John Greaves (c.1708-1779) was a Sheffield merchant.  His business appeared in the first Sheffield directory in 1774, when it was listed as John Greaves & Son, factors, Fargate.  Reminiscences of Old Sheffield (edited by R. E. Leader, 1876) featured Greaves, but shed no light on his business.  Greaves apparently lived in a dingy house and was noted for introducing the umbrella into the town in about 1742.  He died on 6 March 1779.  His son, John Greaves (c.1744-1828), succeeded him and in 1787 was listed as a merchant.   When John Greaves, ‘gentleman’ of Eyre Street, died on 7 April 1828, aged 84, he was described as a ‘most respectable merchant’, who had been a Church Burgess and Town Trustee.  His obituary added that he was ‘the last survivor of a highly esteemed and respectable family’ (Sheffield Independent, 12 April 1828).  His burial was at St Peter & St Paul.  Inside the church (now the Cathedral) is a tablet and medallion portrait of Greaves by local sculptor Edward Law.