George Grenville, 

 English statesman 



GRENVILLE 



lord of the admiralty in 1762. 

 He was prime minister from 1763- 

 65, his administration being chiefly 



notable for the 



prosecution of 

 John Wilkes, 

 in 1763, and 

 the passing of 

 the American 

 Stamp Act in 

 1765. He was 

 known as "The 

 Gentle Shep- 

 herd," a nick- 

 name due to 

 Pitt's quoting 

 the words of the old song, "Gentle 

 shepherd, tell me where," when 

 Grenville was wearying the house 

 with complaints. Grenville died in 

 London, Nov. 13, 1770. 



Grenville OR GREYNVILLE, SIR 

 RICHARD (c. 1541-91). English 

 sailor. Belonging to an old 

 Cornish family, 

 in his youth he 

 is reported to 

 have fought 

 with distinc- 

 tion in the 

 Austrian ser- 

 vice against the 

 Turks in Hun- 

 gary. He was 

 one of the 

 members for 

 Cornwall in the 

 parliaments of 1571 and 1584, and 

 was sheriff of the county in 1571. 



In 1591 Grenville was appointed 

 vice-admiral, or second in com- 

 mand, under Admiral Sir Thomas 

 Howard, of a squadron sent to the 

 Azores to intercept the homeward 

 bound Spanish treasure fleet. 

 Spain had, however, learned of the 

 dispatch of this squadron, and sent 

 a fleet of 53 vessels to the Azores, 

 where they arrived, Aug. 31. 

 Howard's fleet, anchored north of 

 Flores, numbered only 16, and at 

 least half his men were sick with 

 scurvy, so he hurried his men 

 aboard, and put to sea. 



For some reason the Revenge, 

 Grenville's flagship, was unable to 

 follow, and was cut off. Grenville 

 thereupon determined to pass 

 through the Spanish line ; he made 

 a dash, but was becalmed under the 

 lee of the enormous galleons, 

 whose men boarded her, and after 

 a fierce fight captured and over- 

 whelmed the few survivors of her 

 crew. Mortally wounded, Grenville 

 was taken aboard the Spanish 

 admiral's flagship, where he died 

 a few hours later. For fifteen hours 

 150 men had fought hand to hand 

 against 5,000 Spaniards, and it was 

 not until their number was reduced 

 to 20 that they yielded. The story 

 is finely told in Tennyson's poem, 

 The Revenge. 



Sir Richard Grenville, 

 English sailor) 



Gresham. British life assurance 

 company. It was established in 

 1848, and registered as a limited 

 company, 1893. Its head offices are 

 5, St^Mildred's House, Poultry.E.C. 



Gresham, SIR THOMAS (c. 1519- 

 79). English merchant and finan- 

 cier. Born in London, second son 

 of Sir Richard Gresham (d. 1549), 

 lord mayor of London in 1537, and 

 an ancestor of the marquess of 

 Bath, he came of an old Norfolk 

 family. Educated at Gonville Hall, 

 now Gonville and Caius College, 

 Cambridge, and a student at 

 Gray's Inn, he 

 joined the Mer- 

 cers' Company, 

 and amassed a 

 fortune. 



Knighted by 

 Queen Elizabeth, 

 he acquired lands 

 in Norfolk and 

 Suffolk, and had 

 mansions at May- 

 field, in Sussex, 

 and Osterley, in 

 Middlesex. He 

 was lamed for life 

 by a fall from his 

 horse in 1560, and 

 lost his only son in 

 1564, and, decid- 

 ing to devote his 

 wealth to public ends, carried out, in 

 1566-68, a project of his father's by 

 founding the Royal Exchange. He 

 died, Nov. 21, 1579, and was buried 

 in S. Helen's Church, Bishopsgate. 

 He bequeathed one moiety of 

 the Exchange to the city corpor- 

 ation, the other to the Mercers' 

 Company, in trust for the founda- 

 tion of the Gresham Lectures. He 



GRESSET 



Gresham College. Educational 

 centre in London. It was originated 

 by Sir Thomas Gresham (q.v. ), who 

 left his residence 

 in Bishopsgate 

 Street to the cor- 

 poration of the 

 city of London 

 and the Mercers' 

 Company, for the 

 purpose of start- 



Gresham College] in . lectu f. s in 

 arms various subjects. 



In 1597 the lec- 

 tures were organized and begun, 



Sir Thomas Gresham, English merchant 



After Holbein 



left his house in Bishopsgate Street 

 for the use of the lecturers, founded 

 eight almshouses, and left money 

 for other charities. See Life and 

 Times of Sir Thomas Gresham, J. 

 W. Burgon, 1839. 



Gresham College. The courtyard of Sir Thomas 

 Gresham's house in which Gresbam College was started 



From an old print 



and they have been continued ever 

 since. There are seven lecturers, 

 and each delivers twelve lectures 

 a year. They are on divinity, 

 astronomy, music, 'geometry, law, 

 physic, and rhetoric. 



Gresham's Law. Economic law 

 that may be roughly stated as 

 " bad money drives out good." 

 It was first expressed thus in a 

 document of 1560, dealing with 

 the proposed reforms of the coinage, 

 but its present name was only 

 given by H. D. Macleod, in 1858, 

 in the belief that Sir Thomas 

 Gresham was responsible for the 

 statement made in the above pro- 

 clamation. The truth of the law is 

 amply proved by experience. 

 Where there are two forms of cur- 

 rency, each being legal tender, 

 persons will naturally pay their 

 debts in the less valuable one, re- 

 taining any of the more valuable 

 one they may have, which thus 

 will tend to disappear from circu- 

 lation. The existence of this law 

 is a strong argument against 

 bimetallism (q.v.). 



Gresset, JEAN BAPTISTE Louis 

 (1709-77). French poet and drama- 

 tist. Born at Amiens,Aug. 29, 1709, 

 he is remembered chiefly for one 

 capital comedy, Le Mechant, and a 

 burlesque poem, Vert- Vert, which 

 contains beneath its humorous 

 story of a convent parrot some 

 shrewd satire on monastic life. 

 He died at Amiens, June 16, 1777. 



