Hannah Greg

Early life and education

Hannah Lightbody was the daughter of a wealthy Unitarian Liverpool merchant, Adam Lightbody (1729–1778), and Elizabeth Tylston (1735–1801), who came from a prominent dissenting family. Elizabeth Tylson had moved easily within the London and Warrington dissenting circles. She was a member of the Liverpool Library and the Octonian Society. Hannah was the youngest of the three surviving children, all girls. The other three pregnancies had resulted in two still births and one perinatal death. They worshipped under Dr Yates at the Kaye Street Chapel. She was eleven studying in Henry Hollands School in Orkskirk when her father died, leaving her one third of his wealth, held in trust until she was 21. Dissenters believed that it was as important to educate their daughters as their sons.

When she was sixteen, her cousin Thomas Rogers invited her to his home in Newington Green, then a village a couple of miles north of the City of London. He had children of a similar age (including Samuel Rogers, later an eminent man of letters), so she could attend Fleetwood House school in Stoke Newington with them, and worship with the family at the Unitarian Church on the Green. Thomas Rogers was prominent in the London rational dissenters, and the two neighbouring villages were filled with Quakers and non-conformists. The Rogers family lived next door to Richard Price, the well-connected minister, where Mary Wollstonecraft was a visitor. Hannah learnt debating skills and read widely within in a critical Unitarian framework.

Hannah's sisters' husbands Thomas Hodgson and John Pares were investing in a cotton spinning mill in Caton near Lancaster. Pares had gained practical experience on Arkwright's water frames and was challenging the renewal of the patent. Samuel Greg had found a similar site on the River Bollin near Wilmslow and had built a mill at Quarry Bank. It was profitable and Greg was in need of a wife.

Religion and politics

The Gregs were dissenters and Whigs. Before 1813 dissenting was not legal. Before the Reform Act of 1832, Manchester, the greatest economic engine in the country, was not represented in Parliament. Furthermore, dissenters were prevented from entering many professions due to their faith. Samuel Greg was from Belfast: being known to be Irish was a further hindrance to progression.

Hannah had firm beliefs that men could not progress outside their God ordained social class. She belong to wealthy merchantile middle class which in her eyes was the most fortunate place to be. She believed that she had a duty to look after the education of her workers so they could progress.

Marriage to Samuel Greg

Samuel Greg was born in Belfast in 1758. One of thirteen children he was adopted at 8 years old, by his maternal uncle Robert Hyde. Samuel's father was a ship-owner who had land in the West Indies. He sent two of his sons, Thomas and Samuel, to live with relatives in England. Robert Hyde was a textile merchant and manufacturer. Samuel started working for the company on 1778, and was a partner by 1782. Robert soon died and his brother Nathaniel retired. At 24, Samuel had a fortune of ₤26000. He had a loom shop in Eyam, and built Quarry Bank mill to provide a safe source of yarn.

Samuel Greg, a Presbyterian by upbringing, was introduced by Hannah Lightbody to the Unitarians who attended Cross Street Chapel in Manchester. He accepted her faith. Their non-conformist religious beliefs provided the Gregs with important business contacts, as many of the major Industrialists were Unitarian.

Marriage in 1789 caused a move from Liverpool to King Street, Manchester where she found difficulty in adapting to household management. She worked on it and was soon entertaing the members of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society after their meetings.

The Greg family also had mills in Reddish, Calver, Bowlas, Bollington, Lancaster and Caton. In the Escowbeck Estate, in Caton they built their own observatory.

Styal, and Quarry Bank estate

Samuel had leased the mill at Styal, and took a farm nearby as a summer house in the country for the children. The mill was staffed by free-workers and half the number of parish apprentices including a large number selected from the workhouses in Liverpool, London and Newcastle under Lyme. When the mill was extended they built workers houses, and an apprentise house for the indentured children. After a thirteen-hour shift Hannah organised that they had lessons in reading, writing and arithmetic. When she was in Styal she delivered the lessons to the girls, and preached to them on Sundays. Hannahs children were expected to take part in the teaching- as it was part of her dissenting belief that all men should mix together, be frugal and accept their responsibilities to others. In developing the community of Style they built Norcliffe Chapel .

Children and her legacy

Of Hannah and Samuel's thirteen children Robert Hyde Greg (1795–1875), John Greg (1801-1882), Samuel Jr. (1804–1876) and William Rathbone (1809–1881) entered the business. Robert Hyde Greg was also interested in astronomy and politics and was elected MP for Manchester in 1839. John was responsible for the Lancaster and Caton mills and eventually the Bollington mill. He served as alderman and mayor of Lancaster. Samuel Greg Jr. took chardge of the Bollington mill and unsuccessfully experimented with profit sharing- disillusioned he became a preacher. William Rathbone Greg was responsible for Hudcar Mill, Bury and than took over the troubled Bollington Mill, retiring from the business in 1850 he became Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office, and an avid essayist and pamphleteer.

Elizabeth Greg (1790–1882) married William Rathbone V, of the Liverpool merchantile family. She founded the first public wash-houses in the United Kingdom in the wake of the 1832 Liverpool Cholera epidemic. Later she helped William Forster in formulating the 1870 Education Act.

The extended Gregs family were also involved in slavery: some with the Triangular trade and some with abolition. Samuel Greg's brother-in-law Thomas Hodgson owned a slave ship; his son Adam Hodgson was a founding member of the Liverpool Anti-slavery Society in 1822. Thomas Greg, Samuel's father and his brother John Greg part-owned some sugar plantations in the Caribbean, especially Dominica. The best documented is Hillsborough, which included the ownership of 71 male slaves and 68 female slaves. In January 1814, twenty slaves absconded, and were recaptured and punished with 100 lashes for the males and 50 lashes for the females. The incident was triggered by the death of a slave in the plantation-run hospital; the run-aways believed he had been poisoned.