William Greenwell, (23 March 1820 – 27 January 1918) was an English archaeologist and Church of England priest.

Early life

William Greenwell was born 23 March 1820 at the estate known as Greenwell Ford near Lanchester, County Durham, England. He was the eldest son of William Thomas Greenwell (1777–1856) and Dorothy Smales. He had three brothers Francis, Alan (vicar of Haydock), and Henry, and a sister Dorothy (1821–1882) who published poetry under the name Dora Greenwell.

After an early education by Rev George Newby, he attended Witton-le-Wear Preparatory School, then Durham School where one of his schoolmates was Henry Baker Tristram. He started training to be a barrister at Middle Temple, but owing to ill health decided to leave London and return to University College in 1841, completing a licentiate in Theology in 1842. Greenwell was ordained a deacon by Bishop Edward Maltby 30 June 1844 and priest 28 June 1846. He was bursar of University College in Durham from 1844 to 1847. In 1868, Greenwell excavated 76 inhumation burials from the Anglian cemetery at Uncleby. Greenwell undertook a large-scale excavation of 53 barrows at Danes Graves with John Robert Mortimer between 1897–98.

One of his students was Augustus Pitt Rivers, who received his first instruction in excavation from Greenwell at a site in the Yorkshire Wolds. Greenwell's view of archaeology as a serious scholarly process of assembling evidence on periods which lacked written records, contrasted to what he called the "ignorant and greedy spirit of mere curiosity-hunting", would influence Pitt Rivers' own approach. This was thanks to the generosity of J. P. Morgan, who bought them for £10,000. In 1895, he sold his collections of flint implements to Dr W. Allan Sturge, formerly of Nice.

With the money made from selling his collections he was able to repurchase his ancestral home, Greenwell Ford, which he left to his nephew, judge Sir Francis John Greenwell. He was also chaplain and censor at Bishop Cosin's Hall from 1855-1863. He died, unmarried, at North Bailey, Durham, on 27 January 1918, and was buried at Lanchester.

Personal

Known in Durham as 'The Canon', he had a reputation for being bluff and plain-spoken.

In 2022, Kit Cawthorn, at Durham University, founded The William Greenwell Fly Fishing Society, named after The Canon. It is a "thriving, inclusive society".

Works

  • With a translation, an appendix of original documents, and a glossary.