Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Greswell, William Parr
GRESWELL, WILLIAM PARR (1765–1854), clergyman and bibliographer, son of John Greswell of Chester, was baptised at Tarvin, Cheshire, on 23 June 1765. He was ordained on 20 Sept. 1789 to the curacy of Blackley, near Manchester, and succeeded on 24 Sept. 1791 to the incumbency of Denton, also near Manchester, on the presentation of the first Earl of Wilton, to whose son he was tutor. This living, which when he took it was only worth 100l. a year, he held for the long period of sixty-three years. To add to his income he opened a school. He educated his own seven sons, five of whom went to Oxford and won high honours. They were William, M. A., fellow of Balliol, and author of works on ritual, died 1876; Edward [q.v.], B.D., fellow and tutor of Corpus Christi College; Richard [q. v.], B.D., fellow and tutor of Worcester College; Francis Hague, M.A., fellow of Brasenose; Clement, M.A., fellow and tutor of Oriel, and rector of Tortworth, Gloucestershire. His other sons were Charles, a medical man, and Thomas, master of Chetham's Hospital, Manchester.
Greswell wrote: 1. 'Memoirs of Angelus Politianus, Picus of Mirandula, Sanazarius, Bembus, Fracastorius, M. A. Flaminius, and the Amalthei,' with poetical translations, Manchester, 1801, 8vo, 2nd ed. 1805. The 'Retrospective Review' (ix. 64, note) condemns this work as careless and unmethodical. 2. 'Annals of Parisian Typography' (privately printed), 1818, 8vo. 3. 'The Monastery of Saint Werburgh, a Poem,' 1823, 8vo. To some copies are added `Rodrigo, a Spanish Legend,' and shorter pieces. 4. 'A View of the Early Parisian Greek Press, including the Lives of the Stephani,' Oxford, 1833, 8vo, 2 vols.; 2nd ed. with an appendix of Casauboniana, 1840. He also edited the third volume of the catalogue of the Chetham Library, 1826. The two works on the Parisian press are said by Brunet to be 'inexact' (Man. du Libraire, 5th edit. ii. 1735).
He resigned his incumbency of Denton in 1853, and died on 12 Jan. 1854, aged 89, and was buried at Denton. His large library was sold at Sotheby's rooms in February 1855.
[Booker's Denton (Chetham Soc.),1855, p. 109; J. F. Smith's Register of Manchester School (Chetham Soc.), iii. 77; Gent. Mag. 1854, pt. i. p. 427.]