Robert Hyde Greg was an English

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...

 industrialist, economist

Economics

Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

 and antiquary.

Born in Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

, the son of Samuel Greg

Samuel Greg

Samuel Greg was a British entrepreneur and pioneer of the factory system at Quarry Bank Mill.He was born in Belfast, Ireland as the second son of a successful merchant. At the age of eight, he went to live with his uncle, Robert Hyde, at Ardwick Hall, Manchester...

, the creator of Quarry Bank Mill

Quarry Bank Mill

Quarry Bank Mill in Cheshire, England, is one of the best preserved textile mills of the Industrial Revolution and is now a museum of the cotton industry. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building.-Water mill:...

, he was brother to William Rathbone Greg

William Rathbone Greg

William Rathbone Greg was an English essayist.Born in Manchester, the son of Samuel Greg, the creator of Quarry Bank Mill, he was brother to Robert Hyde Greg and the junior Samuel Greg. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh. For a time, he managed a mill of his father's at Bury, and in...

 and the junior Samuel Greg

Samuel Greg (junior)

Samuel Greg was an English industrialist and philanthropist.Born in Manchester, the son of the elder Samuel Greg, the creator of Quarry Bank Mill, he was brother to William Rathbone Greg and Robert Hyde Greg. Influenced by the religious beliefs of his mother Hannah, he attended a Unitarian school...

. His mother, Hannah, was a descendant of Philip Henry

Philip Henry (clergyman)

Philip Henry was an English Nonconformist clergyman and diarist.-Early life:Henry graduated from Oxford in 1652 and was ordained in 1657. He was the eldest son of John Henry, keeper of the orchard at Whitehall, and was born at Whitehall on 24 August 1631...

. He attended the University of Edinburgh

University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...

 and, after the obligatory Grand Tour

Grand Tour

The Grand Tour was the traditional trip of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means. The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transit in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary. It served as an educational rite of passage...

 of the antiquities

Archaeology

Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

 of Continental Europe

Continental Europe

Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands....

, joined his father's textile

Textile

A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...

 manufacturing

Manufacturing

Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...

 enterprise.

He was active in Manchester intellectual life as a member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society

Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society

The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, popularly known as the Lit & Phil, is a learned society in Manchester, England.Established in 1781 as the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, by Thomas Percival, Thomas Barnes and Thomas Henry, other prominent members have included...

 and was a founder of the Mechanics' Institute. He was an active member of the Liberal Party

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 and the Anti-Corn Law League

Corn Laws

The Corn Laws were trade barriers designed to protect cereal producers in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland against competition from less expensive foreign imports between 1815 and 1846. The barriers were introduced by the Importation Act 1815 and repealed by the Importation Act 1846...

. Though he was elected to Parliament

Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

 for Manchester

Manchester (UK Parliament constituency)

Manchester was a Parliamentary borough constituency in the county of Lancashire which was represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Its territory consisted of the city of Manchester.- History :...

 in 1839, it was without his consent and he resigned in the following year. He was an opponent of factory

Factory

A factory or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where laborers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production...

 reform, trades unions and worker health and safety legislation.

He died at Norcliffe Hall

Norcliffe Hall

Norcliffe Hall is a large house near the village of Styal, Cheshire, England. It stands to the west of the village and to the north of Styal Country Park. It was built in 1831 for Robert Hyde Greg, the owner of Quarry Bank Mill, and designed by the Lichfield architect Thomas Johnson...

, Styal

Styal

Styal is a village in Cheshire East, England. It is on the River Bollin, near to the town of Wilmslow.Styal is a commuter village, with access to Manchester. The village is dominated by Quarry Bank Mill and much of its housing is the mill's estate. The mill and the surrounding country park are...

, Cheshire

Cheshire

Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...

 and is buried at the Dean Row Unitarian Chapel, Wilmslow

Wilmslow

-Economy:Wilmslow is well known, like Alderley Edge, for having many famous residents, notably footballers, stars of Coronation Street and rich North West businessmen. The town is part of the so-called Golden Triangle in the north west together with Alderley Edge and Prestbury...

.

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