(Born 1724, died 1787)
John Greenhow's tombstone in Bruton churchyard notes
that Greenhow was born November 12, 1724, and died August 29, 1787. Raised in
Westmoreland County, England, he may be the same John Greenhow whose bankruptcy
in nearby Lancaster, England, was announced in a 1752 issue of the Universal
Magazine.
Greenhow's name first appeared in Virginia records
about that time. By the 1760s newspaper advertisements show that his house and
store were located on Duke of Gloucester Street across from James Geddy's
property.
John Greenhow was an enterprising and far-ranging
merchant. His eight-ton, three-man schooner, the Robert, regularly plied
between the James River and Philadelphia carrying peas, pork, lard, and butter
northward. The return journey brought earthenware, flour, bread, bar iron,
chocolate, coffee, iron skillets, saddletrees, soap, and furniture such as
chairs, tables, and chests of drawers. Greenhow operated a second store in
Richmond.
Advertisements that listed the variety of imported
goods stocked by John Greenhow appeared regularly in the Virginia Gazette,
most especially before sessions of the General Court and the Court of Oyer and
Terminer, which brought large numbers of people to town. Greenhow's stated
policy of selling for "ready money only" was probably intended just
for nonresidents. Had his account books survived, they undoubtedly would show
that he occasionally sold goods to townspeople on credit.