William Greene (17 January 1748 – 3 June 1829) was an

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the establis ...

parliamentarian and public official. He was a member of the second

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

after the ''

Act of Union 1801 The Acts of Union 1800 (sometimes incorrectly referred to as a single 'Act of Union 1801') were parallel acts of the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of Ireland which united the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Irela ...

'', representing the constituency of

Dungarvan Dungarvan () is a coastal town and harbour in County Waterford, on the south-east coast of Ireland. Prior to the merger of Waterford County Council with Waterford City Council in 2014, Dungarvan was the county town and administrative centre of ...

from 1802 to 1806. Greene was the fourth son of John Greene of Greenville

townland A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic origi ...

County Kilkenny County Kilkenny ( gle, Contae Chill Chainnigh) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the South-East Region. It is named after the city of Kilkenny. Kilkenny County Council is the local authority for the cou ...

, and his wife the former Frances Nicholson. He was commissioned as a cadet in the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

Bengal Army The Bengal Army was the army of the Bengal Presidency, one of the three presidencies of British India within the British Empire. The presidency armies, like the presidencies themselves, belonged to the East India Company (EIC) until the Govern ...

in 1769, and promoted lieutenant in 1772, captain in 1779, and major in 1785. He then returned to Ireland and invested in land in Kilkenny and

Waterford "Waterford remains the untaken city" , mapsize = 220px , pushpin_map = Ireland#Europe , pushpin_map_caption = Location within Ireland##Location within Europe , pushpin_relief = 1 , coordinates ...

. In 1789, he married Jane Massy, the daughter of

Hugh Massy, 2nd Baron Massy Hugh Massy, 2nd Baron Massy (14 April 1733 – 10 May 1790) was an Anglo-Irish politician and peer. Massy was the son of Hugh Massy, 1st Baron Massy and Mary Dawson. Massy served as High Sheriff of County Limerick in 1765. He was elected to the ...

. They had four sons and four daughters. Some of their descendants used the surname Massy Greene or Massy-Greene. With the patronage of

George Beresford, 1st Marquess of Waterford George de la Poer Beresford, 1st Marquess of Waterford, KP, PC (Ire) (8 January 1735 – 3 December 1800) was an Irish politician, known as George Beresford, 2nd Earl of Tyrone from 1763 to 1789. Beresford was the eldest son of Marcus Ber ...

, Greene followed his oldest brother

Godfrey Greene Godfrey may refer to: People * Godfrey (name), a given name and surname * Godfrey (comedian), American comedian, actor Places In the United States * Godfrey, Georgia, an unincorporated community * Godfrey, Illinois, a village * Godfrey, Kansas, a ...

into politics – he had represented

in the

Parliament of Ireland The Parliament of Ireland ( ga, Parlaimint na hÉireann) was the legislature of the Lordship of Ireland, and later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1297 until 1800. It was modelled on the Parliament of England and from 1537 comprised two chamb ...

. William held the Dungarvan seat from the 1802 general election until the dissolution of parliament in October 1806, as a Whig. He did not stand for re-election. According to an agent of

William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire, (14 December 1748 – 29 July 1811), was a British nobleman, aristocrat, and politician. He was the eldest son of William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, by his wife, the heiress Lady Charlotte Bo ...

, a political opponent, he was "extremely unpopular in the town, from his being an harsh landlord, and from his having been long in India he has contracted some very arbitrary habits". In 1823, Greene was chosen as

High Sheriff of County Kilkenny The High Sheriff of County Kilkenny was the British Crown's judicial representative in County Kilkenny, Ireland from the 16th century until 1922, when the office was abolished in the new Free State and replaced by the office of Kilkenny County S ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Greene, William 1748 births 1829 deaths UK MPs 1802–1806 High Sheriffs of County Kilkenny Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Waterford constituencies (1801–1922) British East India Company Army officers

See also

References