John Grey

John Grey (1785–1868), of Dilston, was an English land agent and agriculturist. He was the father of Josephine Butler, the feminist campaigner. Life The eldest son of George Grey of West Ord, near Berwick-on-Tweed, who died in 1793, by Mary, daughter of John Burn of Berwick, he was born at Millfield Hill, Glendale, Northumberland, in August 1785, and was educated at Richmond grammar school. While still young he met Francis Jeffrey, Thomas Chalmers, Edward Irving, and Sir Walter Scott, and entered public life when seventeen years old. The first public question that Grey took part in was the abolition of slavery. He was entrusted by Thomas Clarkson in 1823 with the task of collecting petitions in some of the towns of the Borders. He accompanied Lord Brougham in his abolitionist tour in Northumberland and Cumberland in 1826, and seconded him with speeches. He took part in the agitation for Catholic Emancipation, and in the struggle which preceded the Reform Bill of 1832. He enjoyed the confidence of Earl Grey and Lord Althorp (Lord Spencer), and spoke on the hustings at Alnwick. In 1833 Sir James Graham placed under Grey's sole management the northern estates belonging to Greenwich Hospital in Northumberland and Cumberland. Grey then ceased to take an active part in politics; but was consulted on some measures, such as the Tithe Commutation Act, the land drainage scheme, and free trade. From early years (1803) he had concentrated on agricultural improvement. He had originally farmed in north Northumberland, where, with others, he created a new system of agriculture, both in breeding cattle and cultivating the land.