Nat Gould

Sir Nigel Gresley 1726-1787

Nigel Gresley was born in 1727, the son of Sir Thomas Gresley, the 4th Baronet, and his wife nee Dorothy Bowyer, the daughter of Sir William Bowyer.

He married Elizabeth Wynne, the daughter of the Reverend Ellis Wynne of Cheshire.

Sir Nigel Gresley, 6th Baronet, was the brother of the 5th Baronet.

"Sir Nigel was the most ingenious, energetic and public-spirited, but perhaps not the most prudent, of the Gresley Baronets of the Eighteenth Century" (1).

"He was born at Drakelowe on Jan. 11 1725/26, and baptized at Walton on Jan. 27 following. We find him early in life in the Royal Navy, his first commission as Lieutenant being in 1747 or 1748 It appears to have been in his ship that Flora Macdonald was conveyed to London under guard at the close of 1746 : and to commemorate his kindness and courtesy on this occasion a picture of her (still at Drakelowe) was subsequently presented by Flora herself to Sir Nigel. He is even stated to have been a strong Jacobite in sentiment, but whether this chivalrous incident was the cause or effect of his political views, is not clear. He probably left the navy from ill-health, since in a letter of March 18, 1749/1750, he declines the post of Lieutenant on the Mercury, which had been offered him by Lord Anson, on the ground of rheumatic complaints. In this letter, it may be added, he expresses views inconsistent with any love for the Stuart dynasty. He was still on the active list of Lieutenants at the close of 1750.

"On succeeding unexpectedly to the Baronetcy, Sir Nigel found himself in possession of the Knypersley estate and since Drakelowe was assigned by will or arrangement to Dame Wilmot Gresley, he resided at Knypersley after his marriage, and kept hounds ; until for the sake of his children's education, but partly also from debt, he left Knypersley (in 1765) and moved to Worcester, and at last for health to Bath. It is interesting to remember that Knypersley had been in possession of Alina wife of Engenulph de Gresley at least six centuries before.

"He was an early patron of James Brindley the engineer, who in 1752 erected for him a water engine for draining the Gresley coal mines near Manchester. In 1775 he obtained a private Act for constructing, in conjunction with his eldest son, the 'Newcastle Upper Canal' to convey his coal and ironstone from the mines at Apedale into the Grand Trunk Canal at Newcastle-under-Lyme. It is about nine miles long and still known as Gresley's Canal, but is derelict. His schemes, however, were not profitable, and in 1767 he obtained a private Act empowering him to sell the Knypersley estate. On April 17, 1787, he died at Bath (of dropsy?) and was buried in Bath Abbey four days later.

"In the Gentleman's Magazine vol. lvii (1787) p. 288 there is an eulogy of Sir Nigel signed 'Polyxena, with some verses (by Major Barry) to his memory : and also a sympathetic but discriminating character of him stated to be by Governor Philip Thicknesse , which may be here reprinted :

' Sir Nigel Gresley possessed a character that ought not to be passed by with one eulogium, however just, and with one testimony of public regret, however sincere. The nature of this Baronet was good-nature. He was a kind husband, a tender father, a zealous friend, an hospitable neighbour. He was brave without boasting, and was just such a man as Sterne describes his uncle Toby, to whose kindness the weak would fly for protection. His manners were simple and unaffected, not such as are formed by the dancing-master, or acquired in a foreign tour. They were far better, and had a nobler source, for they sprung from an excellent heart. He had a soul for sympathy, and a tear for pity. His form, indeed, was robust beyond common appearance ; but his dispositions were mild, generous, and unsuspecting. It was rather a difficult matter to make him think ill, and it was very easy to persuade him to think well, of others. These, and their associate virtues, had in some part of his life, involved him in difficulty and inconvenience. Indeed, cold, inanimate prudence might say, that such qualities are not formed for what is called the prosperity of this world ; and it may be true ; but they will stand him in good stead in that world whither he is gone. While his family lament, and his friends regret, his loss, a distant and forgotten admirer of his character lays an humble tribute of regard upon his grave.'

"In corroboration of this, Richard Gresley used to relate of Sir Nigel that 'nothing could put him out of humour, for he was certainly the most good-natured man I ever saw.' An old Nether Seile man m who died about 1846, "William said that Sir Nigel 'was the biggest man he ever saw in his life, except it was a giant in a show,' and that when he went to church at Nether Seile, where he often visited, he was obliged to go sideways into the Hall pew. It is related of him also that one day when he was coming out of the Pump Room at Bath, one of the chair-men standing by remarked upon his 'robust appearance' and, in fact, was impertinent. Sir Nigel immediately said to him ' Take me up to Lansdowne Crescent,' and got into his chair. Before they had proceeded far up the hill, the man besought him not to require him to go any further, and humbly begged pardon, which Sir Nigel readily granted.

"On May 18, 1752, at Astbury in Cheshire he married his cousin Elizabeth, third daughter and co-heir of the Rev. Ellis Wynn of Congleton and Elizabeth his wife, nee Oldfield. After her husband's death she lived in the Close at Lichfield in a house opposite the South Transept of the Cathedral, where she died on May 13, 1793 : she was buried in the Abbey Church at Bath on the 22nd. She was familiarly known as 'Lady Whitewig ' in contradistinction to Gertrude Lady Gresley ... Among the friends of her later life was Miss Anna Seward, from whose letters we learn that in 1789 they met after a separation of nearly twenty years, and that Lady Gresley entered her 'new house 8 in the Close' in Dec. 1790, after staying for some time in one of the Canons' houses ; with details of her lameness and final illness which a visit to Buxton in 1792 failed to cure. At this time Lady Gresley had a 'feeble and delicate frame",' but was of an active and intellectual disposition. Her two unmarried daughters were living with her till her death. The children of Sir Nigel and Elizabeth were :

1. Nigel Bowyer (born March 18, 1753), 7th Baronet.

2. Dorothy, born May 12, 1754, died in infancy.

3. Anne, born May, 1755, who was known as ' Graceful Gresley ' from her fine minuet dancing, married Sir John Edensor Heathcote on Jan. 3, 1780, at Walcot church near Bath ... She is stated to have died in Sept. 1797 , in child-bed.

4. Elizabeth, born Aug. 18, 1756, died unmarried at Leamington on April 19, 1839.

5. Frances, born Nov. 30, 1757, died unmarried on Sept. 30, 1836, at Leamington, and was buried there on Oct. 7.

6. Louisa Jane, born Oct. 5, 1759 , lived at Drakelowe after her sister-in-law's death, and married on May 5, 1798, the Rev. William
Gresley of Nether Seile : and died on April 20, 1806, leaving issue.

7. Harriet, born Feb. 9, 1761, married John Jelly Esq., a solicitor of Letters, Bath, son of Thomas Jelly, and had six children :
John Gresley (born July 13, 1790, married in 1824 Sarah Weeks, and had issue),Edward Nigel (drowned at sea in 1812), Harriet, Selina, Frances, and Louisa (born at Bath, died at Farley in Somerset June 30, 1810, aged 17). 1844. Harriet died at Norton St. Philip's May 25, 1832, and was buried at Farley.

8. Mary Susanna, born April 23, 1762 , married (in Lichfield at LichfieldCathedral, on July 19, 1791 to the Rev. Baptist John Proby...St. Mary's, Lichfield, eldest son of the Very Rev. Baptist Proby, Dean of Lichfield, and Mary his wife, nee Russell. There were five children of this marriage : Capt. Will. Hen. Baptist (R.N., married in 1831 Mary Louisa How, and had issue, died Nov. 26, 1839), Rev. John Carysfort (married at Calcutta Lydia Browne, and had issue), Joshua Brownlow (died in infancy), Maria Susanna (died 1862), and Louisa (died 1849).
Mary Susanna died on Nov. 1, 1820, and was buried on the 9th in Lichfield Cathedral : her husband died on Jan. 14, 1830." (2)

(1) Reliquary O.S. xi. (1870-71) page 93.

(2) The Gresleys of Drakelowe by Falconer Madan (1899) pages 109-113.