Sir Roger Gresley, 8th Baronet

Sir Roger Gresley, 8th Baronet (27 December 1799 – 12 October 1837) was an English Tory politician who represented the constituency of South Derbyshire.

Gresley was the son of Sir Nigel Bowyer Gresley, 7th Baronet and his second wife Maria-Eliza Garway, daughter of Caleb Garway, of Worcester. He succeeded his father who died on 26 March 1808.

Gresley was a well known London dandy [Mary Elizabeth Braddon "The Parks of London" Belgravia, 1868] and is said to have gambled away much of his fortune, having to sell most of his assets to remain solvent. In 1827 he sold Sir Nigel Gresley's Canal which his grandfather had built in connection with his mining interests.

Gresley stood for parliament at Durham in 1830 and was elected but unseated. He was equally unsuccessful at New Romney in 1831, although he made a couple of speeches in parliament. [ [http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/members/sir-roger-gresley/1831 Hansard 1803-2005] ] Eventually he won a seat at South Derbyshire in 1835 which he held until his death in 1837.

Gresley married Lady Sophia Catherine Coventry, daughter of George William Coventry, 7th Earl of Coventry and Peggy Pitches, on 2 June 1821. The marriage was commemorated in a poem by a friend John Taylor. [John Taylor, Anacreon [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=q0cd5KnNWt0C&pg=PA274&dq=%22roger+gresley%22&ei=L_DLSL-VNoSUzAT8tO3_Ag&client=firefox-a Poems on Various Subjects] , Published by Payne and Foss, 1827] They had no surviving children and the baronetcy passed to a kinsman Sir William Gresley. His widow remarried to Sir Henry des Voeux, Baronet and vicar of Stapenhill-cum-Caldwell. She died at 39 Berkeley Square, London, in 1875 and was buried with her second husband in the churchyard at Caldwell.

Publications

*"Sir Philip Gasteneys: A minor" Henry Colburn, 1829.

References

* "Debrett's Baronetage of England" 7th Edition (1839) pp 34/5 (Google Books)
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