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Notes for Samuel 'Sam' GREG Jnr

Son of Samuel Greg Snr who built Quarry Bank Mill at Styal, Cheshire. Samuel Jnr was never cut out for industry and put his mind to social improvement. This greatly benefited his employees at Lowerhouse mill, Bollington, but led almost to the financial failure of the business. When his employees went on strike in 1847 he retired to his house never to set foot in the mill again. His brothers John and Robert Hyde came to the rescue of the business, narrowly saving it from bankruptcy, and his brother William Rathbone Greg was appointed manager of Lowerhouse. Meanwhile, suffering seriously from depression, Samuel put his mind to his Unitarian religion, science, and the Macclesfield branch of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.

In 1833, Sam was amongst those who founded the Manchester Statistical Society. [142]

Notes for Mary Priscilla NEEDHAM

For the last 20 or so years of her life, after the death of Samuel, Mary Greg was attended and cared for by her spinster daughter Amy. Also, in the first year of Mary's widowhood, she and Amy put together Samuel's papers and published A Layman's Legacy in Prose and Verse, Macmillan, 1877.

Family notes for Samuel 'Sam' GREG Jnr and Mary Priscilla NEEDHAM

As non-conformist Unitarians, they were unable to marry in a Unitarian church, so used the good offices of a friend to conduct the service in an Anglican church far from home in Nottinghamshire. Mary Priscilla was required to sleep nearby for two weeks prior to establish residency! [142]

Sources

92.	Historical Society, Bollington Civic Society
136.	Newspaper, Macclesfield Courier, 27th April 1895
142.	Book, Robert C.G. Gamble, 2020, Mrs. Gaskell's Personal Pantheon, Edward Everett Root Publishers, Brighton, https://www.eerpublishing.com

Person record last updated: 23 May 2025

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