Grote
grot, George (1794-1871), an eminent historian. The Grotes were a Low German family. The name signifies "great." Grote's grandfather was a merchant of Bremen, who removed to London and engaged in the banking business. George was educated for a place in his father's bank which he entered at the age of sixteen. While a student at the Charter House School he acquired a taste for the classics. He made it a habit to read Greek literature every evening after the close of business. He made the acquaintance of Ricardo and of James Mill, the father of John Stuart Mill. He was fond of music. He married a lady of excellent family, a great beauty, a woman of unusual intellectuality. With the Mills, Ricardo, and others, Grote was accustomed to meet in a sort of literary group. He became much interested in social reforms. His familiarity with Greek literature led him to state repeatedly that Greek history had not been written aright, and that it was not as instructive as it ought to be. Mrs. Grote proposed that he rewrite the subject, a proposition with which he fell in eagerly. He began reading systematically, jotting down thoughts as they came to him. When his father died George became the head of the family with a private fortune of $200,000 in addition to family estates. He left the bank and entered Parliament, where he became interested at once in a movement for the ballot at parliamentary elections. In 1846, having retired from public life, he took up anew his project for a history of Greece. He drew forth his notes from their pigeon holes, reread his authorities, and, in ten consecutive years, wrote the twelve volumes of his History of Greece. It is considered one of the great compositions of the world in this department of learning.
Grote wrote a number of other works, as well as many articles for the reviews. Believing that instruction in Oxford and Cambridge was narrow and too much influenced by tradition, Grote took a prominent part in the founding of the University of London, an institution to which he left a library and a sum of $30,000 to endow a professorship. As might be expected, he opposed to the very last the omission of Greek from the list of subjects required for graduation from college. The universities of Oxford and Cambridge conferred honorary degrees on him. In 1869 Mr. Gladstone offered him a peerage, that is to say, a seat in the House of Lords, an honor which he declined. His remains rest in Westminster Abbey, near the grave of Macaulay.