high sheriff of Northumberland in 1788. He must have taken after his mother, Elizabeth Davidson. George, on coming of age, had to sue the Common Council for the right to take up his freedom, the Council arguing that he was not a freeman's son, inasmuch as at the time of his birth his father had been disfranchised, though subsequently readmitted. George won his case, and in 1774 he headed the opposition to the Duke of Northumberland's attempt to fill up both seats for the county, in lieu of being content with one. The opposition secured a narrow majority of sixteen, Alnwick itself pronouncing for the Duke, who, as he told Dutens, spent £7000 on the election. Four years later Grieve led a mob which levelled the fences of part of the moor wrongfully presented by the corporation to the Duke's agent. He was of course a fervent admirer of Wilkes, and a zealous advocate of parliamentary reform. His affairs, however, became involved, and like Pigott he fancied England to be on the brink of ruin. Accordingly, about 1780 he sold his patrimony, crossed the Atlantic, made acquaintance with Washington and Paine, and is said to have partly supported himself by his pen. He appears to have been sent on a mission to Holland, and then, about 1783, settled in Paris.
That such a man would throw himself into the revolutionary movement is evident; but although he knew Mirabeau, there is no trace of Grieve's activity
