OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Greer, Samuel MacCurdy

​GREER, SAMUEL MacCURDY(1810–1880), Irish politician, eldest son of the Rev. Thomas Greer, presbyterian minister of Dunboe, and Elizabeth Caldwell, daughter of Captain Adam Caldwell, R.N., was born at Springvale, co. Derry, in 1810, educated at the Belfast Academy and Glasgow University, and was called to the Irish bar in 1833. His life was devoted to constitutional agitation for such reforms in Irish land tenure as were necessary to make the union tolerable as a permanent arrangement. It was about 1848 that Greer first began to take an active part in political life, and although never a very prominent figure in public, his influence and popularity in his native county were very great. He was one of the originators of the tenant league, formed in 1850 by himself, Sir John Gray, proprietor of the 'Freeman's Journal,' Dr. M'Knight, editor of the 'Londonderry Standard,' Frederick Lucas, and John Francis Maguire. They demanded for the Irish tenant what have since been known as the three F's —fixity of tenure, fair rents, and free sale. Greer was one of the few Ulstermen of any weight or position—William Sharman Crawford [q. v.] was another—who adopted these principles. He contested the representation of co. Derry four times, and that of the city of Londonderry twice, being successful only once, in 1857. Although almost continuously defeated he was in reality more than any other man the creator of the liberal party in Ulster. He practically retired in 1870, before the movement in favour of home rule had attained its later importance. Most of the reforms for which he struggled—tenant right, vote by ballot, &c.—had already been conceded. He probably would not have approved the policy afterwards developed by Mr. Parnell's party, and dissented from their cardinal principle of standing entirely aloof from both English parties. There was, therefore, nothing to prevent him from accepting the recordership of Londonderry in 1870. He held this office until 1878, when he was appointed county court judge of Cavan and Leitrim. He died in 1880.
[Private information from his nephew, Dr. T. Greer, of Cambridge.]
T. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Greenwood, John (d.1609)

​GREENWOOD, JOHN (d. 1609), schoolmaster, was matriculated as a pensioner of St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1558; removed to Catharine Hall, of which he was afterwards fellow; proceeded B.A. in 1561-2, and commenced M.A. in 1565. He became master of the grammar school at Brentwood, Essex, where he appears to have died at an advanced age in 1609. His only work is 'Syntaxis et Prosodia, versiculis compositæ Cambridge, 1590, 8vo.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Greg, Percy

​GREG, PERCY (1836–1889), author, son of William Rathbone Greg [q. v.], was born at Bury in 1836, and died in London on 24 Dec. 1889. His career during the greater part of his life was that of a journalist, and in his later years that of a novelist and historian. He contributed largely to the 'Manchester Guardian,' 'Standard,' and 'Saturday Review,' and obtained much distinction as a political writer. But, although endowed with great ability, he lacked the equity that characterised his father, and always tended to violent extremes; in youth a secularist, in middle life ​a spiritualist, in his later years a champion of feudalism and absolutism, and in particular an embittered adversary of the American Union. The violence of his political sympathies has entirely spoiled his attempted 'History of the United States to the Reconstruction of the Union,' 1887, which can only be regarded as a gigantic party pamphlet. His ultimate convictions, political and religious, found expression in two volumes of essays, 'The Devil's Advocate,' 1878, and 'Without God; Negative Science and Natural Ethics,' 1883; and in a series of novels displaying considerable imagination and invention: 'Across the Zodiac,' 1880; 'Errant,' 1880; 'Ivy cousin and bride,' 1881; 'Sanguelac,' 1883; and 'The Verge of Night,' 1885. Of his sincerity there could be no question, and his polemical virulence did not exclude a tender vein of lyrical poetry, pleasingly manifested in his early poems, published under the pseudonym of Lionel H. Holdreth, and in his 'Interleaves' (1875).
[Manchester Guardian, 30 Dec. 1889; Academy, 18 Jan. 1890; personal knowledge.]
R. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Greg, Robert Hyde

​GREG, ROBERT HYDE (1795–1875), economist and antiquary, born in King Street, Manchester, on 24 Sept. 1795, was son of Samuel Greg, a millowner near Wilmslow, Cheshire, and brother of William Rathbone Greg [q. v.] and Samuel Greg [q. v.] His mother was Hannah, daughter and coheiress of Adam Lightbody of Liverpool, and a descendant of Philip Henry, the nonconformist [q. v.] He was educated at Edinburgh University, and before joining his father in business as a cotton manufacturer, travelled in Spain, Italy, and the East. In 1817 he entered the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, and afterwards contributed to its 'Memoirs' some interesting papers on topics chiefly suggested by his observations abroad. Their titles are:
* 'Remarks on the Site of Troy, and on the Trojan Plain,' 1823.
* 'Observations on the Round Towers of Ireland,' 1823.
* 'On the Sepulchral Monuments of Sardis and Mycenæ,' 1833.
* 'Cyclopean, elasgic, and Etruscan Remains; or Remarks on the Mural Architecture of Remote Ages,' 1838.
He took a leading part in public work in Manchester, aiding in the foundation of the Royal Institution, the Mechanics' Institution, and in the affairs of the Chamber of Commerce, of which for a time he was president. He was an ardent liberal politician, and rendered valuable assistance in money and advocacy in the agitations for parliamentary reform and the repeal of the corn laws. In 1837 he wrote a pamphlet on the 'Factory Question and the Ten Hours Bill.' He was elected M.P. for Manchester in September 1839, during his absence from England. He took the seat against his will and he retired in July 1841. In the meantime he published a speech on the corn laws, which he had delivered in the House of Commons in April 1840, and a letter to Henry Labouchere, afterwards Lord Taunton, 'On the Pressure of the Corn Laws and Sliding Scale, more especially upon the Manufacturing Interests and Productive Classes,' 1841, 2nd ed. 1842.
He was much interested in horticulture, and in practical and experimental farming, which he carried on at his estates at Norcliffe, Cheshire, and Coles Park, Hertfordshire. In this connection he wrote three pamphlets: 'Scottish Farming in the Lothians,' 1842; 'Scottish Farming in England,' 1842; and 'Improvements in Agriculture,' 1844.
He married, 14 June 1824, Mary, eldest daughter of Robert Philips of the Park, Manchester; by her he had four sons and two daughters. Greg died at Norcliffe Hall on 21 Feb. 1875, and was buried at the Unitarian chapel, Dean Row, Wilmslow, Cheshire, being followed to the grave by nearly five hundred of his tenants and employés, and by many others.
[Manchester Guardian and Examiner, 23 and 27 Feb. 1875; Earwaker's East Cheshire, i. 137; Proc. of Lit. and Phil. Soc. of Manchester, xiv. 135; Prentice's Manchester, 1851; Burke's Landed Gentry, i. 545.]
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gregan, John Edgar

​GREGAN, JOHN EDGAR (1813–1855), architect, was born at Dumfries on 18 Dec. 1813. He studied architecture first under Walter Newall and afterwards at Manchester under Thomas Witlam Atkinson. He commenced practice on his own account in 1840, and was engaged on many important buildings erected in Manchester during the next fifteen years, including the churches of St. John, Longsight, and St. John, Miles Platting; the warehouses of Robert Barbour and Thomas Ashton, and the bank of Sir Benjamin Heywood & Co. in St. Ann's Street. His last work was the design for the new Mechanics' Institution in David Street.
His zeal for art and education led him to take much interest in various local institutions; he acted as honorary secretary of the Royal Institution, assisted materially in the success of the local school of art, and sat as a member of the committee which undertook the formation of the Manchester Free Library. On the visit of the British Archæological Association to Manchester, he read a paper entitled 'Notes on Humphrey Chetham and his Foundation,' which is printed in the association's journal for 1851. He died at York Place, Manchester, on 29 April 1855, aged 42, and was buried in St. Michael's churchyard, Dumfries.
[Architectural Publication Society's Dictionary, sub nom.; Builder, vii. 18, viii. 409, xiii. 222, xvi. 99.]
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gregor

​GREGOR, cacique of Poyais (d. 1886). [See Macgregor, Sir Gregor, bart.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Greeting, Thomas

​GREETING, THOMAS (fl. 1675), musician, published in 1675 'The Pleasant Companion, or new Lessons and Instructions for the Flagelet.' Pepys engaged him to teach his wife an 'art that would be easy and pleasant for her' (1 March 1666–7); in the following year Greeting sent the Duke of Buckingham's musicians to Pepys's house to play dance music.
[Hawkins's Hist. of Music, p. 737; Pepys's Diary, iii. 417, iv. 317; Grove's Dict. i. 625.]
L. M. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Greg, Samuel

​GREG, SAMUEL (1804–1876), philanthropist, was fourth son of Samuel Greg, a mill-owner at Quarry Bank, near Wilmslow, Cheshire, by his wife Hannah, and therefore a brother of Robert Hyde Greg [q. v.] and William Rathbone Greg [q. v.] He was born in King Street, Manchester, 6 Sept. 1804, and educated at Unitarian schools at Nottingham and Bristol. After leaving Bristol he spent two years at home learning mill-work, and in the autumn of 1823 went to Edinburgh for a winter course of university lectures. In 1831, with his youngest brother, William Rathbone Greg, he studied and practised mesmerism with great enthusiasm, and to such practice he attributed his subsequent ill-health. He took the Lower House Mill, near the village of Bollington, in 1832, and having fitted it up with the requisite machinery, commenced working with hands imported from the neighbouring districts of Wilmslow, Styall, and other places. For about fifteen years the mill and the workpeople were his all-absorbing objects of consideration and pursuit. Some account of his proceedings is found in two letters which in 1835 he addressed to Leonard Horner, ​inspector of factories, and which were printed for private circulation. He first established a Sunday school, next a gymnasium, then drawing and singing classes, baths and libraries, and finally he instituted the order of the silver cross in 1836 as a reward for good conduct in young women. In 1847 he was employed in making experiments on new machinery for stretching cloth. This idea was unpopular in the mill, and the workpeople, instead of coming to him to talk the matter over, surprised him by turning out. Other troubles followed, and it was not long before he was obliged to retire altogether from business, a comparatively poor man. In 1854 he wrote and published 'Scenes from the Life of Jesus,' a work of which a second edition was printed in 1869. His 'Letters on Religious Belief' appeared in 1856, but came to a conclusion after the seventh letter. He entertained Kossuth on 22 March 1857, at his residence, the Mount, Bollington, and in the same year commenced giving Sunday evening lectures to working people in Macclesfield, a practice which he continued for the remainder of his life. During 1867 he gave scientific lectures to a class of boys. In 1863 he formed the acquaintance of Dean Stanley, with whom he afterwards continued a pleasant intercourse. After a long illness he died at Bollington, near Macclesfield, 14 May 1876. In June 1838 he married Mary Needham of Lenton, near Nottingham, by whom he had a family. She was the writer in 1855 of 'Little Walter, a Mother's first Lessons in Religion for the younger classes.'
[A Layman's Legacy in prose and verse. Selections from the papers of Samuel Greg, with a prefatory letter by A.P.Stanley, Dean of Westminster, and a Memoir (1877), pp. 3-63; Good Words, 1877, pp. 588-91; H. A. Page's Leaders of Men, 1880, pp. 264-77; Unitarian Herald, Manchester, 12 Feb. 1875, and 26 May 1876.]
G. C. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gregg, John

1904 Errata appended.
​GREGG, JOHN, D.D. (1798–1878), bishop of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross, was born 4 Aug. 1798 at Cappa, near Ennis, where his father, Richard Gregg, lived on a small property. After attending a classical school in Ennis, he entered Trinity College, Dublin, in 1819, where he took a sizarship, a scholarship, and many prizes. He obtained his degree in 1824. A sermon which he heard from the Rev. B. W. Matthias in Bethesda Chapel determined him to enter the church, and in 1826 he was ordained in Ferns Cathedral, and became curate of the French Church, Portarlington, where he laboured with much earnestness. In 1828 he obtained the living of Kilsallaghan, in the diocese of Dublin, and threw himself with great energy into the work of the parish. His reputation as an eloquent evangelical clergyman procured for him in 1836 the incumbency of the Bethesda Chapel, Dublin. Trinity Church was built for him in 1839, and became in his hands a chief centre of evangelical life in Dublin. After refusing various offers of preferment he accepted the archdeaconry of Kildare in 1857, still remaining incumbent of Trinity. In 1862 he was appointed by the lord-lieutenant (the Earl of Carlisle) bishop of the united dioceses of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross. During his episcopate the new cathedral of St. Fin Barre was built at a cost of nearly 100,000l. He died 26 May 1878, and was buried in Mount Jerome cemetery, Dublin. He was one of the ablest and most earnest evangelical leaders of the Irish episcopal church. He married in 1830 Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Law of Dublin, by whom he had six children; his son Robert was elected bishop of Ossory in 1875, and succeeded him in the bishopric of Cork. He published 'A Missionary Visit to Achill and Erris,' 3rd edit. Dublin, 1850, besides many sermons, lectures, and tracts.
[Memorials of the Life of John Gregg, D.D., by his son.]
T. H.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.141 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 89 | i | 6 f.e. | Gregg, John: for Ross read Gregg |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Giles, Francis

​GILES, FRANCIS (1787–1847), civil engineer, born in 1787, was brought up as a surveyor, and executed in the early part of his career, under John Rennie, an important portion of numerous surveys which subsequently became models of later practice. Among these were surveys of the Thames, the Mersey, the Wear, and the Tyne, and of the harbours of Dover, Rye, Holyhead, Dundee, and Kingstown. He afterwards engaged in business as an engineer, and executed many important harbour and canal works and river improvements. He also had a hand in the construction of some of the largest works on the Newcastle and Carlisle railway, and in part of the South-Western railway. The Warwick bridge in Cumberland is considered, as regards elegance of design, his masterpiece, though a cutting of 102 feet deep which he made through the Cowran Hills is a most remarkable work. Giles was in great request as an arbitrator, adviser, and consulting engineer, and enjoyed a lucrative practice. He was most prominent for his long opposition to George Stephenson's railway enterprises. When the Liverpool and Manchester railway project was under consideration, Giles gave evidence, which had much weight from his long experience and engineering reputation. ‘No engineer in his senses,’ he maintained, ‘would go through ​Chat Moss if he wanted to make a railway from Liverpool to Manchester.’ ‘His estimate for the whole cutting and embankment over Chat Moss was 270,000l. nearly. … It would be necessary to take the Moss completely out at the bottom, in order to make a solid road.’ Giles afterwards became a railway locomotive engineer. He was an active member of the council of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and took a prominent part in the discussions of that body, besides contributing some valuable plans and charts to its collections. Giles died on 4 March 1847, in his sixtieth year.
[Minutes of Proceedings of Inst. of Civil Engineers, 1848; Smiles's Lives of the Engineers.]
J. B-y.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gilchrist, Octavius Graham

​GILCHRIST, OCTAVIUS GRAHAM (1779–1823), antiquary, was born at Twickenham in 1779. His father, Stirling Gilchrist, lieutenant and surgeon in the 3rd dragoon guards, on the return of his regiment to England quitted the service and retired to Twickenham. Octavius was one of a family of sixteen. He was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, but left the university early without a degree, in order to assist a relative (Alderman Joseph Robinson, grocer) in business at Stamford. In 1803 he was elected F.S.A.; and in the following year he married Elizabeth, daughter of James Nowlan, merchant, of the Hermitage, Wapping. He printed in 1805, for private circulation, a little volume of ‘Rhymes,’ 8vo; and in 1807 he published a full and valuable edition of the ‘Poems,’ 8vo, of Richard Corbet [q. v.], sometime bishop of Oxford and Norwich. To his friend William Gifford he addressed in 1808 ‘An Examination of the Charges maintained by Messrs. Malone, Chalmers, and others of Ben Jonson's enmity towards Shakespeare,’ 8vo, pp. 62; and in 1811 ‘A Letter on the late edition [by H. Weber] of Ford's Plays, 8vo,’ pp. 45. Gifford, in his editions of Jonson and Ford, acknowledged the help that he received from Gilchrist's investigations. The ‘Quarterly Review’ for June 1812 contains a severe article by Gilchrist on Stephen Jones's edition of Baker's ‘Biographia Dramatica.’ Jones published a reply entitled ‘Hypercriticism Exposed,’ 1812. Early in 1814 Gilchrist printed, but never circulated, proposals for publishing ‘A Select Collection of Old English Plays in 15 vols. 8vo, with Biographical Notices and Notes Critical and Explanatory:’ the scheme was abandoned owing to the appearance of Dilke's ‘Old English Plays.’ Notes of Gilchrist are incorporated in the third edition (by J. P. Collier) of Dodsley's ‘Old Plays,’ 1825–7. The ‘Quarterly Review’ for October 1820 had some uncomplimentary remarks on William Lisle Bowles [q. v.], in a review of ‘Spence's Anecdotes.’ Bowles hastened to reply in ‘The Pamphleteer,’ vol. xvii., ascribing the ‘Quarterly’ article to Gilchrist, who (while disclaiming the authorship) published a vigorous ‘Letter to the Rev. William Lisle Bowles,’ Stamford, 1820, 8vo. An acrimonious controversy ensued. Gifford (introduction to Ford's Works) declared that ‘in the extent and accuracy of his critical knowledge’ Gilchrist was ‘as much superior to the Rev. Mr. Bowles as in good manners.’ On 30 June 1823 Gilchrist died at his house in the High Street, Stamford; he had long been suffering from a consumptive complaint. His library, which contained some choice Elizabethan and early printed books, was sold by auction 5–11 January 1824. Gilchrist probably supplied much of the material for Drakard's ‘History of Stamford,’ 1822.
[Gent. Mag. lxxix. 53, xci. 291, 533, vol. xciii. pt. ii. p. 278; information kindly supplied by Justin Simpson, esq., Stamford.]
A. H. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Giles, James

​GILES, JAMES (1801–1870), landscape-painter, was born at Glasgow, 4 Jan. 1801. His father, a native of Aberdeenshire, was an artist of some local repute, but his death threw his son at an early age upon his own resources. At thirteen he maintained himself, his mother and sister by painting, and before he was twenty taught private classes in Aberdeen. Shortly afterwards he made a tour through Scotland and visited the continent, and on his return home he was introduced to the Earl of Aberdeen, with whom he became very intimate. His earliest successes were in portrait-painting, but his visit to Italy gave him a taste for classic landscape, which he never entirely lost, for the mist seldom hangs about his mountains, even when the scene is laid near ‘dark Lochnagar.’ He was a keen angler, and fond of painting the result of a successful day's fishing. These pictures were his best works. He first exhibited at the Royal Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Scotland, but in 1829 he became an academician of the Royal Scottish Academy, and contributed numerous works to its exhibitions from that time until near the close of his career. He also exhibited frequently at the British Institution in London, and occasionally at the Royal Academy and the Society of British Artists. His picture of ‘The Weird Wife’ is in the National Gallery of Scotland. His last work was a painting of himself, his wife, and youngest son, which he left unfinished. He died at his residence in Bon Accord Street, Aberdeen, after a lingering illness, 6 Oct. 1870. He was twice married, and by his first wife had a son, who gave great promise as an artist, but died of consumption at the early age of twenty-one.
[Scotsman, 8 Oct. 1870; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists of the English School, 1878; Exhibition Catalogues of the Royal Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Scotland, the Royal Scottish Academy, the Royal Academy, the British Institution, and the Society of British Artists.]
R. E. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gilfillan, James

​GILFILLAN, JAMES, D.D. (1797–1874), Scotch divine, son of the Rev. Samuel Gilfillan [q. v.], a rather notable minister of the secession body, and brother of the Rev. George Gilfillan [q. v.], was born at Comrie, Perthshire, on 11 May 1797, and, having received his early education at a school in his native village, entered Glasgow College in 1808, when only eleven and a half years old. After spending six sessions there he entered the divinity hall of the antiburgher synod in Edinburgh, and in 1821 was licensed by the Edinburgh presbytery of the united secession church. He was ordained on 24 Dec. 1822 in Stirling secession congregation. He was an excellent preacher of the old type, but is ​best known as author of ‘The Sabbath, viewed in the light of Reason, Revelation, and History,’ which was published in 1861, and rapidly gained favour. He had it in hand for twenty years, and expended on it an enormous amount of labour. In 1866 the university of Glasgow conferred on him the degree of D.D. In 1869 he demitted the charge of his congregation, and went to reside at Portobello, near Edinburgh, where he died on 28 Jan. 1874.
[Obituary notices; United Presbyterian Magazine, September 1874.]
T. H.