GRESWELL, WILLIAM PARR (1765–1854), clergyman and bibliographer, son of John Greswell of Chester, was baptised at Tarvin, Cheshire, on 23 June 1765. He was ordained on 20 Sept. 1789 to the curacy of Blackley, near Manchester, and succeeded on 24 Sept. 1791 to the incumbency of Denton, also near Manchester, on the presentation of the first Earl of Wilton, to whose son he was tutor. This living, which when he took it was only worth 100l. a year, he held for the long period of sixty-three years. To add to his income he opened a school. He educated his own seven sons, five of whom went to Oxford and won high honours. They were William, M. A., fellow of Balliol, and author of works on ritual, died 1876; Edward [q.v.], B.D., fellow and tutor of Corpus Christi College; Richard [q. v.], B.D., fellow and tutor of Worcester College; Francis Hague, M.A., fellow of Brasenose; Clement, M.A., fellow and tutor of Oriel, and rector of Tortworth, Gloucestershire. His other sons were Charles, a medical man, and Thomas, master of Chetham's Hospital, Manchester.
Greswell wrote: 1. 'Memoirs of Angelus Politianus, Picus of Mirandula, Sanazarius, Bembus, Fracastorius, M. A. Flaminius, and the Amalthei,' with poetical translations, Manchester, 1801, 8vo, 2nd ed. 1805. The 'Retrospective Review' (ix. 64, note) condemns this work as careless and unmethodical. 2. 'Annals of Parisian Typography' (privately printed), 1818, 8vo. 3. 'The Monastery of Saint Werburgh, a Poem,' 1823, 8vo. To some copies are added `Rodrigo, a Spanish Legend,' and shorter pieces. 4. 'A View of the Early Parisian Greek Press, including the Lives of the Stephani,' Oxford, 1833, 8vo, 2 vols.; 2nd ed. with an appendix of Casauboniana, 1840. He also edited the third volume of the catalogue of the Chetham Library, 1826. The two works on the Parisian press are said by Brunet to be 'inexact' (Man. du Libraire, 5th edit. ii. 1735).
He resigned his incumbency of Denton in 1853, and died on 12 Jan. 1854, aged 89, and was buried at Denton. His large library was sold at Sotheby's rooms in February 1855.
[Booker's Denton (Chetham Soc.),1855, p. 109; J. F. Smith's Register of Manchester School (Chetham Soc.), iii. 77; Gent. Mag. 1854, pt. i. p. 427.]
GRETTON, WILLIAM (1736–1813), master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, son of John Gretton of Bond Street, London, born in 1736, was educated at St. Paul's School and Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1758 and proceeded M.A. in 1761. Having taken holy orders, he was presented in 1766 to the vicarage of Saffron Walden, Essex. In 1784 Lord Howard of Walden appointed him his domestic chaplain. He was subsequently presented to the rectory of Littlebury, Essex, of which county he was in the commission of the peace, and was made archdeacon on 2 Dec. 1795. In 1797 he was elected master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and was vice-chancellor of the university in 1800-1. He died on 29 Sept. 1813.
[Gardiner's Admission Reg. of St. Paul's School; Gent. Mag. 1766 p. 344, 1784 pt. ii. p. 719, 1795 pt. ii. p. 1062, 1797 pt. ii. p. 1137, 1800 pt. ii. p. 1118, 1813 pt. ii. p. 405; Grad. Cant.; Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Angl.]
GREVILLE, ALGERNON FREDERICK (1798–1864), private secretary to the Duke of Wellington, born on 29 Jan. 1798, was the second son of Charles Greville (1762-1832), fifth son of Fulke Greville of Wilbury, Wiltshire, by his marriage with Lady Charlotte Bentinck, eldest daughter of William Henry Cavendish, third duke of Portland; he was consequently brother of Charles Cavendish Fulke Greville [q. v.] and Henry William Greville [q. v.] On 1 Feb. 1814 he obtained his commission as ensign in the Grenadier guards (then called the 1st regiment of foot guards), and was present at Quatre Bras and at Waterloo; he was also at the attack and capture of Péronne. He was appointed shortly afterwards aide-de-camp to General Sir John Lambert, with whom he served in the army of occupation in France until he was appointed aide-de-camp to the Duke of Wellington, on whose staff he served until the army came home in 1818. He was afterwards the duke's aide-de-camp in the ordnance office in January 1819. On the duke being appointed commander-in-chief in January 1827, he selected Greville for his private secretary, which post he held while the duke was prime minister, secretary of state for foreign affairs, and commander-in-chief for the second time in December 1842. Greville was Bath king of arms, an office he held for many years, and during the Duke of Wellington's lifetime was secretary for the Cinque ports. He died at Hillingdon, Middlesex, the seat of his brother-in-law, on 15 Dec. 1864. He married, on 7 April 1823, Charlotte Maria, daughter of Richard Henry Cox, who died on 10 April 1841. His eldest daughter, Frances Harriett, married, on 28 Nov. 1843, Charles, sixth duke of Richmond, Lennox and Gordon, K.G., and died on 8 March 1887.
[Times, 20 Dec. 1864, p. 10. col. 5; Burke's Peerage, 1889, pp. 1169. 1422; Army Lists; Gent. Mag. 1865, pt. i. pp. 125-6.]
