World of HYDE
Discovering our Ancestors and their descendants to all parts of the world. Last updated 23rd Feb 2024
James Gregory[1, 2]
1666 - 1742 (76 years)
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Name James Gregory Birth 1666 Kinairdy, Aberdeen, Scotland 
Gender Male Education Rheims Occupation Prof. of Math At Univ. of Edinburgh Minor Inventor _AMTID 132543252706:1030:194851487 _FSFTID G3FJ-9Q8 _UID 5134194D005CCFF3F936F256659C0543C949 Death 1742 Cause: Y Person ID I145768 World of Hyde Last Modified 2 May 2021
Father David Gregory, Of Kinnairdie, b. 20 Dec 1625, Kinnairdy, Aberdeen, Scotland d. 1720, Kinnairdy, Scotland (Age 94 years) Mother Jean Walker d. Oct 1671 Marriage 8 Feb 1655 Family ID F49393 Group Sheet | Family Chart
Family 1 Catherine Forbes Children 1. Dr. John Gregorie, b. Scotland d. 1774, Scotland Family ID F49394 Group Sheet | Family Chart Last Modified 21 Feb 2024
Family 2 Anna Chalmres Family ID F49395 Group Sheet | Family Chart Last Modified 21 Feb 2024
Family 3 Barbara Oliphant d. 1714 Marriage 4 Sep 1698 Children 1. James Gregorie, b. 1705, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland d. 1774 (Age 69 years)Family ID F49396 Group Sheet | Family Chart Last Modified 21 Feb 2024
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Notes Professor Of mathematics
GREGORY, JAMES, a distinguished mathematician, and, excepting Newton, the greatest philosopher of his age, was born at Drumoak, in Aberdeenshire, in 1638. He was a younger brother of Mr. David Gregory of Kinnairdie (see above). He was educated in Marischal college, Aberdeen, where he became well versed in classical learning. The works of Galileo, Des Cartes, and Kepler, were, however, his principal study, and he began early to make improvements on their discoveries in optics, the most important of which was his invention of the reflecting telescope, which still bears his name. In 1663 he published at London a description of this instrument, in a quarto work, entitled ‘Optica promota, seu abdita radiorum reflexorum ex refractorum mysteria Geometricae enucleata.’ In 1664 he visited London for the purpose of perfecting the mechanical construction of the instrument, but not being able to obtain a speculum ground and polished, of a proper figure, he abandoned the design for a time, and set out on a tour for Italy. He staid some time at Padua, the university of which was at that time famed for mathematical science; and while there he published, in 1667, a treatise on the Quadrature of the Circle and Hyperbola, which was reprinted at Venice in 1668, with an appendix on the transmutation of curves.
On his return to England, Mr. Gregory was elected a member of the Royal Society, whose Transactions he enriched with some valuable papers. His treatise on the Quadrature of the Circle involved him in a discussion with Mr. Huygens, who attacked his method in a scientific journal of that period, and Gregory replied in the Philosophical Transactions. Both controversialists, but particularly Gregory, conducted the dispute with much unnecessary warmth and asperity. In 1668 he was elected professor of mathematics in the university of St. Andrews; and in 1669 he married Mary, the daughter of George Jamesone, the celebrated painter, styled by Walpole the Scottish Vandyke. By this lady he had a son and two daughters.
In 1672 Mr. Gregory published a small satirical tract, under an assumed name, the object of which was to expose the ignorance displayed in his hydrostatical writings by Mr. George Sinclair, formerly professor of natural philosophy in Glasgow. Some objections made by Sir Isaac Newton to the construction of the telescope invented by Gregory, gave rise, in 1672, to a controversy between these two illustrious men, which was conducted for two years with praiseworthy courtesy and good faith on both sides. In 1674 Mr. Gregory was invited to fill the mathematical chair at Edinburgh, and accordingly removed thither with his family. In October 1675, after being engaged one evening in pointing out to some of his pupils the satellites of Jupiter, he was suddenly struck with total blindness, and died three days thereafter, in the 37th year of his age.
His works are:
Optica promota seu abdita radiorum reflexorum ex refractorum mysteria Geometricae enucleata, cum Appendice subtillissimorum Astronomiae problematum resolutionem exhibente. Lond. 1663, 4to.
Vera Circuli et Hyperbolae Quadratura. Patav. 1667, 4to. Et cui accedit Geometria pars universalis, inserviens quantitatum curvarum transmutationi et mensurae. Patav. 1668
Exercitationes Geometricae. Lond. 1668, 1678, 4to.
The great and new art of weighing Vanity; or a Discovery of the Ignorance and Arrogance of the great and new Artist, in his pseudo-Philosophical writings. By M. Patrick Mathers, Arch-bedel to the University of St. Andrew’s. To which are annexed, Tentamina quaedam Geometrica de motu penduli, projectorum, &c. Glas. 1672, 8vo.
Astronomiae Physicae et Geometriae Elementa. Oxon. 1702, fol.
Answer to the Animadversions of Mr. Huygens upon his Book, De Vera Circuli, &c.; as they were published in the Journal des Scavans of July 2, 1668. Phil. Trans. 1668. Abr. i. P. 268.
Extract of a Letter of Mr. James Gregory to the Publisher; containing some Observations on M. Huygens’ Letter, printed in vindication of his Examen of the Book entit. Vera Circuli et Hyperbolae Quadratura. Ib. 1669, Abr. i. P. 319.
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