Author: Greene, Edward Burnaby
Biography:
GREENE, Edward Burnaby formerly BURNABY (1738-88: ancestry.co.uk)
The eldest child of Edward Burnaby (d 1759), one of the clerks of the Treasury, and his wife Elizabeth Greene (d 1759), he was born in London on 20 Apr. 1738 and baptised at St. George’s, Hanover Square, on 4 Jun. His grandfather, Thomas Greene, was a wealthy brewer and the young Edward Burnaby inherited from him in 1740 and added Greene to his name by parliamentary act. He matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, on 22 Oct. 1755 but did not proceed to a degree. On 12 Feb. 1761 he married Ann Cartwright with whom he had two daughters and a son. A newspaper article indicates that he was a candidate for Westminster in the 1770 election but lost to Sir Robert Bernard. Although Greene took over the brewing business, his heart was not in the work and it foundered. When Greene went into debt he leased out the extensive property of Norlands, Kensington, which he had also inherited from his grandfather. Greene’s real interests lay in translating and imitating classical texts, and in writing verse; he was undeterred by the lukewarm reception his books received from critics. His earliest publication is probably The Tenth Epistle of That First Book of Horace, Imitated (1656 [sic for 1756]). Poems he published in the 1760s include Friendship: A Satire (1763), Cam. An Elegy (1764), The Politician. A Poem (1764), Privilege. A Poem (1764), and The Chaplain. A Poem (1764). He published A Defence of Mr. Rousseau in 1766. In 1782 he issued Strictures Upon a Pamphlet, arguing that Thomas Chatterton (q.v.) was not the author of the Rowley poems. Greene died at home on 12 Mar. 1788 and was buried in Kensington on 16 Mar. He left substantial debts and Norlands had to be sold in 1792. (ancestry.co.uk 11 Nov. 2024; findmypast.co.uk 11 Nov. 2024; ODNB 11 Nov. 2024; historyofparliamentonline.org 11 Nov. 2024; Cambridge Chronicle 5 May 1770) SR
Other Names:
- E. B. G.