Whig (earlier a Pittite)

In office: 1806–1807

William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, was the son of Prime Minister George Grenville and a cousin and close ally of Pitt the Younger, serving as his Foreign Secretary through the 1790s. After Pitt's death he led the coalition "Ministry of All the Talents" (1806–1807), whose great achievement was the Slave Trade Act 1807 abolishing the British slave trade. His ministry fell when George III demanded a pledge never again to raise the Catholic question.

How to spot them

▸Ministry of All the Talents, 1806–1807, formed after Pitt the Younger's death
▸Abolition of the slave trade, 1807
▸Son of an earlier PM, George Grenville; cousin of Pitt the Younger
▸Foreign Secretary under Pitt, 1791–1801

In office

The Ministry of All the Talents (1806–1807)

Broad coalition including Fox, formed after Pitt the Younger's death

Slave Trade Act abolishing the British slave trade (1807)

Passed in the final weeks of his ministry

Ministry falls after George III demands a pledge on the Catholic question (1807)

He refused to promise never to raise Catholic concessions again

Foreign Secretary to his cousin Pitt through the French Revolutionary Wars (1791–1801)

Resigned with Pitt in 1801 over Catholic emancipation

Quick-fire facts

•His father George Grenville was Prime Minister 1763–1765 (the Stamp Act ministry)
•Briefly Speaker of the House of Commons in 1789
•Charles James Fox was his Foreign Secretary and died in office in 1806
•Elected Chancellor of the University of Oxford in 1810
•On resigning he wrote of the 'infinite pleasure' he derived from his 'emancipation' from office

Drill it — 5 cards

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Sources

GOV.UK History of Government — William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville
Oxford University Press — Oxford Dictionary of National Biography