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Benjamin Greene (5 April 1780 – 26 November 1860) was the founder of Greene King, one of the United Kingdom's largest
/ref> Then in 1806 he dissolved that partnership and established a new venture with William Buck at the Westgate Brewery. It was this venture that became Greene King. On the death of Sir Patrick Blake, 2nd Baronet he became the
He died at Russell Square in London in 1860 and is buried at Highgate Cemetery.
brewing
Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and #Fermenting, fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with Yeast#Beer, yeast. It may be done in a brewery ...
businesses.
Career
Born in Oundle and apprenticed at Whitbread, Benjamin Greene initially founded a brewing business in 1801 with John Clark inBury St Edmunds
Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...
.Benjamin Greene at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography/ref> Then in 1806 he dissolved that partnership and established a new venture with William Buck at the Westgate Brewery. It was this venture that became Greene King. On the death of Sir Patrick Blake, 2nd Baronet he became the
executor
An executor is someone who is responsible for executing, or following through on, an assigned task or duty. The feminine form, executrix, may sometimes be used.
Overview
An executor is a legal term referring to a person named by the maker of a ...
and, on the subsequent death of Sir Patrick's widow, the owner of some estates in the West Indies.
He was a supporter of the arts and in 1819 lent £5,000 to William Wilkins to build the Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds
Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...
.
He acquired the ''Bury and Suffolk Herald'' in 1828 and as proprietor took an ultra-conservative position opposing both the Reform Bill and the Slavery Abolition Bill. This position attracted much criticism and three libel
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
actions. He left Bury St Edmunds in 1836 and established with his son, Benjamin Greene & Son, West India merchants and shipowners, at 11 Mincing Lane, London.
He made three claims under the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 and was awarded a total of £4,033 15s 7d compensation for the 231 slaves he had owned on his estates in Montserrat and St Kitts. The Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slave-ownership at UCL describes him as an enthusiastic supporter of slavery, being particularly active between 1828 and 1833. In June 2020 Greene King announced that it would be paying reparations to BAME charities in recognition that he and by extension the company had benefited from the slave trade.
He died at Russell Square in London in 1860 and is buried at Highgate Cemetery.
Family
He was married twice: first in 1803 to Mary Maling and then in 1805 to Catherine Smith with whom he went on to have seven sons and six daughters including: * Benjamin Buck (1808 - 1902) ofMidgham
Midgham is a village and civil parish occupying slopes and the flood plain on the north side of the River Kennet. It is centred east of Newbury and east of Thatcham. The north of the parish is south of the M4 motorway. Midgham Lock is on the ...
House in Berkshire
Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...
, Governor of the Bank of England
* Mary (1812–1870)
* Edward
Edward is an English given name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”.
History
The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-Sa ...
(1815–1891), Conservative MP for Bury St Edmunds (1865-1885) and Stowmarket (1886–91); Took charge of running the brewery.
* William (1824 - 1881)
** Charles Henry (1865–1942)
*** Graham Greene
*** Sir Hugh Greene
*** Raymond Greene
References
1780 births 1860 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery West Indies merchants Businesspeople from Bury St Edmunds British slave owners 19th-century British businesspeople {{UK-business-bio-stub