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{{Short description|English merchant and naval officer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2018}}
[[File:British (English) School - East India Company Ships at Deptford - BHC1873 - Royal Museums Greenwich.jpg|thumb|East India Company ships at [[Deptford]]. The large [[East Indiaman]] being fitted out in the dock is Grantham's ship ''Charles the Second''. She was launched in February 1683 by Johnson at [[Blackwall Yard]].<ref name="BHC1873">{{cite web |title=East India Company ships at Deptford |url=https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/13352.html |website=Royal Museums Greenwich |publisher=National Maritime Museum |accessdate=28 October 2020}}</ref>]]

'''Sir Thomas Grantham''' (bapt. 23 December 1641 – January 1718) was an English merchant and naval officer. In 1664, Grantham was working as a merchant, shipping woollen goods to the English [[colony of Virginia]]. Eight years later, he informed [[Charles II of England]] that Virginia lacked sufficient weapons and ammunition for self-defence and volunteered his services to that effect. Grantham subsequently arrived in Virginia with a shipment of leather goods and letter of recommendation from [[James II of England|Duke of York]]. Governor [[William Berkeley (governor)|Sir William Berkeley]] received Grantham "with several marks of friendship and esteem" and appointed him admiral of a flotilla of 25 merchantmen which he convoyed back to England in summer 1673. In 1674, as captain of ''Barnaby'', Grantham escorted the London tobacco fleet to Virginia, becoming a prominent tobacco trader and "master of Virginia's waters and an expert on their defenses".<ref>[Anon.], [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/11297 ‘Grantham, Sir Thomas (bap. 1641, d. 1718)’], rev. Peter Le Fevre, ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 8 Sept 2008</ref>

In September 1676, Grantham arrived in Virginia while in command of the 32-gun ''Concord'' during [[Bacon's Rebellion]]. Berkeley asked him to act as intermediary with the rebels led by [[Nathaniel Bacon (Virginia colonist)|Nathaniel Bacon]]. Grantham arranged a surrender by one group of rebels on 2 January 1677 by promising them all a pardon and breaking out a barrel of brandy to calm everyone's nerves. He then persuaded another group of rebels to surrender using similar tactics. Charles II awarded Grantham £200 for his services. On his next voyage to Virginia in 1678, Grantham beat off an attack by a large [[Barbary corsairs|Algerian corsair]], which led Charles II to recommended him to the [[East India Company]] (EIC). The EIC granted him a captain's commission for the [[East Indiaman]] ''Charles the Second'', and he was knighted by the king at the ship's launch on 8 February 1683.<ref>[Anon.], [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/11297 ‘Grantham, Sir Thomas (bap. 1641, d. 1718)’], rev. Peter Le Fevre, ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 8 Sept 2008</ref>

In the summer of 1683, he sailed to Asia with instructions to enforce EIC claims against [[Safavid Iran]] for half the customs revenues collected at [[Bandar Abbas|Gombroon]], a port at the entrance to the [[Persian Gulf]], and to reassert EIC control over [[Banten (town)|Bantam]], where the company had been expelled by the [[Banten Sultanate]] and [[Dutch East India Company]] (VOC). Grantham reached Bantam in June 1684, but by then a settlement had been reached in London. He proceeded to Gombroon, but found the VOC already in possession; unable to carry out his mission, Grantham sailed to [[Surat]], where he received orders from [[List of governors of Bombay Presidency|governor of Bombay]] [[Sir John Child, 1st Baronet|John Child]] to suppress a mutiny at [[Mumbai|Bombay]], where Captain [[Richard Keigwin (colonial administrator)|Richard Keigwin]] had seized power. By diplomatic handling of the affair Keigwin and his supporters were won over. Grantham was also responsible for the strengthening of the walls of the [[Mahim Fort]] against attacks by the Portuguese who had occupied [[Salsette Island]], and returned to England in 1685.<ref>[Anon.], [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/11297 ‘Grantham, Sir Thomas (bap. 1641, d. 1718)’], rev. Peter Le Fevre, ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 8 Sept 2008</ref>

In April 1689, Grantham was appointed as a [[Privy chamber|Gentleman of the Privy Chamber]] and [[Esquire of the Body]] to [[William III of England]] and [[Mary II]], offices he retained under [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain]]. In 1690 he bought a manor in [[Sunbury-on-Thames]], [[Middlesex]], where he built Batavia House in 1697. He obtained a grant of arms in 1711, and died, probably in Sunbury, in January 1718. In his will, Grantham asked to be buried at [[Bicester]], specifically in the middle aisle of Bicester parish church "where I received my Christianity and where my mother and father lyeth buried... and near that place to set up a marble monument of no less value than 200 Guineas with my name and age on it". He was buried there on 22 January and such a monument was erected by his nephew Andrew.<ref>[Anon.], [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/11297 ‘Grantham, Sir Thomas (bap. 1641, d. 1718)’], rev. Peter Le Fevre, ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 8 Sept 2008</ref>

==Works==
*''An Historical Account of Some Memorable Actions, Particularly in Virginia; Also Against the Admiral of Algier, and in the East Indies: Perform'd for the Service of his Prince and Country'', By Sir Thomas Grantham, Kt, J Roberts, London MDCCXVI; Reprinted by Carlton McCarthy & Co., at the behest of the State of Virginia, with an introduction by R.A. Brock, Esquire, Secretary Virginia Historical Society, 1882

==References==
{{Reflist}}
*[http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/MillJames0324/BritishIndia/0381-01_Bk.html History of British India], James Mill, vol 1, 1826

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[[Category:British East India Company Marine personnel]]

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Thomas Grantham (merchant) - Revision history

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