William Greville

William Greville (died 1 October 1401) (alias Grevel, Graville, Grevill, etc.), of Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire and a Citizen of the City of London, was a prominent wool-merchant and is the ancestor of the present Greville Earls of Warwick. The Latin inscription on his ledger stone in Chipping Campden Church, which he rebuilt at his own expense, describes him as flos mercatorum lanar(iorum) tocius (totius) Angli(a)e, "the flower of the wool-merchants of all England". This language is reminiscent of that used to describe certain prominent knights such as Edward, the Black Prince (d.1376) who was described by Froissart (d. circa 1405) as la fleur de toutte chevalerie dou monde ("the flower of all chivalry of the world") and was likely intended to suggest a degree of equivalence between mercantile and martial activities". He was amongst the richest and most influential wool merchants of his era and was the leading purchaser of wool from the Cotswold Hills.

He was the son of William I Grevel (d.post 1397) of Chipping Campden, the son and heir of John Grevel (d.pre-1359) by his wife a certain Margaret. The Greville family is believed to be of Norman or Flemish origin and had settled in Chipping Campden by 1276.Leland (d.1552) stated: "Sum hold opinion that the Grevilles cam originally in at the Conquest", but although the name appears Norman in style, surviving records do not mention the family before the 13th century. The name is similar to that of Grenville of Bideford in Devon and of Stowe, Kilkhampton in Cornwall, later Earls of Bath, which is known to have had common ancestry with the Norman nobleman Richard de Grenville (died after 1142), one of the Twelve Knights of Glamorgan.

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