Author: Greenwood, William
Biography:
GREENWOOD, William (1756-1811: ancestry.co.uk)
He was born on 13 Feb. 1756 and baptised on 16 Feb. at Stoke Gabriel, Devon, one of at least three children of Captain William Greenwood RN and his wife Anne (maiden name unknown). He was educated as a Foundation Scholar at Winchester College (1768-73) and St. John’s College, Cambridge (matric. 1774, BA 1778, MA 1780, BD 1788, Member’s Prize 1799, Fellow 1778-93). He was ordained deacon (1780) and priest (1782). He became rector of Bignor, Sussex (1786-1801), where Charlotte Smith (q.v.) was a parishioner. He was then the rector of Carlton St. Peter, Norfolk (1801-11), held in conjunction with the livings of Owston, Rutland (1803-4), Culworth, Northamptonshire (1804-5), and Hellesdon with Drayton, Norfolk (1805-11). He married Grace Smith (1764-1845) on 15 Dec. 1792 at St. Michael’s, Bath. They lived for many years in Bath and had at least eight children. After his father’s death in 1796, he was left comfortably off. He died on 6 Dec. 1811 at Seaborough House, near Crewkerne, Somerset. His wife, Grace, died in Florence, aged 80, on 21 Oct. 1845 and was buried in the English cemetery there. A Poem Written During A Shooting Excursion in the Moors (1787) was quite highly regarded in its day and Wordsworth borrowed (with acknowledgement) the phrase “green rings” in An Evening Walk (1793). (ancestry.co.uk 28 Jan. 2024; findmypast.co.uk 28 Jan. 2024; T. F. Kirby, Winchester Scholars [1888], 262; OUCH 14 Dec. 1811; GM Dec. 1811, 596; florin.ms) AA
Other Names:
- the Revd. William Greenwood