Jane "Jenny" Greg (1749 - 1817) in the 1790s was an Irish republican agitator with connections to radical political circles in England. Although the extent of her activities are unclear, in suppressing the

Society of United Irishmen The Society of United Irishmen was a sworn association in the Kingdom of Ireland formed in the wake of the French Revolution to secure "an equal representation of all the people" in a national government. Despairing of constitutional reform ...

the British commander,

General Lake Gerard Lake, 1st Viscount Lake (27 July 1744 – 20 February 1808) was a British general. He commanded British forces during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and later served as Commander-in-Chief of the military in British India. Background He wa ...

, described Greg as "the most violent creature possible" and as someone who had caused "very great oliticalmischief" in her native

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingd ...

Child of a trans-Atlantic fortune

Greg was the second of thirteen children born to Elizabeth (Hyde) (1721-1780) and Thomas Greg of Belfast (1718 – 1796). With his business partner and brother-in-law,

Waddell Cunningham Waddell Cunningham (1729 - 1797) was wealthy merchant and civic leader in late eighteenth-century Belfast, Ireland, who, both in his business ventures and political interventions, was opposed by the nascent democratic spirit of his time. He cut ...

, her father commanded one of the greatest mercantile fortunes in Ireland. The son of a Scottish blacksmith, in the 1740s Thomas Greg bought a small ship which carried provisions to the West Indies and returned with flaxseed. Dealings in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

brought him into contact and partnership with

, another Belfast

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their na ...

. By 1775 Greg and Cunningham was one of the largest shipping companies in the New York, having benefitted from the rise in the prices of provisions during the

Seven Years’ War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754– ...

and from the license to attack and plunder enemy vessels. After the war, Greg and Cunningham set up a sugar plantation on Dominica called "Belfast" for which Greg's brother John, already established on the island, supplied slaves. At home, as Belfast's richest merchants, the partners began to improve the town's commercial infrastructure, investing in the Lagan navigation canal, new docks and quays, and the construction of the White Linen Hall which, together, attracted the linen trade to Belfast hat had formerly gone through

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

. In the 1780s Cunningham cut a patriotic figure as a patron and officer of the

Volunteers Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve ...

. Formed in anticipation of a French attempt upon Ireland during the American War, in the Presbyterian north the independent militia demonstrated sympathy for their kinfolk in the colonies with parallel demands for free commerce and Irish legislative independence. Jane's father may have shared a disdain for the

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label=Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second l ...

Ascendancy (in 1783 he refused a

Baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

cy). but with Cunningham, Thomas Greg alienated popular and radical opinion. Townspeople looked with favour neither on their eviction of poor tenants from lands in which they had speculated nor their proposal to commission Belfast vessels for the

Middle Passage The Middle Passage was the stage of the Atlantic slave trade in which millions of enslaved Africans were transported to the Americas as part of the triangular slave trade. Ships departed Europe for African markets with manufactured goods (firs ...

Radical connections in England

Hannah-lightbody-mrs-samuel-greg-by-school-of-richard-cosway

In a public debate following Belfast's 1792 "

Bastille The Bastille (, ) was a fortress in Paris, known formally as the Bastille Saint-Antoine. It played an important role in the internal conflicts of France and for most of its history was used as a state prison by the kings of France. It was stor ...

Day" celebrations, Cunningham's objection to an immediate and liberal extension of the franchise to include Catholics was defeated by interventions from members of a new democratic club. The

proposed the "equal representation of all the people" in the Irish parliament and its "real independence" from England. If there were family connections on Jane Greg's path to these radical reformers they were likely, not her father and his associates, but her sister-in-law. Jane Greg spent most of her adulthood in England in the society of her younger brother

Samuel Greg Samuel Greg (26 March 1758 – 4 June 1834) was an Irish-born industrialist and entrepreneur of the early Industrial Revolution and a pioneer of the factory system. He built Quarry Bank Mill, which at his retirement was the largest textile mil ...

. In Manchester, Samuel, who with his maternal uncles rose to be one of the great northern "cotton kings", married Hannah Lightbody. Like many northern merchant families, the Lighbodys were

Unitarians Unitarian or Unitarianism may refer to: Christian and Christian-derived theologies A Unitarian is a follower of, or a member of an organisation that follows, any of several theologies referred to as Unitarianism: * Unitarianism (1565–present) ...

, their indulgence of "rational dissent" broadly comparable to the "New Light" teaching of Belfast's

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated pop ...

-educated Presbyterian clergy. Hannah completed her education at a Unitarian academy at Stoke Newington outside London, where she lived with her cousin Thomas Rogers, a close friend and an immediate neighbour to

Richard Price Richard Price (23 February 1723 – 19 April 1791) was a British moral philosopher, Nonconformist minister and mathematician. He was also a political reformer, pamphleteer, active in radical, republican, and liberal causes such as the French ...

Richard Price was the "non-conforming minister of eminence" that

Edmund Burke Edmund Burke (; 12 January New Style">NS/nowiki> 1729 – 9 July 1797) was an Anglo-Irish people">Anglo-Irish Politician">statesman, economist, and philosopher. Born in Dublin, Burke served as a member of Parliament (MP) between 1766 and 1794 ...

pilloried in his ''

Reflections on the Revolution in France ''Reflections on the Revolution in France'' is a political pamphlet written by the Irish statesman Edmund Burke and published in November 1790. It is fundamentally a contrast of the French Revolution to that time with the unwritten British Cons ...

'' (1790) as the leading light of a circle of "literary caballers and intriguing philosophers" naïve and seditious in their embrace of the French revolutionary doctrine of popular sovereignty. Possibly with her sister-in-law as a connection, Greg was closely acquainted with a number of these figures, including

John Horne Tooke John Horne Tooke (25 June 1736 – 18 March 1812), known as John Horne until 1782 when he added the surname of his friend William Tooke to his own, was an English clergyman, politician, and philologist. Associated with radical proponents of parl ...

of the

London Corresponding Society The London Corresponding Society (LCS) was a federation of local reading and debating clubs that in the decade following the French Revolution agitated for the democratic reform of the British Parliament. In contrast to other reform associati ...

(arrested, but acquitted, in 1794 of high treason) and

Roger O'Connor Roger O'Connor (1762-1834) was an Irish nationalist and writer, known for the controversies surrounding his life and writings, notably his fanciful history of the Irish people, the ''Chronicles of Eri''. He was the brother of the United Irishman ...

. In London, O'Connor, with his brother

Arthur Arthur is a common male given name of Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. Another theory, more w ...

, were seeking to build a network of sympathetic contacts for the United Irish cause. Among Price's friends Greg may also have met, and will certainly have read,

Mary Wollstonecraft Mary Wollstonecraft (, ; 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was a British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationsh ...

. With her ''Vindication of the Rights of Men'' she was the first (in advance of

Thomas Paine Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...

) to reply to Burke. Her subsequent, and ground-breaking,

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman ''A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects'' (1792), written by British philosopher and women's rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797), is one of the earliest works of feminist philosoph ...

(1792) was the talk of Greg's close friend

Martha McTier Martha "Matty" McTier (''c.'' 1742 – 3 October 1837) was an advocate for women's health and education, and a supporter of democratic reform, whose correspondence with her brother William Drennan and other leading United Irishmen documents the ...

in Belfast, where it had been reviewed and commended by the United Irish paper, the ''Northern Star'' Wollstonecraft's call for women to secure the liberty without which they could "neither possess virtue or happiness" may have been among the reasons Greg gave herself for refusing marriage. Greg shared McTier's abhorrence for the highly-restrictive model of education for the poor advanced by the conservative evangelical

Hannah More Hannah More (2 February 1745 – 7 September 1833) was an English religious writer, philanthropist, poet and playwright in the circle of Johnson, Reynolds and Garrick, who wrote on moral and religious subjects. Born in Bristol, she taught at a ...

. Having encountered Hannah More and her sisters in

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

and discussed their schools and other good works, Greg reported to McTier that she found their "minds crippled in an astonishing degree". McTier prided herself that in her school for poor girls in Belfast, her pupils "do not gabble over the testament only" and that she had those who "can read

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelv ...

and

Pitt Pitt most commonly refers to: *The University of Pittsburgh, commonly known as Pitt, a university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States **Pitt Panthers, the athletic teams of the University of Pittsburgh * Pitt (surname), a surname o ...

United-Irishwoman in Belfast

Sometime in the mid 1790s, Jane Greg returned to Belfast. It is possible that it was in the company of Arthur O'Connor, who was determined to contest what had been the Irish parliamentary seat of his uncle Lord Longueville in Antrim. In January 1797, to the "free electors" of the county he commended the "entire abolition of religious distinctions" and the "establishment of a National Government". But canvassing under what he protested was the "occupation" of the country by English and Scottish troops proved impossible. O'Connor returned to England, where he was arrested in March 1798 attempting to cross the Channel on a mission with Father

James Coigly Father James Coigly (''aka'' James O'Coigley and Jeremiah Quigley) (1761 – 7 June 1798) was a Roman Catholic priest in Ireland active in the republican movement against the British Crown and the kingdom's Protestant Ascendancy. He serv ...

to solicit French assistance. Meanwhile, Greg in Belfast was under surveillance. In May 1797 the Belfast Postmaster, Thomas Whinnery, alerted the Dublin Castle authorities of her correspondence with

, already under watch as the sister and confidante of

William Drennan William Drennan (23 May 1754 – 5 February 1820) was an Irish physician and writer who moved the formation in Belfast and Dublin of the Society of United Irishmen. He was the author of the Society's original "test" which, in the cause of ...

. Whinnery described Greg as "very active" in Belfast and "at the head of the Female Societies" in the town. Greg may have been the author of a letter appearing in the United Irish paper in Belfast, the ''Northern Star'' in October 1796. which opens:

I am directed by the Society of United Irishwomen to which I am Secretary, by your favour, to notice a publication which we have read in
The News Letter The ''News Letter'' is one of Northern Ireland's main daily newspapers, published from Monday to Saturday. It is the world's oldest English-language general daily newspaper still in publication, having first been printed in 1737. The newspape ...
... signed A Lover of Truth. It is evidently from its levity, designed for our sex, but we wish to shew, that women as we are, we are not to be taken by anything so light.

The author proceeds to turn back the charges levelled by the “Lover of Truth" of political violence against both the American and French revolutions. Blame lay rather with the English who waged war upon the new republics. There appears to be no other record of a Society of United Irishwomen in Belfast, but it is possible that it was related to the so-called "teapot clubs" that Samuel McSkimmin, an early chronicler of the United Irish movement, recorded as being formed across

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label=Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...

for the purposes of picking up intelligence and collecting funds. In 1797 Jane's brother, Cunningham Greg, was suspected of contributing significant amounts of cash for the support of United Irish prisoners in Dublin. In November of that year, Lord Lieutenant

Camden Camden may refer to: People * Camden (surname), a surname of English origin * Camden Joy (born 1964), American writer * Camden Toy (born 1957), American actor Places Australia * Camden, New South Wales * Camden, Rosehill, a heritage res ...

informed the British

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...

, the

Duke of Portland Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are rank ...

that Jane Greg and her brother had been giving food and assistance to some members of the Monaghan militia imprisoned in Belfast, who had been condemned to death for joining the United Irishmen. Her brother's house was attacked by loyalist members of the militia, an action that appears to have been condoned by Dublin Castle. This may have led her to leave Belfast and seek shelter with her brother Samuel in Manchester. Greg was reported to have been stopped and searched for United Irish propaganda upon her arrival in England. Not found on her person were letters that might have revealed the political sympathies of Lady Londonderry, Frances Stewart, sister to the

Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (), or more formally Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland, was the title of the chief governor of Ireland from the Williamite Wars of 1690 until the Partition of Ireland in 1922. This spanned the King ...

, Earl Camden, and step mother of the Irish Chief Secretary,

Viscount Castlereagh A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judicial ...

, who gave his sister refuge in Manchester, was anxious lest her friendship with Lady Londonderry "and her letters" bring suspicion upon him, as "the only Irish gentleman in the town". Reflecting on the precariousness of her own position, Lady Londonderry had written to her friend "not to be surprised" if she hears that "a certain republican countess" has been denounced. In 1800, after the crushing of the

1798 Rebellion The Irish Rebellion of 1798 ( ga, Éirí Amach 1798; Ulster-Scots: ''The Hurries'') was a major uprising against British rule in Ireland. The main organising force was the Society of United Irishmen, a republican revolutionary group influenced b ...

Greg returned to Belfast with the children of Roger O'Connor who had been visiting their father, then imprisoned at

Fort George, Scotland Fort George is a large 18th-century fortress near Ardersier, to the north-east of Inverness in the Highland council area of Scotland. It was built to control the Scottish Highlands in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising of 1745, replacing a '' ...

. She was in the company of George Smith, a radical London barrister, who had defended both the O'Connor brothers in their trials for sedition. Martha McTier thought this was an imprudent decision on Greg's part: "It was curious and rather unlucky, that after all which passed and the far more which has been said, poor JG should make her first entrance here with an O'Connor party".

Death

Greg did not remain in Belfast. She lived once more with her brother Samuel and his wife Hannah Greg at

Quarry Bank Mill Quarry Bank Mill (also known as Styal Mill) in Styal, Cheshire, England, is one of the best preserved textile factories of the Industrial Revolution. Built in 1784, the cotton mill is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a d ...

in Cheshire. Drennan wrote from England in September 1817 to inform his sister of her death, recalling a "smart, volatile, vain and versatile woman".William Drennan to Martha McTier September 1817, in Jean Agnew (ed. ), ''Drennan-Mc Tier Letters'', vol. 2, p. 705

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Greg, Jane Irish republicans 18th-century Irish women 18th-century Irish people People from Belfast 1749 births 1817 deaths