William Greenfield FRSE (died 1827) was a Scottish minister, literary critic, author and mathematician whose career ended in scandal, resulting in him being excommunicated from the Church of Scotland, having his university degrees withdrawn, and his family assuming the name Rutherfurd.[1]
He served as joint-minister of Edinburgh's High Kirk (1787–98), as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (1796), and as Regius Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres at Edinburgh University (1784–98). A friend and correspondent of Robert Burns and a beneficiary of Walter Scott, his lecture course in Rhetoric and Belles Lettres had a huge influence on the development of English Literature as a discipline in universities.
Greenfield was the son of Captain John Greenfield and Grizel Cockburn. He graduated M.A. from Edinburgh University on 7 April 1778 and was almost immediately (though unsuccessfully) nominated as a Professor of Mathematics at Marischal College, Aberdeen. He was ordained to Wemyss Parish on 6th Sept. 1781. He then moved to become the first minister of the new St Andrew's Church in the New Town on 25 November 1784, to which he was presented by the Town Council on 21 February, taking up post on 1 April 1787. He held this post as well as the Regius Professorship of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres (among the first University Chairs in English Literature in the world), which he had held in conjunction with Hugh Blair since 1784, and whom he succeeded.[2] He was made Almoner to the King on March 1789. He "radically altered the size and structure of the Edinburgh course" he took over from Blair, according to Martin Moonie's chapter in Crawford's book. Greenfield had wide interest. He was a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and on 12 April 1784 he read a paper and, later in its Transactions (1788 Vol 1, pp131–145) he published as an article entitled "On the use of negative quantities in the solution of problems by Algebraic Equations".[3] (His son, Andrew Rutherfurd, attached a biographical note to his copy of this article, without revealing that the author was his father). Greenfield also delivered lectures in Natural Philosophy, the manuscripts of which are still retained Edinburgh University Library.
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He was made Doctor of Divinity by Edinburgh on 31 March 1789, was Dean of the Faculty of Arts, and became Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland on 19 May 1796. From that session, he sent a letter to King George III, congratulating him on having escaped an assassination attempt, and one to the Prince of Wales, later George IV, congratulating him on his (ill-fated) engagement to Princess Caroline of Brunswick. Robert Burns writes affectionately and admiringly of him in his second Commonplace Book "he is a steady, most disinterested friend, without the least affectation, of seeming so; and as a companion, his good sense, his joyous hilarity, his sweetness of manners and modesty, are most engagingly charming."[4] He married Janet Bervie,daughter of a Kirkcaldy maltman, on 22 November 1782
Greenfield was seriously disgraced in December 1798. The records of the Presbytery of Edinburgh state that because of "certain flagrant reports concerning his conduct... they laid him under a sentence of excommunication." He had voluntarily resigned his Church and University posts as well as that of King's Almoner. He was deprived by the University of his degrees of M.A. and D.D. There is documentary evidence of a public outcry, "a Sin peculiarly heinous and offensive in its nature," according to the Presbytery, and a letter by Greenfield resigning and expressing gratitude to his previous colleagues and charges.[5] Later comment indicated he had been discovered in gay relationship with a student. His name was practically eliminated from the recollections of his contemporaries in Scotland, the notable exception being Walter Scott, who helped Greenfield discreetly.
Greenfield fled to the North of England and thereafter supported himself by teaching and writing. He authored several works, the most important being the elegantly written Essays on the Sources of the Pleasures received from Literary Compositions, which he published in 1809.[6] This seems to be a polished and published version of his Edinburgh lecture course. It was republished in 1813, and may still be in print.[7] In the same year, Sir Walter Scott introduced him to the publisher John Murray. Scott supposedly asked Murray to keep Greenfield's name secret, as he was hiding from creditors.[8]
In another instance Scott's letter is quoted and and his case described: "You cannot but have heard of that very unfortunate man Dr Greenshields [sic] who for a dishonourable or rather infamous cause was obliged to leave Edinburgh where he was long beloved and admired of every human being..."[9]
Greenfield contributed at least one review to the Quarterly Review under the name of Richardson. It disapprove morally of the novel Amélie Mansfield[10] by Mme Cottin. He also assumed the name of Rutherfurd, which may explain, or on the other hand be a result of, Walter Scott's interest. Scott's mother was Anne Rutherford, of a Borders gentry family. This circumstance led many literary gossips, including the Kaleidoscope magazine to suspect Greenfield as the author of the Waverley or "Scotch" novels. Some thought that Scott was not capable of being the author but Greenfield was. Greenfield was a full and visible and respected member of the British literary set. He died in the North of England on 28 April 1827.
His wife, who had assumed the maiden name of her mother Margaret Rutherford (or Rutherfurd), died on 20 June 1827. His children seemed to have made successful careers or marriages in the law, army and the Church, sugegsting the scandal did not affect them much, well concealed under the name of Rutherfurd. Their careers and marriages seemed also to have been based in Scotland, which might indicate that Greenfield had left his family there, the North of England being a common refuge for fugitive Scots, near but beyond the jurisdiction. The children were daughter Margaret, born 25 July 1784; a son Hugh Blair (named after Greenfield's predecessor as Professor of Rhethoric, and later laird of Crosshill, and captain 25th Regiment), born 7 May 1786; Grizel, born 5 December 1787, who later married Thomas Clark, minister of St Andrew's, Edinburgh, her father's old kirk;[11] Jane, born 7 July 1789; Andrew, Senator of the College of Justice, born 21 June 1791, died 13 December 1854;[12] James Hunter, Major Royal Engineers, born 13 August 1794.
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| Preceded by James Meek |
Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland 1796 |
Succeeded by John Adamson |