Family and Education

b. aft. 2 Mar. 1643, 5th (posth.) s. of Robert Greville, 2nd Baron Brooke of Beauchamps Court, by Lady Katherine Russell, da. of Francis, 4th Earl of Bedford. m. lic. 12 Jan. 1665, Sarah, da. of Francis Dashwood, merchant, of London, 5s. (2 d.v.p.) 7da. suc. bro. as 5th Baron Brooke 17 Feb. 1677.

Offices Held

Commr. for assessment, Warws. 1664-74; recorder, Warwick 1677-d., Coventry 1682-1706; j.p. Warws. 1681-?d.1

Biography

Greville’s family can be traced back as Warwickshire landowners to 1398, and first sat in Parliament in 1414. His father, an Independent and probably a republican, was killed by a royalist sniper while commanding the siege of Lichfield in the Civil War; but his brother, the 4th Lord Brooke, was one of the peers sent to The Hague in May 1660 to invite Charles II to return. Greville himself can scarcely have been of age when he was returned on the family interest for Warwick at a by-election in 1664. Though ‘well-bred’ and of ‘very good capacity’, he was ‘always a man of pleasure’ and a gambler, and he never became active in the Cavalier Parliament, defaulting on a call of the House in 1668. He was added to the committee of elections and privileges in three sessions, and named to one private bill committee and the committee on the bill to prevent the growth of Popery on 27 May 1675. He was probably in opposition under the Danby administration, but he succeeded to his brother’s title and interest two days after the start of the 1677 session. As a peer he was marked ‘doubly worthy’ on Shaftesbury’s list, and he voted for exclusion in 1680 and seems to have been popular with the dissenters in Coventry. But he played an active part in securing the surrender of the Warwick and Coventry charters, and supported Tory candidates in 1685. He was later listed among the opposition to James II, and after the Revolution he and his son Francis Greville^† were described as ‘great assertors of the prerogative in church and state’. He died on 22 Oct. 1710 and was buried in the family vault in St. Mary’s, Warwick. Three of his sons sat for Warwick as Tories between 1690 and 1727.2

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: A. M. Mimardière

Notes

• 1. CSP Dom. 1682, pp. 35-36; Q. Sess. Recs. (Warws. Recs. ix), p. xliii.
• 2. F. E. Greville, Warwick Castle, ii. 748; CSP Dom. 1676-7, pp. 459-60; 1682, pp. 8, 19; 1685, p. 72; Add. 34730, f. 40; Add. 41803, f. 33; EHR, lxix. 303.