Abel Hendy Jones Greenidge
Encyclopedia
Abel Hendy Jones Greenidge (1865 – 1906) was a writer on ancient history and law. He was the second son of the Rev Nathaniel Heath Greenidge, vicar of Boscobel Parish, St Peter and his wife Elizabeth Cragg Kellman, was born on the 22nd December 1865 at Belle Farm Estate, Barbados
. His father was for many years a headmaster of various schools (Parry School, St Michael’s Parochial School and Christ Church Foundation School) and enjoyed a high reputation as a teacher. His brother, Samuel Wilberforce won a Barbados Scholarship in 1882 and went up to St John’s College
, Cambridge
, was 25th wrangler in the Cambridge mathematical tripos
of 1886 and the following year attained second class honours in the Law Tripos
. He was McMahon Law Student in 1888 and called to the Bar
at Gray’s Inn in 1889 but died in 1890. The Greenidge family trace their ancestry in Barbados
to John of Greenwich
who left London on 2 May 1635 on the ship Alexander. Within one generation the etymon, meaning Green Port or Trading Place (cf Norwich
, Harwich
and Ipswich
in England
) of the surname had assumed the distinctly West Indian orthographic
format of Greenidge, whilst maintaining a very similar phenomic identity.
, Barbados, winning in 1884 the Barbados Scholarship (first established when Abel and his brother Samuel were at school providing £175 per annum for four consecutive years) and in the same year (15 Oct) matriculating at Balliol College, Oxford
. Elected to an exhibition the following year, he was placed in the first class, both in Classical Moderations in 1886 and in the final classical school in 1888. He graduated BA
in the same year and proceeded MA in 1891 and D. Litt in 1904. On the 5th Dec 1889 he was elected, after examination, fellow
of Hertford College. There he became a lecturer in 1892 and tutor in 1902 and he retained these offices until his death in 1906. He was also lecturer in ancient history at Brasenose College from 1892 to 1905. He vacated his fellowship at Hertford
on his marriage in 1895 and on 29 June 1905 was elected to an official fellowship at St John’s College
. He examined in the final classical school in 1895-6-7-8. He died suddenly at his residence in Oxford of an affection of the heart on 11 March 1906 and was buried in Holywell Cemetery
Oxford.
who owned the Lucy Ironworks, previously known as the Eagle Ironworks, Oxford
in that town and they had two sons, John Waterman and Terence Lucy
. It was Terence who introduced Evelyn Waugh
to the Hypocrites Club while they were at Oxford University together and between John, Terence and Waugh, they staged the Scarlet Woman, An Ecclesiastical Melodramahttp://www.abbotshill.freeserve.co.uk/EWN3-2rtf.rtf which was an early cinematic production.
On 29 March 1907 a civil pension of £75 was granted to his widow “in consideration of his services to the study of Roman Law and History” but she too died of a lonely heart on 9 July 1907.
in 1894. Infamia is the term for loss of civil honour, and Abel made an interesting contribution to the knowledge of Roman legal practice by demonstrating that its legal aspect was quite secondary to its moral and social significance. There followed a Handbook of Greek Constitutional History (1896) in which he gave a narrative of the main lines of development of Greek Public Law, Roman Public Life (1901) in which he traced the growth of the Roman constitution and showed the political genius of Romans in dealing with all the problems of administration they had to face and The Legal Procedure in Cicero’s Time Oxford
(1901) a systematic and historical treatment of civil and criminal procedure, which was the most important of Abel Hendy Jones’ completed works. He also revised Sir William Smith’s History of Rome
(1897), (down to the death of Justinian) of the Student’s Gibbon (1899). In 1903, in cooperation with Miss A. M. Clay, he produced Sources of Roman History BC 133-70 (Oxford
) designed to prepare the way for a new History of Rome
. In 1904, he contributed an historical introduction to the 4th edition of Poste’s Institutes of Gaius.
In the same year, appeared the first volume of A History of Rome during the Later Republic and Early Principate covering the years 133 to 104 B. C. This work was designed to extend to the assession of Vespasian
and to fill six volumes, indeed a magnum opus, but no second volume (which was to end with the first consulship of Pompey
and Crassus) was issued. The third volume was intended to be up to the death of Caesar
, the fourth was to cover the Civil War and the rule of Augustus
, while the fifth and sixth were to deal with the Emperors up to Vespasian
. Much of Abel Hendy Jones’ most interesting work is to be found in scattered articles, more particularly in the Classical Review. His merit as an historian lies in his accurate accumulation of detail, combined with critical insight and power of exposition which was not unmixed with occasional paradox.The Dictionary of National Biography, edited by Dr R. W. Lee
Abel Hendy Jones was without doubt the greatest Classical scholar that the island of Barbados
has ever produced, since Latin and Greek are no longer taught on the island, and has done more to give the island and the West Indies a position of honour in the world of scholarship and learning. The Times
was moved to write a tribute His death will be regarded as a great loss to classical scholarship; in his own department of ancient history he was an acknowledged authority, and what he had already given to the world gave further promise of the future. The Daily Telegraph
not to be outdone, declared that Abel Greenidge had tapped sources of Roman Law that English scholars did not even know about. It can be said that Abel Greenidge was fully qualified to carry on where the great German scholar Mommsen
had left off.
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
. His father was for many years a headmaster of various schools (Parry School, St Michael’s Parochial School and Christ Church Foundation School) and enjoyed a high reputation as a teacher. His brother, Samuel Wilberforce won a Barbados Scholarship in 1882 and went up to St John’s College
St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's alumni include nine Nobel Prize winners, six Prime Ministers, three archbishops, at least two princes, and three Saints....
, Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, was 25th wrangler in the Cambridge mathematical tripos
Cambridge Mathematical Tripos
The Mathematical Tripos is the taught mathematics course at the University of Cambridge. It is the oldest Tripos that is examined in Cambridge.-Origin:...
of 1886 and the following year attained second class honours in the Law Tripos
Tripos
The University of Cambridge, England, divides the different kinds of honours bachelor's degree by Tripos , plural Triposes. The word has an obscure etymology, but may be traced to the three-legged stool candidates once used to sit on when taking oral examinations...
. He was McMahon Law Student in 1888 and called to the Bar
Bar (law)
Bar in a legal context has three possible meanings: the division of a courtroom between its working and public areas; the process of qualifying to practice law; and the legal profession.-Courtroom division:...
at Gray’s Inn in 1889 but died in 1890. The Greenidge family trace their ancestry in Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
to John of Greenwich
Greenwich
Greenwich is a district of south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich.Greenwich is best known for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time...
who left London on 2 May 1635 on the ship Alexander. Within one generation the etymon, meaning Green Port or Trading Place (cf Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
, Harwich
Harwich
Harwich is a town in Essex, England and one of the Haven ports, located on the coast with the North Sea to the east. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the northeast, Ipswich to the northwest, Colchester to the southwest and Clacton-on-Sea to the south...
and Ipswich
Ipswich
Ipswich is a large town and a non-metropolitan district. It is the county town of Suffolk, England. Ipswich is located on the estuary of the River Orwell...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
) of the surname had assumed the distinctly West Indian orthographic
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
format of Greenidge, whilst maintaining a very similar phenomic identity.
Early life
Abel Hendy Jones was educated at Harrison CollegeHarrison College (Barbados)
Harrison College is a co-educational grammar school in Bridgetown, Barbados. Founded in 1733, the school takes its name from Thomas Harrison, a Bridgetown merchant, who intended it to serve as "A Public and Free School for the poor and indigent boys of the parish".It thereafter has evolved into...
, Barbados, winning in 1884 the Barbados Scholarship (first established when Abel and his brother Samuel were at school providing £175 per annum for four consecutive years) and in the same year (15 Oct) matriculating at Balliol College, Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
. Elected to an exhibition the following year, he was placed in the first class, both in Classical Moderations in 1886 and in the final classical school in 1888. He graduated BA
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in the same year and proceeded MA in 1891 and D. Litt in 1904. On the 5th Dec 1889 he was elected, after examination, fellow
Fellow
A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...
of Hertford College. There he became a lecturer in 1892 and tutor in 1902 and he retained these offices until his death in 1906. He was also lecturer in ancient history at Brasenose College from 1892 to 1905. He vacated his fellowship at Hertford
Hertford
Hertford is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. Forming a civil parish, the 2001 census put the population of Hertford at about 24,180. Recent estimates are that it is now around 28,000...
on his marriage in 1895 and on 29 June 1905 was elected to an official fellowship at St John’s College
St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's alumni include nine Nobel Prize winners, six Prime Ministers, three archbishops, at least two princes, and three Saints....
. He examined in the final classical school in 1895-6-7-8. He died suddenly at his residence in Oxford of an affection of the heart on 11 March 1906 and was buried in Holywell Cemetery
Holywell Cemetery
Holywell Cemetery is next to St Cross Church in Oxford, England. The cemetery is behind the church in St Cross Road, north of Longwall Street.-History:...
Oxford.
Family Affairs
Abel Hendy Jones was married on the 29th June 1895 to Edith Elizabeth, youngest daughter of William Lucy of Headington, OxfordOxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
who owned the Lucy Ironworks, previously known as the Eagle Ironworks, Oxford
Eagle Ironworks, Oxford
The Eagle Ironworks was an ironworks owned by Lucy's on the Oxford Canal in Jericho, Oxford, England. The ironworks was on Walton Well Road at the northern end of Walton Street and backed onto St Sepulchre's Cemetery...
in that town and they had two sons, John Waterman and Terence Lucy
Terence Lucy Greenidge
Terence Lucy Greenidge was an English author and actor. He was a first generation Barbadian born in England and second son of Abel Hendy Jones Greenidge and his wife Edith Elizabeth, the youngest daughter of William Lucy, at that time the sole owner of Lucy Ironworks, previously known as the...
. It was Terence who introduced Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...
to the Hypocrites Club while they were at Oxford University together and between John, Terence and Waugh, they staged the Scarlet Woman, An Ecclesiastical Melodramahttp://www.abbotshill.freeserve.co.uk/EWN3-2rtf.rtf which was an early cinematic production.
On 29 March 1907 a civil pension of £75 was granted to his widow “in consideration of his services to the study of Roman Law and History” but she too died of a lonely heart on 9 July 1907.
Contributions to Scholarship
In spite of his early death, Abel Hendy Jones was constantly employed in academic teaching and his literary works are noted for their quality and quantity. Shortly after graduating, he contributed many articles to a new edition of Smith’s Dictionary of Antiquities 1890/1. He had graduated two years earlier, yet his prestige was such that he was invited to contribute to this authoritative work. His first book Infamia, its place in Roman Public and Private Law was published at OxfordOxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
in 1894. Infamia is the term for loss of civil honour, and Abel made an interesting contribution to the knowledge of Roman legal practice by demonstrating that its legal aspect was quite secondary to its moral and social significance. There followed a Handbook of Greek Constitutional History (1896) in which he gave a narrative of the main lines of development of Greek Public Law, Roman Public Life (1901) in which he traced the growth of the Roman constitution and showed the political genius of Romans in dealing with all the problems of administration they had to face and The Legal Procedure in Cicero’s Time Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
(1901) a systematic and historical treatment of civil and criminal procedure, which was the most important of Abel Hendy Jones’ completed works. He also revised Sir William Smith’s History of Rome
History of Rome
The history of Rome spans 2,800 years of the existence of a city that grew from a small Italian village in the 9th century BC into the centre of a vast civilisation that dominated the Mediterranean region for centuries. Its political power was eventually replaced by that of peoples of mostly...
(1897), (down to the death of Justinian) of the Student’s Gibbon (1899). In 1903, in cooperation with Miss A. M. Clay, he produced Sources of Roman History BC 133-70 (Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
) designed to prepare the way for a new History of Rome
History of Rome
The history of Rome spans 2,800 years of the existence of a city that grew from a small Italian village in the 9th century BC into the centre of a vast civilisation that dominated the Mediterranean region for centuries. Its political power was eventually replaced by that of peoples of mostly...
. In 1904, he contributed an historical introduction to the 4th edition of Poste’s Institutes of Gaius.
In the same year, appeared the first volume of A History of Rome during the Later Republic and Early Principate covering the years 133 to 104 B. C. This work was designed to extend to the assession of Vespasian
Vespasian
Vespasian , was Roman Emperor from 69 AD to 79 AD. Vespasian was the founder of the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Empire for a quarter century. Vespasian was descended from a family of equestrians, who rose into the senatorial rank under the Emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty...
and to fill six volumes, indeed a magnum opus, but no second volume (which was to end with the first consulship of Pompey
Pompey
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, also known as Pompey or Pompey the Great , was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic...
and Crassus) was issued. The third volume was intended to be up to the death of Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
, the fourth was to cover the Civil War and the rule of Augustus
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
, while the fifth and sixth were to deal with the Emperors up to Vespasian
Vespasian
Vespasian , was Roman Emperor from 69 AD to 79 AD. Vespasian was the founder of the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Empire for a quarter century. Vespasian was descended from a family of equestrians, who rose into the senatorial rank under the Emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty...
. Much of Abel Hendy Jones’ most interesting work is to be found in scattered articles, more particularly in the Classical Review. His merit as an historian lies in his accurate accumulation of detail, combined with critical insight and power of exposition which was not unmixed with occasional paradox.The Dictionary of National Biography, edited by Dr R. W. Lee
Abel Hendy Jones was without doubt the greatest Classical scholar that the island of Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
has ever produced, since Latin and Greek are no longer taught on the island, and has done more to give the island and the West Indies a position of honour in the world of scholarship and learning. The Times
Times
The Times is a UK daily newspaper, the original English language newspaper titled "Times". Times may also refer to:In newspapers:*The Times , went defunct in 2005*The Times *The Times of Northwest Indiana...
was moved to write a tribute His death will be regarded as a great loss to classical scholarship; in his own department of ancient history he was an acknowledged authority, and what he had already given to the world gave further promise of the future. The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
not to be outdone, declared that Abel Greenidge had tapped sources of Roman Law that English scholars did not even know about. It can be said that Abel Greenidge was fully qualified to carry on where the great German scholar Mommsen
Theodor Mommsen
Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician, archaeologist, and writer generally regarded as the greatest classicist of the 19th century. His work regarding Roman history is still of fundamental importance for contemporary research...
had left off.