Temple, Richard Grenville-Temple, Earl

Temple, Richard Grenville-Temple, Earl,

1711–79, British statesman; elder brother of George GrenvilleGrenville, George,
1712–70, British statesman, brother of Earl Temple. He entered Parliament in 1741, held several cabinet posts, and in 1763 became chief minister.
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 and brother-in-law of William Pitt, 1st earl of ChathamChatham, William Pitt, 1st earl of
, 1708–78, British statesman, known as the Great Commoner. Proud, dramatic, and patriotic, Chatham excelled as a war minister and orator. He was the father of William Pitt.
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. He succeeded to his mother's peerage in 1752. He was closer to Pitt than to his brother and, as first lord of the admiralty (1756–57) in the Pitt-Devonshire ministry and lord privy seal (1757–61) under Pitt and the duke of Newcastle, gave strong backing to Pitt's war policy. He also joined Pitt in vigorous opposition to Grenville's ministry (1763–65), financing John WilkesWilkes, John,
1727–97, English politician and journalist. He studied at the Univ. of Leiden, returned to England in 1746, and purchased (1757) a seat in Parliament.
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 in his attacks upon the government. However, when Pitt (by then Lord Chatham) formed another ministry in 1766, Temple quarreled with him and allied himself with Grenville. After Grenville's death (1770) he was reconciled with Chatham.