Their grandfather was John Greenway, born 1720, who married Mary Tripp, a member of a family also well-known round the outskirts of Bristol. This also explains how John Tripp Greenway, one of Francis Greenway’s brothers, came to be so named.
On 28 March 1792, ‘Francis Grinway [sic] son of Francis Grinway [sic] of Downend, County of Gloucester, [was] put to William Paty, Architect, and Sarah his wife for seven years. Friends to find apparel and washing’
William Paty (1758-1800) was the son of Thomas Paty (1718-1789), a Bristol mason, statuary and architect, described by Walter Ison, as ‘perhaps the most talented member of this family’.
Thomas Paty had been called in by Bath Corporation to arbitrate in the dispute about the plan to be used for the building of the new Bath Guildhall, in 1775. His son, William, was the first Bristol architect to be trained in London at the Royal Academy architectural schools. He then worked in partnership with his brother and father in Bristol, from 1777. Like his father, he was an extremely accomplished statuary, and the effect of his London training began to show in his architectural work in the 1780s, in a highly accomplished Adamesque manner. Work by him included Blaise Castle House, Henbury, in 1795 (described as remarkably forward-looking, and possibly influenced by Humphry Repton), for John Scandrett Harford the Elder (1754-1815), a member of the wealthy Quaker family of Bristol merchants and bankers.
For Francis Greenway, Paty’s influence and training would have been invaluable; it is clear that Greenway was an apt pupil.
He must have completed his seven-year apprenticeship in 1799, the year before his master William Paty died, when the business was taken over by James Foster the Elder (1748-1823), who had also been a pupil and apprentice of William Paty.
Shortly after his marriage in 1804, Greenway went into business with his two brothers, Olive Greenway and John Tripp Greenway, offering the services advertised in the Bristol Gazette in 1805:
“All orders for marble monuments, Chimney Pieces, and every kind of ornamental stone work shall be carefully attended to, and executed in the most artist-like manner.”
In 1806 he designed the Hotel and Assembly Rooms in the Mall at Clifton, which his brothers contracted to build. During the same period the brothers were buying unfinished houses in Clifton in a speculative capacity, which they completed and then sold.
Francis Greenway, architect, married Mary Moore on 27
April 1809 in Bristol by licence, witnesses John Tripp Greenway and Mary
Greenway.
In 1809 the brothers became bankrupt and the Clifton Assembly Rooms were completed by Joseph Kay.
It appears that for the next four years, the business continued until April, 1809, when legal questions were raised regarding both the family business and some of its present and past contracts.
One month later, the word “bankruptcy”
appeared in the paper, and the Greenway’s career became jeopardized. As a result,
the Greenways’ possessions were put up for auction in order to satisfy their
creditors. The precise reasons for the legal actions and subsequent bankruptcy
have been lost in local legend and unclear newspaper reports regarding a
long-standing issue of water rights in and around Bath (where construction of
buildings for the use of visitors who wanted to take advantage of the healing
waters was common). Greenway tried to show how he had been fooled by
speculators and false promises, but his attempt proved fruitless.
Despite this setback, Francis Greenway was still working as an architect in 1810.
Problems arose regarding a contract that Greenway had made with Colonel Richard Doolan, for whom he was doing some work. Greenway swore that the colonel had authorized an additional £250 for some extra work Greenway had provided. However, the contract was lost and the colonel denied the charge. Greenway eventually produced the lost contract. In the court proceedings that followed, it was proved that Greenway had forged the contract, and Greenway was held at Newgate prison for sentencing.
Three months later, in March of 1812, Greenway found himself in the dock at the Bristol Assizes. He pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to death by hanging He still had some influential friends, and they managed to get his sentence reduced first to lifelong exile in Australia (which was then a penal colony) and later commuted to transportation to the colony for a term of fourteen years.
The ships Windham and General Hewett left England the 24th of
August, in convoy with the Wansted, Capt. Moore, who sailed from hence last
Thursday for Batavia; the General Hewett arrived at Rio the 17th of November,
and sailed again the 2nd of December. Together with the military detachments,
she received on board for this Settlement 300 male prisoners, of whom we are
sorry to report the death of 35, whose names we shall endeavour to procure an
account of, and publish in the next Gazette, for the information of their
friends and families in Great Britain.
Sydney Gazette, Sat 12 Feb 1814.
Francis Greenway arrived in Sydney New South Wales on the General Hewitt in February 1814 to serve his sentence. He was described as an "architect & painter" in the ship's convict records which also gave his description: age 34, 5ft 6¾in, fair ruddy complexion, light hair, hazel eyes.
From the convict indent (shipping list).
image below courtesy -
https://mhnsw.au/stories/general/francis-greenway/
Greenway was granted a conditional pardon on 16 December
1817, and on 24 March 1819 Governor Macquarie wrote to Lord Bathurst concerning
the Civil Architect’s salary, stating it was "…very inadequate to his
useful and important services as Architect" and further noting that
"in consequence of Mr Greenway’s Scientific Skills, Judgment and superior
taste, the Government Buildings Erected by him are not only Strong, durable and
substantial, but also Elegant and good models of Architecture."
Greenway was granted an Absolute pardon on 4 June 1819.[10]
It is noted that the Absolute (Free) Pardon was delivered (personally) by His
Excellency, Governor Macquarie
Macquarie appointed him to act as Civil Architect to the government in 1816
and he designed, among other buildings, the lighthouse at South Head, the
Female Factory at Parramatta, the Convict Barracks in Sydney, St James' Church Sydney, and churches at Windsor and Liverpool, and the Courthouse at Windsor all in New South Wales.
Some of the Bath Greenways also bore the christian name of Francis. For example, there is an indenture of 20 September 1791, when Thomas King, the statuary of Walcot, with Mr.Charles Harford, gent., as his trustee, conveyed to John Greenway intrust for Francis Greenway, mason, of Walcot [not the Australian architect, who would have been only thirteen at the time], ‘part of a pasture of 2a 22p called Upper Tyning [Walcot], being all those plots on the west side of an intended building called Mount Pleasant and all those two messuages thereon erecting at the cost of Francis Greenway’
