Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/94

  [q. v.], to adhere to his society (5 Dec. 1775). But Copley joined the Academy.

At the request of the Earl of Bute Greenwood made a journey, in July 1771, into Holland and France purchasing paintings; he afterwards visited the continent, buying up the collections of Count van Schulembourg and the Baron Steinberg. In 1776 he was occupying Ford's Rooms in the Haymarket as an art auctioneer. In this business he continued to the end of his life, removing in 1783 to Leicester Square, where he built a commodious room adjoining his dwelling-house, and communicating with Whitcomb Street.

He died while on a visit at Margate, 16 Sept. 1792, and was buried there. His wife, who survived him a few years, was buried at Chiswick, close to the tomb of Hogarth.

A small half-length portrait of Greenwood in mezzotint, by W. Pether, bearing an artist's pallet and brushes and an auctioneer's mallet, was afterwards published. A three-quarter length, by Lemuel Abbot, and a miniature by Henry Edridge, are in possession of his grandson, Dr. John D. Greenwood, ex-principal of Nelson College, New Zealand. The portrait of himself as a young man, in coloured crayon, mentioned by Van Eynden and Van der Willigen, is now in the possession of the writer of this article.

Greenwood was not, as has been said, father of Thomas Greenwood, the scene-painter at Drury Lane Theatre, who died 17 Oct. 1797. His eldest son, Charnock-Gladwin, died an officer in the army at Grenada, West Indies; the second, John, succeeded him in business; James returned to Boston; and the youngest, Captain Samuel Adam Greenwood, senior-assistant at the residency of Baroda, died at Cambray in 1810.



GREER, SAMUEL MCURDY(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— [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.



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. 

GREG, PERCY (1836–1889), author, son of [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