Dumb Question - Grenville - Granville

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Leo van de Pas

Dumb Question - Grenville - Granville

Legg inn av Leo van de Pas » 24 apr 2006 00:39:02

In several genealogical sources I have seen the name Grenville, and then I find the same people in other sources as Granville. What would be the correcter spelling?
Many thanks
Leo van de Pas
Canberra, Australia

John Higgins

Re: [NOT a] Dumb Question - Grenville - Granville

Legg inn av John Higgins » 24 apr 2006 05:15:04

Not a dumb question at all....It seems to depend on which Grenville family
you're talking about.

The Grenvilles who became the Dukes of Buckingham seem to have always used
that form of the surname. Burke's Peerage (sub Kinloss) indicates that this
family shared a common origin, in the 12 century, with the family of
Grenville or
Granville of the West Country who became Earls of Bath. However, different
editions of BP have given
different versions of their supposedly shared ancestry. I don't know
whether either descent is supportable - they have the air of the creative
genealogy not uncommon in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The surname of the latter family is discussed at length by the noted (and
often caustic) genealogist J. H. Round in an entertaining chapter of his
"Family Origins" [1930], in which he asserts that these Grenvilles changed
their surname to Granville at the time of the Restoration in order to add
support for their [probably fictitious] claim to be descended from the early
Dukes of Normandy. In an opening paragraph he says the following:

"It is strange that when Sir John 'Grenvile' was raised at the Restoration
to the peerage (20 April, 1661) he should have begun to change so
illustrious a name, by adopting 'Granville' as the style of his two lesser
dignities. But the change sychronized, as we shall see, with his amazing
and successful attempt to obtain from the Crown formal confirmation of the
gorgeous origin he claimed for his House. Since then there have been no
fewer than four peerage dignities created with the style of Granville for
descendants of this family. But, not content with thus changing the true
form of their name, they endeavored, like Chinamen, to bestow, in posthumous
fashion, the new form on their ancestors. To some extent they assigned them
also their newly invented dignities. In the elaborate "History of the
Granville Family" (1895), to which I shall have occasion to refer, the name
is deliberately and barbarously changed to 'Granville' throughout the
pre-Restoration history in the teeth of every letter and document that it
contains."

[END of QUOTE]

Round asserts that 'Granville' and "Grenville" were originally the same,
with variants such as Greinville, Greenvill, Grenevill, Greynville, among
others, being used. But he does not indicate that the two families were
connected as BP would have us believe.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Leo van de Pas" <leovdpas@netspeed.com.au>
To: <GEN-MEDIEVAL-L@rootsweb.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 23, 2006 3:22 PM
Subject: Dumb Question - Grenville - Granville


In several genealogical sources I have seen the name Grenville, and then I
find the same people in other sources as Granville. What would be the

correcter spelling?
Many thanks
Leo van de Pas
Canberra, Australia


Renia

Re: Dumb Question - Grenville - Granville

Legg inn av Renia » 26 apr 2006 00:31:07

Leo van de Pas wrote:

In several genealogical sources I have seen the name Grenville, and then I find the same people in other sources as Granville. What would be the correcter spelling?
Many thanks
Leo van de Pas
Canberra, Australia

The spelling the family used most consistently! That's the problem with
name variants.

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