Gardiner Greene

Gardiner Greene (1753–1832) was a cotton planter and merchant from Boston, Massachusetts who conducted business from his plantation, Greenfield, in Demerara (Guyana) in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Socially prominent in the town of Boston, he owned a house, greenhouse, and garden filled with fruit trees and peacocks on Cotton Hill, opposite Scollay Square. He was also the son-in-law of painter John Singleton Copley.

Greene was born in Boston, September 23, 1753, to Benjamin Greene and Mary Chandler. He first travelled to Demerara in 1774. "He resided in Demarara for many years, and laid the foundation of a large fortune" shipping cotton, coffee, rum, and the like. Associates there included William Parkinson, a plantation owner in Mahaica.

Around 1804 in Boston Greene and business associates William Tudor, Harrison Gray Otis and Jonathan Mason undertook the development of the South Boston Bridge, completed in 1805.

Greene served as an official of the United States Bank and the Provident Institution for Savings. He was a proprietor of the Boston Athenaeum, a member of the Boston Episcopal Charitable Society, and a supporter of the Boston Asylum for Indigent Boys. In Boston, Greene's acquaintances included Kirk Boott (1755–1817) of Bowdoin Square.

In 1803 Greene bought land in Boston on Pemberton Hill (i.e. Cotton Hill), from Tremont Street (opposite Court Street) to Somerset Street, including the former house of William Vassall (built c. 1758). The Greene family lived there for several decades, until c. 1835. The estate was known for its sweeping harbor views and lush "hillside garden." An acquaintance of the family, Marshall Pinckney Wilder, described the grounds:

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