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{{Short description|Anglo-Irish writer and politician (1816–1892)}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=April 2023}}
{{EngvarB|date=October 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|honorific-prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
|name =Sir William Henry Gregory
|honorific-suffix = [[Privy Council for Ireland|PC (Ire)]] [[Order of St Michael and St George|KCMG]]
|image = William Henry Gregory Vanity Fair 30 December 1871.jpg
|caption = "An art critic" Gregory as caricatured by [[James Tissot]] in [[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|Vanity Fair]], December 1871
|alt =
|order = 14th
|office = Governor of British Ceylon
|term_start = 4 March 1872
|term_end = 4 September 1877
|predecessor = [[Henry Turner Irving]] (Acting governor)
|successor = [[James Robert Longden]]
|monarch = [[Queen Victoria]]
|order2 =
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|birth_date = {{Birth date|1816|07|1|df=y}}
|birth_place = [[Dublin Castle]]
|death_date = {{death date and age|1892|03|06|1816|07|13|df=y}}
|death_place = [[London]], England
|restingplace = Gregory family vault, Kiltartan, County Galway
|restingplacecoordinates =
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|nationality = [[United Kingdom|British]]
|party =
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|spouse = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|Elizabeth Temple Bowdoin|1872|1873|end=d.}}
* {{marriage|[[Augusta, Lady Gregory|Augusta Persse]]|1880}}
}}
|partner = 
|relations =
|children = [[Robert Gregory (flying ace)|William Robert Gregory]]
|residence =
|alma_mater = [[Harrow School]] [[Christ Church, Oxford]]
|occupation = Writer, politician
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'''Sir William Henry Gregory''' [[Privy Council of Ireland|PC (Ire) KCMG]] (13 July 1816<ref>Brian Jenkins, ''Sir William Gregory of Coole. The Biography of an Anglo-Irishman'', Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1986, p. 22.</ref> – 6 March 1892) was an [[Anglo-Irish]] writer and politician, who is now less remembered than his wife Augusta, [[Lady Gregory]], the playwright, co-founder and Director of Dublin's [[Abbey Theatre]], literary hostess and folklorist.

==Earlier life and education==
The only child of Robert Gregory (1790 – 20 April 1847) and Elizabeth Gregory (née O'Hara from Raheen, 1799 – 7 January 1877), William Gregory was born at [[Under Secretary's Lodge|the Under-Secretary's residence, Ashtown Lodge]], in Phoenix Park, Dublin. He was the grandson of [[William Gregory (civil servant)|William Gregory]]. From 1830 to 1835 he attended [[Harrow School|Harrow]], where he was an award-winning student. He entered [[Christ Church, Oxford]] in 1836, leaving three years later without getting a degree.

William' father, Robert, had been an improving landlord who died of a fever contracted while visiting his tenants during the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine]] in 1847.

==Political career==
In 1842 Gregory was elected to the [[British House of Commons]] in a by-election as a [[Irish Conservative Party|Conservative]] member for [[Dublin (UK Parliament constituency)|Dublin]]. Among his close associates were [[Sir Robert Peel]], [[Henry Pelham-Clinton, 5th Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne|Lord Lincoln]] and [[Lord George Bentinck]], but he was also friendly with [[Daniel O'Connell]] and sympathetic to Catholic interests. He was responsible for the "Gregory Clause" which said that anyone applying for relief during the [[Great Famine (Ireland)#Government's response|Great Famine]] would not be eligible if they were occupying more than 1⁄4 of an acre (0.1 ha).

After the death of his father and following his failure to retain his seat in the [[1847 United Kingdom general election|general election of 1847]] he took up residence on the family estate at [[Coole Park]] in [[County Galway]]. He was appointed [[High Sheriff of County Galway]] in 1849.<ref>{{cite book | last = Walford | first = Edward | title = The County Families of the United Kingdom | year = 1919 | publisher = Robert Spottiswoode, Ballantyne & Co. Ltd | location = London }}</ref> He had inherited a large fortune, mainly derived from the earnings of his grandfather, also named [[Robert Gregory (MP)|Robert Gregory]], in the [[East India Company]], but he lost a large part of it at the racetrack.<ref>''Sir William Gregory'', Joseph M. Hone, ''Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review'', Vol. 44, No. 175 (Autumn, 1955), pp. 337–341, Irish Province of the Society of Jesus, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/30098666 JSTOR]</ref>

In [[1850]] he fought a duel with a Captain Vaughan, but [[Robert Peel]] who was his second, persuaded him not to shoot to kill as had originally been his intention.<ref>Sir William’s autobiography, written in the 1880s, edited by Lady Gregory, published in 1894</ref>

Gregory travelled to [[Egypt]] in 1855 and wrote a two-volume work on his travels, ''Egypt in 1855 and 1856, and Tunis in 1857 and 1858'', published privately in London in 1859.

In [[1857 United Kingdom general election|1857]] he was returned to Parliament for [[County Galway (UK Parliament constituency)|County Galway]] on a liberal-conservative platform.

In 1859 he travelled through [[North America]], befriending several southern Congressmen, including [[James Murray Mason]] of [[Virginia]] and [[William Porcher Miles]] of [[South Carolina]]. Throughout the [[American Civil War]] Gregory was an avid supporter of the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]]. He also argued that Britain should pursue a strong anti-[[Ottoman Empire|Turkish]] policy, and supported the cession of the [[Ionian Islands]] and [[Crete]] to [[Greece]]. In domestic affairs Gregory was active in defending the [[Roman Catholic]] clergy in Ireland and working for land reform. His interest in the arts led to a long association with the [[British Museum]]. In 1867 he was appointed a Trustee of the [[National Gallery]].

On 10 July 1871 Gregory was made a member of the [[Privy Council of Ireland]] and in the following year he was appointed Governor of Ceylon (now [[Sri Lanka]]). In 1875, he played host to the [[Prince of Wales]] and was presented with the [[Order of St. Michael and St. George]].

Gregory retired from office in 1877 and returned to [[England]] via [[Australia]]. He spent most of the following years travelling. From October 1881 to April 1882 he toured Egypt and reported on the revolution there. He also visited Ceylon in 1884 and 1885.

Gregory was a Fellow of the [[Royal Society]] (FRS)<ref name="Cooke"/> and a member of the [[Kildare Street Club]] in Dublin.<ref>Thomas Hay Sweet Escott, ''Club Makers and Club Members'' (1913), [https://archive.org/stream/cu31924028066979#page/n371/mode/2up pp. 329–333]</ref>

==Personal life==
Gregory was addicted to [[horse racing]], which led to financial difficulties throughout his life. He remained fond of classical languages and literature, and always took an interest in artistic affairs.

Gregory married twice. On 11 January 1872 he married Elizabeth Temple Bowdoin, widow of James Temple Bowdoin and daughter of [[Sir William Clay, 1st Baronet|Sir William Clay]]. She died on 28 June 1873. On 4 March 1880 Gregory married Augusta Persse, later to become famous as [[Augusta, Lady Gregory]]. Their only child, [[Robert Gregory (flying ace)|William Robert Gregory]], was born on 20 May 1881.

==Death==
[[File:Gregory Vault.jpg|thumb|The Gregory family vault near Coole Park, County Galway in 2016. Originally located on the demesne, it now lies on farmland in Kiltartan between the N18 and M18 (construction site) roads.]]
[[File:Gregory Vault information.jpg|thumb|Information sign on the Gregory family vault.]]

Gregory died of [[respiratory failure]] in London on 6 March 1892. His autobiography was edited and published by Lady Gregory in 1894. He bequeathed the important painting ''[[Christ in the House of Martha and Mary (Velázquez)|Christ in the House of Martha and Mary]]'' by [[Diego Velázquez]], along with three other works including a [[Jan Steen]], to the [[National Gallery, London]] of which he had been a Trustee from 1867 onwards.<ref name="Cooke">{{Citation | last = Cooke | first = Colman M.| title = Lady Gregory's Journals, Volume One, Books One to Twenty Nine, 10 October 1916–24 February 1925 by Daniel J. Murphy (book review)| journal =Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society | volume = 37 | pages = 97–101| orig-year = 1979| year = 1980 | jstor = 25550117}}</ref><ref name="nationalgallery">{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/search?q=William+Gregory&x=17&y=3|publisher=nationalgallery.org.uk|title=Search | National Gallery, London|access-date=2017-01-15}}</ref>

Gregory is buried in the Gregory family vault at Kiltartan, County Galway. Though originally part of Coole Demesne, the area overlooking the Gort river is now used as farmland. At the time of Lady Gregory's death in 1932, the land had already been sold to former tenants so she was buried with her sister at Bohermore Cemetery near Galway.

[[Lake Gregory (Nuwara Eliya)|Lake Gregory]] in [[Nuwara Eliya]] and Gregory's Road in [[Colombo]] are named for William Gregory.

==Popular culture==
He lends his name to the inspector in [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s ''[[The Adventure of Silver Blaze|Silver Blaze]]'', 1892. The [[Sherlock Holmes]] story is centered on the disappearance of a race horse on the eve of a major race.

He is sometimes considered to have been the model for [[Anthony Trollope]]'s character [[Phineas Finn]] in the [[Palliser novels]].<ref name="ricorso">{{cite web|url=http://www.ricorso.net/rx/az-data/authors/g/Gregory_WH/life.htm|publisher=ricorso.net|title=William Henry Gregory [Sir] (1817-92)|access-date=2017-01-15}}</ref> Trollope went to school with Gregory.

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* Brian Jenkins, ''Sir William Gregory of Coole''. Gerrards Cross, 1986
* Lady Gregory, ''Seventy Years 1852–1922''. Gerrards Cross, 1973.
* ''Dictionary of National Biography'', pp. 355–57.

==External links ==
*{{hansard-contribs | mr-william-gregory | William Henry Gregory }}

{{s-start}}
{{s-par|uk}}
{{s-bef| before = [[John Beattie West]] [[Sir Edward Grogan, 1st Baronet|Edward Grogan]] }}
{{s-ttl| title = Member of Parliament for [[Dublin City (UK Parliament constituency)|Dublin City]]
| with = [[Sir Edward Grogan, 1st Baronet|Edward Grogan]]
| years = 1842 – [[1847 United Kingdom general election|1847]] }}
{{s-aft| after = [[John Reynolds (Dublin politician)|John Reynolds]] [[Sir Edward Grogan, 1st Baronet|Edward Grogan]] }}

{{s-bef| before = [[Thomas Bellew (Galway politician)|Thomas Arthur Bellew]] [[Sir Thomas Burke, 3rd Baronet|Thomas Burke]] }}
{{s-ttl| title = Member of Parliament for [[County Galway (UK Parliament constituency)|County Galway]]
| with = [[Sir Thomas Burke, 3rd Baronet|Thomas Burke]] 1857–1865
| with2 = [[Ulick de Burgh, Lord Dunkellin|Lord Dunkellin]] 1865–1867
| with3 = [[Hubert de Burgh-Canning, 2nd Marquess of Clanricarde|Viscount Burke]] 1867–1871
| with4 = [[Mitchell Henry]] 1871–1872
| years = [[1857 United Kingdom general election|1857]]–1872 }}
{{s-aft| after = [[John Philip Nolan]] [[Mitchell Henry]] }}

{{s-gov}}
{{succession box
|title=[[Governor of Ceylon]]
|before=[[Henry Turner Irving]] ''acting governor''
|after=[[James Robert Longden]]
|years=1872–1877}}
{{s-end}}

{{British Governor of Ceylon}}
{{Great Hunger}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gregory, William Henry}}
[[Category:1816 births]]
[[Category:1892 deaths]]
[[Category:People educated at Harrow School]]
[[Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford]]
[[Category:Politicians from County Galway]]
[[Category:High sheriffs of County Galway]]
[[Category:Members of the Privy Council of Ireland]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Dublin constituencies (1801–1922)]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Galway constituencies (1801–1922)]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1841–1847]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1857–1859]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1859–1865]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1865–1868]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1868–1874]]
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George]]

William Henry Gregory - Revision history

imported>RexAntica at 19:13, 25 March 2025