Peter Greenall

Peter Greenall (25 April 1796 – 25 September 1845) was a British brewer and Conservative politician. Family Born in Wilderspool, Warrington, Greenall was the son of Edward Greenall and Betty née Pratt of Walton Hall, Cheshire, and brother of Sir Gilbert Greenall, 1st Baronet. In 1821, he married Eleanor Pilkington, daughter of William Pilkington and sister of Richard and William Pilkington, who were partners with their father in a local wine and spirit business. The union brought a dowry of £1,000. Business His grandfather, Thomas Greenall, in 1761, had established a brewery in South Lancashire, now known as De Vere, and this land eventually developed into the town of St Helens, Merseyside. The business was passed through the family and, in 1818, Peter was sent to take charge of the brewery and the family's possessions there. Greenall assumed responsibility for the local area, laying pipes from the brewery's ponds to supply water to those able to afford it. The first building society in the area was formed by him, and many homes were built on his land as a result, leading to his rents totalling £2,500 a year by 1830. Greenall also headed the local Odd Fellows lodge, named the Independent Order of Oddfellows Manchester Unity, when it opened in 1825, and he became its grandmaster when St Helens became a district under law. Further, he was a signatory on the share certificates of the local branch of the Gas Light and Coke Company when it formed in 1832, and took a lead in the launch of the St Helens and Runcorn Gap Railway in 1830, which provided transport down to the River Mersey, competing against the Trent and Mersey Canal, from November 1832.