William Gresley (divine)

William Gresley (16 March 1801 – 19 November 1876) was an English divine.

Gresley was born in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, on 16 March 1801. He was the eldest son of Richard Gresley of Stowe House, Lichfield, Staffordshire. He was a descendant of the Gresleys of Drakelow Park, Burton-on-Trent, and a bencher of the Middle Temple, by his first wife, Caroline, youngest daughter of Andrew Grote, banker, of London. George Grote was his first cousin on his mother's side.

He was a king's scholar of Westminster School, and matriculated at Oxford as a student of Christ Church on 21 May 1819. In 1822 he took a second class in classics, and graduated B.A. on 8 February 1823, M.A. on 25 May 1825.

An injury to his eyesight prevented his studying for the bar, and he took holy orders in 1825. He was curate for a short time (in 1828) at Drayton-Bassett, near Tamworth, and from 1830 to 1837 was curate of St. Chad's, Lichfield. During part of the time he was also morning lecturer at St. Mary's, Lichfield. An earnest high churchman, he threw himself into the Tractarian movement of 1833, and tried to popularise its teaching.

In November 1840 Gresley became a prebendary in Lichfield Cathedral, an honorary preferment. About 1850 Gresley moved to Brighton, and acted as a volunteer assistant priest in the church of St. Paul. He preached every Sunday evening. In 1857 he accepted the perpetual curacy of All Saints, Boyne Hill, near Maidenhead, Berkshire, where a church, parsonage-house, and schools were in course of erection at the expense of three ladies living in the Oxford diocese. He settled there before either church or house was ready, and worked there with great success. His schools obtained a high reputation.

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