William Gretton (1736–1813), was the master of

Magdalene College, Cambridge Magdalene College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary ...

. Gretton was the son of John Gretton of

Bond Street Bond Street in the West End of London links Piccadilly in the south to Oxford Street in the north. Since the 18th century the street has housed many prestigious and upmarket fashion retailers. The southern section is Old Bond Street and the l ...

, London, born in 1736, and educated at St. Paul's School and

Peterhouse, Cambridge Peterhouse is the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Today, Peterhouse has 254 undergraduates, 116 full-time graduate students and 54 fellows. It is quite ...

, where he graduated B.A. in 1758 and proceeded M.A. in 1761. Having taken holy orders, he was presented in 1766 to the vicarage of

Saffron Walden Saffron Walden is a market town in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England, north of Bishop's Stortford, south of Cambridge and north of London. It retains a rural appearance and some buildings of the medieval period. The population was 15, ...

, Essex. In 1784

Lord Howard de Walden Baron Howard de Walden is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created by writ of summons in 1597 by Queen Elizabeth I for Admiral Lord Thomas Howard, a younger son of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, by his second wife, the Honourab ...

appointed him his domestic chaplain. He was subsequently presented to the rectory of

Littlebury Littlebury is a village and civil parish in the Uttlesford district, north-west Essex, England. The village is approximately a mile and a half from the market town of Saffron Walden, south from Cambridge, the nearest city, and north-east from t ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, of which county he was in the

commission of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

, and was made

Archdeacon of Essex The Archdeacon of West Ham is a senior ecclesiastical officer – in charge of the Archdeaconry of West Ham – in the Church of England Diocese of Chelmsford. The current archdeacon is Elwin Cockett. Brief history Historically, the Archdeaconry ...

on 2 December 1795. In 1797 he was elected master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and was vice-chancellor of the university in 1800-1. He died on 29 September 1813. A later Master of Magdalene College, the novelist A. C. Benson, borrowed Gretton's name for an officious college dean in his novel ''Watersprings''.

References

1736 births 1813 deaths 18th-century English people 19th-century English people Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge Archdeacons of Essex People from Mayfair English Christian religious leaders English chaplains Masters of Magdalene College, Cambridge Vice-Chancellors of the University of Cambridge Clergy from London {{England-bio-stub