William Whitwell Greenough

William Whitwell Greenough (June 25, 1818 – June 17, 1899) was an American merchant who served as president of the Boston Public Library from 1868 to 1888.

Early life Greenough was born in Boston, Massachusetts on June 25, 1818. He was the only son of prominent Boston merchant William Greenough (1792–1882) and Sarah ( Gardner) Greenough (1798–1882). His maternal grandparents were John Gardner and Elisabeth ( Greenleaf) Gardner (a daughter of Gen. William Greenleaf and Sarah Quincy, herself a daughter of Edmund Quincy and sister to Dorothy Quincy, wife of John Hancock).

Greenough was educated at the Boston Latin School and at the private school of F. P. Leverette before entering Harvard University with the freshman class in 1833. Charles Pelham Greenough (1844–1924), a lawyer who married Mary Dwight Vose, daughter of Henry Vose, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, in 1874. Malcolm Scollay Greenough (1848–1932), a member of the Boston Common Council in 1879 and alderman in 1884; he married Lizzie Tiffany, daughter of P. Dexter Tiffany, in 1872. who married Harvard professor Barrett Wendell.

In 1864 he bought the "old Greenleaf estate in Quincy" where he replaced the original house and spent most his time. His widow died a few months later at Mattapoisett in September 1899.

Legacy His son-in-law published his memoir, entitled Memoir of William Whitwell Greenough in 1901.