Roger Gresley

Sir Roger Gresley, 8th Baronet (27 December 1799 – 12 October 1837) was an English author and Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1835 to 1837.

Gresley was the son of Sir Nigel Bowyer Gresley, 7th Baronet and his second wife Maria-Eliza Garway, daughter of Caleb Garway, of Worcester. He succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his father on 26 March 1808. He entered Christ Church, Oxford on 17 October 1817, where he remained until 1819, leaving the university without a degree. Gresley was a well known London dandy[1] and is said to have gambled away much of his fortune, having to sell most of his assets to remain solvent. In 1827 he sold Sir Nigel Gresley's Canal which his grandfather had built in connection with his mining interests.

In 1826 Gresley stood for parliament unsuccessfully at Lichfield and instead served as High Sheriff of Derbyshire. He stood at Durham in 1830 and was elected but unseated.[2] He was equally unsuccessful at New Romney in 1831,[3] although he made a couple of speeches in parliament.[4] Eventually he won a seat at South Derbyshire in 1835 which he lost at the election of July 1837.[5]

Gresley was groom of the bedchamber to the Duke of Sussex, captain of the Staffordshire Yeomanry cavalry, and an Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. He was also an author who usually wrote his name Greisley.

Gresley died at the age of 37, and was buried on 28 October at Church Gresley, Derbyshire.

Gresley married Lady Sophia Catherine Coventry, daughter of George William Coventry, 7th Earl of Coventry and Peggy Pitches, on 2 June 1821. The marriage was commemorated in a poem by a friend John Taylor.[6] They had no surviving children and the baronetcy passed to a kinsman Sir William Gresley. His widow remarried to Sir Henry des Voeux, Baronet and vicar of Stapenhill-cum-Caldwell. She died at 39 Berkeley Square, London, in 1875 and was buried with her second husband in the churchyard at Caldwell.

Publications

References

 "Gresley, Roger". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. 

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Sir Henry Hardinge
Michael Angelo Taylor
Member of Parliament for Durham
1830
With: Michael Angelo Taylor
Succeeded by
Michael Angelo Taylor
William Chaytor
Preceded by
Arthur Hill Trevor
William Miles
Member of Parliament for New Romney
1831
With: William Miles
Succeeded by
William Miles
Sir Edward Dering, Bt
Preceded by
Hon George Venables-Vernon
The Lord Waterpark
Member of Parliament for South Derbyshire
18351841
With: Sir George Harpur Crewe
Succeeded by
Sir George Harpur Crewe
Francis Hurt
Honorary titles
Preceded by
Sir Charles Abney-Hastings, Bt
High Sheriff of Derbyshire
1826
Succeeded by
Edward Sacheverell Chandos-Pole
Baronetage of Great Britain
Preceded by
Sir Nigel Bowyer Gresley, 7th Baronet
Baronet
(of Drakelowe)
18181844
Succeeded by
Sir William Nigel Gresley, 9th Baronet
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