Bertie Greatheed

Bertie Greatheed (1759–1826) was an English dramatist, slave owner and landowner.

Life Greatheed was born on 19 October 1759, the son of the MP Samuel Greatheed of Guy's Cliffe, near Warwick, and his wife Lady Mary Bertie, daughter of Peregrine Bertie, 2nd Duke of Ancaster.

After the deaths of his parents, he inherited Guy's Cliffe Estate in Warwick, which had been bought by his father, and the Caribbean plantation on St Kitts near the capital, Basseterre, which had been established by his grandfather, John Greatheed. He also inherited land in Lincolnshire through his mother's family.

The majority of his income in his earlier life came from the St Kitts plantation, although he also had some income from his land holdings in Warwick. He invested his wealth in the development of the Georgian spa town at Leamington Priors, which later became known as Leamington Spa. He owned building plots on either side of what is now the Parade in Leamington, Bertie Greatheed supported the abolition of slavery, however he continued to own enslaved people. In 1835, his descendants, including Lord Charles Greatheed Bertie Percy, the husband of his granddaughter, received £1,223 6s 7d in compensation after the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.

Greatheed travelled extensively throughout Europe with his family, and resided in Germany, France and Italy. In 1803, they were detained in Paris as prisoners of war, alongside many other British families. The younger Bertie Greatheed was becoming recognised as an artist, and his painting of Napoleon Bonaparte impressed the Emperor's family and probably gave the Greatheed's favourable treatment. Shortly after his son's death, it was revealed he had an illegitimate daughter, Ann Caroline, with a woman in Dresden. The author later published it with a dedication to Mrs. Siddons, who had once been an attendant upon his mother, and was his frequent guest at Guy's Cliffe.