William Greville , 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 tocius Anglie, "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 who was described by Froissart as la fleur de toutte chevalerie dou monde 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.
Origins
He was the son of William I Grevel of Chipping Campden, the son and heir of John Grevel 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 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, one of the Twelve Knights of Glamorgan.
Secondly to Joan Thornbury, sister and heiress of Sir Philip Thornbury, of Little Munden and Bygrave, Hertfordshire, thrice MP for Hertfordshire. Without surviving progeny. She survived him and re-married to Sir Edward Benstede, of Bennington, Hertfordshire, 5 times MP for Hertfordshire.
Landholdings
Greville invested much of his trading profits into land and buildings. His fine town house in Chipping Campden, situated nearly opposite the Woolstaplers' Hall, survives as one of the oldest buildings in that town. He purchased more that 14 houses in the town, as well as several nearby manors including:
Lasborough;
Meon;
Milcote, Warwickshire. In 1398 he purchased from Sir Walter Beauchamp the manor of Milcote in Warwickshire and settled it on himself and his second wife Joan Thornbury in tail-male with successive remainders to his sons by his first wife, John, Lewis and William. Here his descendant Ludovic Greville in 1567 obtained royal licence to crenellate his grand new mansion house called "Mount Greville".
Charlton Kings, Gloucestershire, which he purchased in 1386/7 from Sir John de Ros, son of James de Ros of Gednay, Lincolnshire.
Death and burial
He signed his will on 2 April 1401 and desired to be buried in the "Church of the Blessed Mary of Campden" and bequeathed 100 marks to "the new work to be carried on there". He founded a chantry there and ordered that four chaplains should sing mass daily for ten years for his soul and for those of his ancestors.
Monumental brass
His very large ledger stone with monumental brasses survives in Campden Church, in a position of great prominence, on the floor of the chancel in front of the communion rails. The brasses represent Greville and his wife, under a double canopy crocketed and cusped, both with hands folded in prayer, the wife being on her husband's left hand. His own figure measures 5ft 4" * 1ft 4".
Description of male effigy
: The hair of William Grevel is short and removed from the temples like that of the reeve described by Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales. At this period the young men were clean shaven, their elders wore a moustache and beard. Chaucer describes "A marchant was there with a forked beard", and this fashion was duly followed by William Grevel. He wears a tight-fitting tunic reaching to the ankles; from the waist it is fastened by buttons, of which three are visible above the girdle and eleven beneath it. The sleeves of this tunic are close-fitting, and from beneath them emerge the tighter sleeves of an under-dress with seven buttons showing on each wrist. The tunic is confined at the waist by a girdle made of leather profusely adorned, and passing through an oval buckle, the end is passed under the girdle hanging down in front, and terminated by a metal pendant, on which is engraved a rosette. On his left side is the anelace, or basilard, which is suspended from the girdle by a thong. The anelace is broad in the blade, sharpened on both sides and tapered from hilt to point. The scabbard is ornamented with little pateras at the top and middle. Over all is a mantle, fastened by three large buttons on the right shoulder, and, gathered over the left arm, hangs gracefully. Round his neck he wears a hood of which the buttons are not shown. The shoes are pointed and fastened across the instep by a plain buckle. The background of the feet is plain.
Description of female effigy
: Marion Grevel wears the nebulée head dress, which consists of three rolls of frills worn only on the top of the head and shoulders. Round her neck is a frill. The kirtle and cote-hardie are buttoned from the neck to the feet, and more than four score buttons are shown. The author of the Romance of Sir Degrevant, in describing the dress of an earl's daughter, says: "to tell her botennes was toore". She wears neither mantle nor girdle, and closely buttoned mittens are seen on her wrists. The ends of the shoes are visible.
Heraldry
In each pediment is Greville's merchant's mark, being a cross standing on a globe, and two streamers attached to the shaft. On either side of the ledger stone and from the middle rise pinnacles. Between the finials and pinnacles are four heraldic shields, all displaying the arms of Greville: Sable, on a cross engrailed or five pellets a bordure engrailed of the second a mullet of the second in the dexter quarter for difference. These arms are today borne by the Greville Earls of Warwick, but undifferenced by a mullet. It is very unusual to find both a merchant's mark and a coat of arms on the same monument, as the social classes of merchant and gentry were distinct. The two outer pinnacles are continued down till their bases from the extremity of the diapered band at the bottom upon which the figures stand. The centre pinnacle has a foliated capital and is continued till its base rests on the diapered band.
Inscription
The edge of the ledger stone is inscribed in Latin as follows:
Descendants
His descendant was Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke of Beauchamp's Court, Warwickshire, 5th Baron Willoughby de Broke and de jure 13th Baron Latimer, the famous Elizabethan poet and dramatist, who obtained a grant of Warwick Castle and its dependencies and was the ancestor of the Greville Earls of Warwick, which title is extant today.
