GREENAWAY, Charles (1784-1859), of Barrington Park, Burford, Glos

A Gloucestershire gentleman ‘of great landed property’ who inherited Barrington Park on his father’s death in 1815, Greenaway styled himself as an ‘independent Whig’.1Hereford Journal, 26 July 1837; Dod MS, ii. 509; Dod’s Parliamentary Companion (1838), 115. His father-in-law, Robert Hurst, had represented a number of constituencies, including Horsham, as a Whig before 1832. Greenaway came forward as Liberal candidate for the venal borough of Leominster at the 1837 general election. Although he refused to give pledges he spoke in favour of Irish municipal reform and the Whig ministers’ church rates scheme.2Dod MS, ii. 509; Dod’s Parliamentary Companion (1838), 115; Hereford Journal, 26 July 1837. The lone Liberal candidate, he secured the second seat.

Greenaway is not known to have made any speeches in Parliament, and other than the 1838 inquiry on the Kinsale election, does not appear to have served on any select committees.3PP 1837-38 (332), xii. 3. He supported the Whig government in all key party divisions, including Sandon’s censure motion on Canadian policy, 7 Mar. 1838, and the votes of confidence, 31 Jan. 1840, 4 June, 27 Aug. 1841. He also backed key Whig policies such as Irish municipal reform and church appropriation. In 1838 he cast votes against the ballot, but in favour of the immediate abolition of slave apprenticeships in the West Indies.

Although Greenaway was undecided on the merits of the Whigs’ proposed fixed duty on corn, having long opposed the anti-corn law motions proposed by Charles Villiers, he offered Melbourne’s administration his hearty endorsement at the 1841 general election.4Hereford Times, 19 June 1841. He had given his ‘steady support to the government, considering it the best administration that ever governed this country’. He singled out municipal reform, the abolition of slavery, the commutation of tithes and the penny post as particularly praiseworthy. Regarding the corn laws, he vaguely declared that he would welcome a ‘medium course’ that would boost manufacturing while protecting the landed interest, which was ‘the greatest in the country’.5Hereford Times, 3 July 1841.

Re-elected without opposition, Greenaway continued to oppose a free trade in corn, but voted in favour of Peel’s reduction of sugar duties, 3 June 1842. He was part of the majority that resisted paternalist attempts to weaken the powers and authority of the poor law commission, by, for example, curtailing their term and abolishing assistant commissioners, 27 June, 12 July 1842. Greenaway retired shortly after opposing the introduction of the Maynooth college bill, 3 Apr. 1845, citing ‘circumstances of a private nature rendering the longer occupation of a seat in Parliament particularly inconvenient’.6Hereford Times, 19 Apr. 1845. The cause of his resignation remains a ‘mystery’.7Daily News, 30 Aug. 1849. In later life Greenaway moved to Bath, where he died ‘after a long and painful illness’ in 1859.8Lincolnshire Chronicle, 9 Dec. 1859. His personal estate of £16,000 passed to his widow.9National Probate Calendar, 19 Dec. 1859.