Editing Samuel Greg (section)

==Atlantic-trading Belfast family==
Greg was born in Belfast, [[Kingdom of Ireland|Ireland]], the second son, and one 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]], Thomas Greg 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 salted provisions, linen and butter to the West Indies and returned with flaxseed. Dealings in [[New York City|New York]] brought him into contact and partnership with [[Waddell Cunningham]], another Belfast [[Presbyterian Church in Ireland|Presbyterian]]. By 1775 Greg and Cunningham was one of the largest shipping companies in New York, having benefitted from the rise in the prices of provisions during the [[Seven Years’ War]], a licence to attack enemy and plunder enemy vessels, and the opportunity to smuggle to the embargoed French colonies. After the war, Greg and Cunningham set up a sugar plantation on [[Dominica]] called "Belfast" for which Thomas Greg's brother John, already established on the island, supplied slaves via the [[Atlantic slave trade]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historyireland.com/18th-19th-century-history/a-lying-old-scoundrel/|title=A Lying Old Scoundrel|date=12 February 2013}}</ref><ref name="Rodgers" />

At home, as Belfast's richest merchants, the partners played a leading role in improving the town's port and commercial infrastructure, including construction of the White Linen Hall which attracted the linen trade from the north of Ireland that had formerly gone through [[Dublin]].<ref name="Rodgers">{{cite journal |last1=Rodgers |first1=Nini |title=Equiano in Belfast: a study of the anti-slavery ethos in a northern town |journal=Slavery and Abolition |date=1997 |volume=xviii |pages=82–84}}</ref>

At the age of eight, Samuel Greg was sent to live with his maternal uncle, Robert Hyde, at [[Ardwick Hall]], Manchester, in the heart of England. His uncles, Robert and Nathaniel, were linen merchants and, after completing his education at [[Harrow School]], near London, Samuel joined their business in 1778.