Thomas Grenville (1755-1846), book collector, was born on 31 December 1755. He attended Christ Church, Oxford, and became a lieutenant in the Rutland regiment in 1779. He was M.P. for Buckinghamshire, 1780-1784, Aldborough, 1790-1796, and Buckingham, 1796-1818, and was appointed Envoy Extraordinary to Vienna in 1794, and to Berlin in 1799. He was President of the Board of Control and First Lord of the Admiralty, 1806-1807. Grenville died on 17 December 1846 at Hamilton Place, Piccadilly. He bequeathed his collection of books to the British Museum, where it formed the Grenville Library.
J.H. Hessels is possibly Jan Hendrik Hessels (1836-1926).
From the guide to the J.H. Hessels: Incunabula of Thomas Grenville, c. 1870, (Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives)
