Editing Samuel Greg (section)

==Marriage to Hannah Lightbody==
[[File:Hannah-lightbody-mrs-samuel-greg-by-school-of-richard-cosway.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Hannah Greg (née Lightbody)]]
In 1789 Greg married [[Hannah Greg|Hannah Lightbody]] (1766–1828), the daughter of a wealthy [[Liverpool]] merchant. At [[Cross Street Chapel]], Hannah introduced Samuel (raised [[Presbyterian]]) to [[Unitarianism]], a [[latitudinarianism|latitudinarian]] faith indulgent of "rational dissent". The new church was also his introduction to an influential network of Manchester and Liverpool trading and banking families.{{sfn|Bourne|2007|p=5}} Greg was active as a member of the [[Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society]].

Hannah had completed her education at a Unitarian academy at [[Stoke Newington]] outside London, where she lived with her cousin [[Thomas Rogers (MP)|Thomas Rogers]], a close friend and an immediate neighbour to [[Richard Price]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Sekers|first=David|title=A Lady of Cotton: Hannah Greg, Mistress of Quarry Bank Mill|publisher=History Press|location=Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK|year=2013|pages=280|isbn=978-0-7524-9008-3|url=http://www.thehistorypress.co.uk}},</ref> Richard Price was the "non-conforming minister of eminence" that [[Edmund Burke]] pilloried in his ''[[Reflections on the Revolution in France]]'' (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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Burke |first1=Edmund |title=Reflections on the Revolution in France |date=1790 |pages=9–10 |url=https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/burke/revfrance.pdf |access-date=4 November 2020}}</ref> It was in this same circle that Samuel's older sister [[Jane Greg]] moved, associating with [[John Horne Tooke]] of the [[London Corresponding Society]] (arrested, but acquitted, in 1794 of high treason) and Irish radical [[Roger O'Connor]].  Although the extent of her activities are unclear, in suppressing the [[Society of United Irishmen]] in advance of their [[Irish rebellion of 1798]], British commander [[Gerard Lake, 1st Viscount Lake|Gerard Lake]] described Jane Greg as "the most violent creature possible" and as someone who had caused "very great [political] mischief" in her native [[Belfast]].<ref>PRONI, Pelham Manuscripts T755/5, Lake to Pelham, 9 June 1797</ref>

Hannah's religious and social views are credited with influencing Samuel's approach to the workers' welfare. A former director of the Quarry Bank Mill, and author of a book about Hannah Greg, provided this summary of her philosophy and work.<ref name="greatbritishlife.co.uk">[https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/homes-and-gardens/places-to-live/the-true-story-behind-quarry-bank-mill-the-inspiration-for-7114400 The true story behind Quarry Bank Mill the inspiration for the Channel 4 drama]</ref> <blockquote>She was liberal and compassionate by nature, and all her friends were active campaigners to stop the slave trade and to move forward the emancipation of the slaves in the West Indies and America ... In reality, Hannah Greg did not say anything publicly about this because, apart from anything else, Samuel Greg inherited [[slave plantation]]s. She couldn’t be a public hypocrite so she kept quiet.</blockquote>