GREAVES, Edward (1803-1879), of Avonside, Barford, Warwickshire

A former mayor of Warwick, Greaves turned his banking experience to account in financial debates, but otherwise offered silent support for the Conservative leadership. His family were originally from Moseley, Worcestershire, but by his father’s time they were resident in Warwickshire, and Greaves acquired through marriage the ‘neat mansion’ of Avonside, Barford, in the same county.1M. Stenton, Who’s who of British MPs (1975), i. 165; F. White, History, gazetteer and directory of Warwickshire (1850), 734. A partner in the firm of Greaves and Greenway, established in 1791, which had branches in Warwick and Leamington, he was perhaps the ‘wealthy banker and Justice of the Peace’ who employed the future agricultural labourers leader Joseph Arch as a young man in Barford.2J. Arch, Joseph Arch: the story of his life (1898), 33. Like his partners, Greaves was a strong Conservative who sided with the ‘Castle interest’ of the 3rd earl of Warwick, in the 1830s, but unlike the Greenways, it appears he did not hold office in the unreformed corporation.3A list of the country banks of England and Wales (1838), 64; F. Boase, Modern English Biography (1892), i. 1221; D. Paterson, ‘Tory political influence in mid-nineteenth century Warwick’, Warwickshire History, 3 (1977-8), 197-207 (at 201-2). Kelynge Greenway was Lord Warwick’s banker and attorney as well as an alderman, his brother George was receiver and treasurer, as well as an agent of the noblemen, who as recorder controlled the corporation: PP 1835 (116), xv. 663. Greaves was elected to the new town council in 1835, served as mayor in 1840, and at the 1847 general election he planned to challenge the Peelite incumbent, but later abandoned the attempt, probably because of the influence of the earl.4Paterson, ‘Tory political influence’, 199. At the subsequent general election in 1852, however, he was elected in second place behind another Conservative, after telling constituents that ‘for my political principles I refer you to the opening speech of the first minister of the Crown [Lord Derby], with whose views I mainly concur’.5Qu. in Adam’s parliamentary handbook (1854), 270.

In his first session Greaves supported Disraeli’s budget, 16 Dec. 1852, opposed Gladstone’s budget, 2 May 1853, and the following year complained of the same Chancellor’s plan to reduce the interest on Exchequer bills, 30 Mar. 1854, which he considered ‘injudicious’ given the current financial climate.6Especially given that the interest on bills of exchange was rising: Hansard, 30 Mar. 1854, vol. 132, cc. 111-12. Greaves cast votes against political reforms such as the ballot as well as the abolition of church rates, but his attendance was inferior to that of his Conservative colleague, perhaps because he did not retire from business until 1861, when he sold his stake for £25,000.7Daily News, 21 Sept. 1853; J.P. Gassiott, Third letter to J.A. Roebuck (1857), 21; Birmingham Daily Post, 15 Oct. 1887. As he was abroad Greaves missed the division which brought down Palmerston’s first government, 3 Mar. 1857, but was returned unopposed at the resultant general election.8Paterson, ‘Tory political influence’, 203. He supported Derby’s second ministry, approving of Disraeli’s ‘very good budget’ of 1858, and although he did not object to the proposed stamp duty on bankers’ drafts, he sought modification.9Hansard, 3 May 1858, vol. 149, cc. 2172-3. Although Greaves approved of his government’s 1859 reform bill, after the subsequent general election at which he was again unchallenged, he opposed the borough and county franchise bills of the early 1860s. Speaking as a former Chairman of the Bankers’ Association, formed in 1857, Greaves, unlike some country bankers, offered support for Gladstone’s 1865 bill which proposed phasing out the power of county banks to issue notes, 25 May 1865, although he added that an inquiry on the currency system in general was of urgent importance.10Hansard, 25 May 1865, vol. 179, cc. 806-7. The parliamentary opposition to the measure, which Gladstone eventually abandoned was led by another Conservative country banker, William Unwin Heygate, MP for Leicester.

A slow start to his campaign at the 1865 general election cost Greaves his seat, as he was relegated to third place by a Liberal, however he was returned in second place at the 1868 general election, before retiring in 1874. He died five years later, having been ‘in failing health for a considerable time, and … unable to attend to any business’.11The Times, 9 July 1879. His former bank, by this time known as Greenway, Smith and Greenway collapsed in 1887 with huge unsecured liabilities, the result of shoddy accounting, bad investments, and dubious lending practices which had been pursued after Greaves’ retirement.12The culprit seems to have been Kelynge Greenway, jun., nephew of Greaves’s former partner: Birmingham Daily Post, 15 Oct. 1887; The Standard, 30 Nov. 1887.