William Granville (civil servant)

William Granville
5th & 7th Treasurer of Ceylon
In office 1823–1824
Preceded by	John Drave
Succeeded by	John William Carrington
In office 1 May 1828 – 1841
Preceded by	John William Carrington
Succeeded by	George Turnour
Personal details
Born	1785 England
Died	January 1864 Bath, Somerset, England
Resting place	St Giles' church, Stoke Poges
Spouse(s)	Frances née Turnour 1801 (m. 1820; her death 1873)
Children	William Turnour, Emily, Frances
Parents	Granville Penn
Profession	Colonial administrator

William Granville, (1785 – January 1864) was the Treasurer of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) (1823–1824; 1828–1841), Commissioner of Stamps, and a member of the Executive and Legislative Councils.

William Granville was born in England in 1785, the illegitimate son of Granville Penn (1761–1844).^[1][2]

Granville came out to Ceylon with Sir Thomas Maitland, arriving at Galle on 13 July 1805. He rose steadily in the Service and by 1820 had become Deputy Secretary to the Government. On 5 July 1829 he married Frances née Turnour, the second daughter of the Hon. George Turnour and the niece of Cardinal Louis-François de Bausset of Paris.^[3][4] Granville was the second Englishman to write verse about Ceylon, Captain T. A. Anderson being the first. In 1830 a small book of his verses, Poems on Ceylon, was published in Colombo. Granville was appointed by Governor Robert Brownrigg to escort the deposed King of Kandy, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, from Colombo to Madras. He kept a diary of the voyage, which was published in 1830, with his poems as an appendix. Granville retired in 1841 while holding the appointment of Treasurer of Ceylon.

Granville and his family returned to England and lived at Bath, where he died in January 1864, at the age of seventy-nine. His remains were brought to St Giles' church, Stoke Poges and interred with the rest of the Penn family.

References

1. Tempsford Hall papers, 1669-1916, Historical Society of Pennsylvania
2. Wainwright, Nicholas B. (1963). The Penn Collection. p. 413.
3. Urban, Sylvanus (December 1820). "The Gentlemen's Magazine and Historical Chronical" 128. London: John Nichols and Sons: 562.
4. Courthope, William (Ed) (1838). Debrett's Complete Peerage of the United Kingdom of Great Britian and Ireland (22 ed.). London: R. G. And F. Rivington. p. 551.