Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/45

Greaves 

 GREAVES, EDWARD, M.D. (1608–1680), physician, son of John Greaves, rector of Colemore, Hampshire, was born at Croydon, Surrey, in 1608. He studied at Oxford, and was elected a fellow of All Souls' College in 1634. After this he studied medicine at Padua, where in 1636 he wrote some complimentary Latin verses to Sir George Ent [q. v.] on his graduation, and returning to Oxford graduated M.B. 18 July 1640, M.D. 8 July 1641. In 1642 he continued his medical studies at the university of Leyden, and on his return practised physic at Oxford, where, 14 Nov. 1643, he was appointed Linacre superior reader of physic. In the same year he published' Morbus epidemicus Anni 1643, or the New Disease with the Signes, Causes, Remedies,' &c, an account of a mild form of typhus fever, which was an epidemic at Oxford in that year, especially in the houses where sick and wounded soldiers were quartered. Charles I is supposed to have created him a baronet 4 May 1645. Of this creation, the first of a physician to that rank, no record exists, but the accurate Le Neve [q. v.] did not doubt the fact, and explained the absence of enrolment (Letter of Le Neve in, Life of John Graves). With his friend Walter Charleton [q. v.] Greaves became travelling physician to Charles II, but settled in London in 1653, and was admitted a fellow of the College of Physicians 18 Oct. 1657. He delivered the Harveian oration at the College of Physicians 25 July 1661 (London, 1667, 4to), of which the original manuscript is in the British Museum (Sloane 302). It contains few facts and many conceits, but some of these are happy. He says that before Harvey the source of the circulation was as unknown as that of the Nile, and compares England to a heart, whence the knowledge of the circulation was driven forth to other lands. He became physician in ordinary to Charles II, lived in Covent Garden, there died 11 Nov. 1680, and was buried in the church of St. Paul's, Covent Garden.

 GREAVES, JAMES PIERREPONT (1777–1842), mystic, born 1 Feb. 1777, was in early life engaged in business in London. According to one account the firm in which he was a partner became bankrupt in 1806 owing to the French war; another authority says that 'after getting rich in commerce he lost his fortune by imprudent speculations.' He surrendered all his property to his creditors, and lived for some time on the income allowed him for winding up the affairs of his establishment. In 1817 he joined Pestalozzi the Swiss educational reformer, then established at Yverdun. Returning to England in 1825 he became secretary of the London Infant School Society. In 1832 he was settled in the village of Randwick, Gloucestershire, and engaged in an industrial scheme for the benefit of agricultural labourers. Resuming his residence in London, he drew around him many friends. A philosophical society founded by him, and known as the Æsthetic Society, met for some time at his house in Burton Crescent. His educational experiences gradually led him to peculiar convictions. 'As Being is before knowing and doing, I affirm that education can never repair the defects of Birth.' Hence the necessity of 'the divine existence being developed and associated with man and woman prior to marriage.' He was a follower of Jacob Boehme and saturated with German transcendentalism. A. F. Barham [q. v.] says that his followers mainly congregated at Ham in Surrey; here also a school was organised to give effect to his educational views. Barham adds that he considered him as essentially a superior man to Coleridge, and with much higher spiritual attainments and experience. 'His numerous acquaintances regarded him as a moral phenomenon, as a unique specimen of human character, as a study, as a curiosity, and an absolute undefinable.' The earning of a livelihood was naturally a subordinate matter with him; 'that he was often in great distress for means,' writes a member of a family in which he was a frequent guest, 'was proved by his once coming to us without socks under his boots.' Latterly he was a vegetarian, a water-drinker, and an advocate of hydropathy. A portrait prefixed to his works gives an impression of thoughtfulness, serenity, and benevolence. He published none of his writings separately, but printed a few of them in obscure periodicals. His last years were spent at Alcott House, Ham, so named after Amos Bronson Alcott, the American transcendentalist, with whom he had a long correspondence. Here he died on 11 March 1842, aged 65. Two volumes were afterwards published from his manuscripts (vol. i. 'Concordium,' Ham Common, Surrey, 1843; vol. ii. Chapman, 1845). Some minor publications, also posthumous, appear in the Brit. Mus. Cat.

