John Greaves was a Clock Dresser from Bolton. In 1819 he married his wife Betty Grexson, at the Parish Church on 20th May.
Clock-dressing is one of those out-of-the-way occupations which have virtually died out, submerged under the march of progress. Throughout the Pennines, where until recent years the clock-dresser was a familiar figure. It was the work of the clock-dresser to “dress” or clean and repair and regulate these old farmhouse clocks. He was, not infrequently, a journeyman clock and watch maker with an urge to be out in the open, and he inherited, acquired, or established a connection among the farmhouses over en area wide enough to yield him subsistence. At each farm he would make two, perhaps three, calls a year. Not always did the long clock need his care, but at least he was sure of a meal, and possibly an odd job or two on the farm that would also be worth a trifle to him.