Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/117

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Grene
109
Grenfall

students by collecting the scattered records of the English catholic martyrs, and by preserving materials for the history of the times of persecution in this country. An account of those portions of his manuscript collections which are preserved at Stonyhurst, Oscott, and in the archiepiscopal archives of Westminster is given in Morris's ‘Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers,’ vol. iii.

[Foley's Records, iii. 499, vi. 369, vii. 317; Gillow's Bibl. Dict. ; Morris's Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers, iii. 3-7, 118, 315; Oliver's Jesuit Collections, p. 106.]

T. C.

GRENE, MARTIN (1616–1667), Jesuit, son of George Grene, probably a member of one of the Yorkshire families of the name, by his wife Jane Tempest, is said by Southwell to have been born in 1616 at Kilkenny in Ireland, to which country his parents had retired from their native land on account of the persecution ; but the provincial's returns of 1642 and 1655 expressly vouch for his being a native of Kent. He was the elder brother of Christopher Grene [q. v.] After studying humanities in the college of the English Jesuits at St. Omer, he was admitted to the society in 1638. In 1642 he was a professor in the college at Liege, and he held important offices in other establishments belonging to the English Jesuits on the continent. In 1653 he was stationed in Oxfordshire. He was solemnly professed of the four vows on 3 Dec. 1654. After passing twelve years on the mission he was recalled to Watten. near St. Omer, to take charge of the novices. He died there on 2 Oct. 1667, leaving behind him the reputation of an eminent classic, historian, philosopher, and divine.

His works are: 1. ‘An Answer to the Provincial Letters published by the Jansenists, under the name of Lewis Montalt, against the Doctrine of the Jesuits and School Divines,’ Paris, 1659, 8vo. A translation from the French, but with considerable improvements of his own, and with a brief history of Jansenism prefixed. 2. ‘An Account of the Jesuites Life and Doctrine. By M. G.,’ London, 1661, 12mo. This book was a great favourite with the Duke of York, afterwards James II. 3. ‘Vox Veritatis, seu Via Regia ducens ad veram Pacem,’ manuscript. This treatise was translated into English by his brother, Francis Grene, and printed at Ghent, 1676, 24mo. 4. ‘The Church History of England,’ manuscript, commencing with the reign of Henry VIII. The first volume of this work was ready for the press when the author died. Grene, who was an accomplished antiquary, communicated to Father Daniello Bartoli much information respecting English catholic affairs, which is embodied in Bartoli's ‘Istoria della Compagnia di Giesu: L'Inghilterra,’ 1667.

[Cath. Miscell. ix. 35; De Backer's Bibl. des Écrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus; Foley's Records, iii. 493, vii. 317 ; Gillow's Bibl. Dict. iii.50 ; Oliver's Jesuit Collections, p. 106; Southwell's Bibl. Scriptorum Soc. Jesu, p. 586; Ware's Writers of Ireland (Harris),p. 158.]

T. C.

GRENFELL, JOHN PASCOE (1800–1869), admiral in the Brazilian navy, born at Battersea on 20 Sept. 1800, was a son of J. G. Grenfell and nephew of Pascoe Grenfell [q. v.] When eleven years old he entered the service of the East India Company ; but after having made several voyages to India, in 1819 he joined the service of the Chilian republic under Lord Cochrane [see Cochrane, Thomas, tenth Earl of Dundonald], was made a lieutenant, and took part in most of Cochrane's exploits in the war of Chilian independence, and notably in the cutting out of the Esmeralda, when he was severely wounded. In 1823 he accompanied Cochrane to Brazil, with the rank of commander, and served under his orders in the war with Portugal, specially distinguishing himself in the reduction of Para. Afterwards, under Commodore Norton, in the action off Buenos Ayres on 29 July 1826, he lost his right arm. He then went to England for the re-establishment of his health, but returned to Brazil in 1828. In 1835-6 he commanded the squadron on the lakes of the province of Rio Grande do Sul against the rebel flotillas, which he captured or destroyed, thus compelling the rebel army to surrender. In 1841 he was promoted to be rear-admiral. In 1846 he was appointed consul-general in England, to reside in Liverpool, and in August 1848, while superintending the trial of the Alfonzo, a ship of war built at Liverpool for the Brazilian government, assisted in saving the lives of the passengers and crew of the emigrant ship Ocean Monarch, burnt off the mouth of the Mersey. For his exertions at this time he received the thanks of the corporation and the gold medal of the Liverpool Shipwreck Society. In 1851, on war breaking out between Brazil and the Argentine republic, he returned to take command of the Brazilian navy, and in December, after a sharp conflict, forced the passage of the Parana. After the peace he was promoted to be vice-admiral, and later on to be admiral ; but in 1852 he returned to Liverpool, and resumed his functions as consul-general, holding the office until his death on 20 March 1869. He married, at Monte Video in 1829, Doña Maria Dolores Masini, and left issue ; among others, Harry Tremenheere Grenfell, a captain in the royal