John Gregory^[1]

1724 - 1773  (48 years)

• Name	John Gregory
  Birth	3 Jun 1724	Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
  Gender	Male
  _AMTID	132543252793:1030:194851487
  _UID	51363CCA15F12BBBE0FEA1C9D61EBE20934F
  Death	9 Feb 1773	Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland
  	Cause: Y
  Person ID	I145856	World of Hyde
  Last Modified	2 May 2021

  
  

  Family	Mary Forbes,   b. 6 Oct 1725, Aberdeen, Scotland d. 9 Nov 1734, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland (Age 9 years)
  Children	1. James Gregory,   b. Jan 1753, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland d. 2 Apr 1821, Saint Andrew Square, Edinburgh, Scotland (Age ~ 68 years)   2. Dorothea Gregory,   b. Abt 1760, Of, Aberdeen, Scotland d. 1830 (Age ~ 70 years)   3. John Gregory,   b. 1766, Aberdeenshire d. Yes, date unknown
  Family ID	F49427	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	21 Feb 2024

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - 3 Jun 1724 - Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland Death - Cause: Y - 9 Feb 1773 - Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Notes

  GREGORY, JOHN, M.D., an eminent medical and moral writer, and one of the most distinguished members of his illustrious family, which has furnished such a number of gifted professors to the British universities, was born at Aberdeen, June 3, 1724. He was the youngest of three children of James Gregory, professor of medicine in King’s college, Old Aberdeen, and the grandson of the celebrated inventor of the reflecting telescope. He received his academical education at King’s college, and in 1742 he removed with his mother to Edinburgh, where he studied medicine for three years under Professors Monro, Sinclair, and Rutherford. In 1745 he went to the university of Leyden, and during his residence there he received from King’s college, Old Aberdeen, the degree of M.D. In 1747 he returned home, and was elected professor of philosophy in that university, where he lectured on mathematics, and moral and natural philosophy; and in 1749 resigned his chair from a desire to devote himself to the practice of medicine. In 1752 he married the daughter of Lord Forbes. In 1754 he repaired to London to practise, where he became acquainted with Lord Lyttleton, Lady Mary Wortley Montague, and other eminent persons, and was chosen a fellow of the Royal Society. In 1755, on the death of his brother, Dr. James Gregory, he was elected his successor in the chair of medicine at Old Aberdeen, when he returned to his native city, and entered on the duties of his professorship in 1756. His first publication, entitled ‘A Comparative View of the State and Faculties of Man with those of the Animal World,’ appeared in 1764, under the patronage of his friend, Lord Lyttleton. This work he had at first composed as essays for ‘The Wise Club,’ a society projected by Drs. Reid and Gregory, and consisting of the professors of both Marischal and King’s college, and other literary and scientific gentlemen of Aberdeen, who met weekly in a tavern in that city, for the purpose of hearing essays on literary and philosophical subjects read by its members. [portrait of Dr. John Gregory]       About the beginning of 1765 Dr. Gregory removed to Edinburgh, with a view to the increase of his practice; and two years afterwards he was appointed professor of the practice of physic in the university there, in the room of Dr. Rutherford, who resigned in his favour. In 1766, upon the death of Dr. Whytt, he was nominated first physician to his majesty for Scotland. In consequence of an arrangement with his colleague, Dr. Cullen, they lectured for many years alternately on the theory and practice of medicine, to the great benefit of the young men attending their classes. One of Dr. Gregory’s students having taken notes of his preliminary lectures on the practice of physic, an extended copy of which he offered to a bookseller for publication, he was induced to bring out a correct edition of these lectures himself, which he did in 1770, under the title of ‘Observations on the Duties and Office of a Physician, and on the Method of prosecuting Inquiries in Philosophy,’ the profits of which he generously gave to a poor and deserving student. The same year he published his ‘Elements of the Practice of Physic,’ intended as a syllabus to his lectures, but from want of leisure the work was never completed. Dr. Gregory, who had from the age of eighteen been subject to repeated attacks of hereditary gout, died suddenly n his bed on the night of February 9, 1773. He left in manuscript an invaluable little treatise, entitled ‘A Father’s Legacy t his Daughters,’ written after the death of his wife, who died in 1761, and designed for the private instruction of his own family. It was published soon after his death by his eldest son, James, the subject of the following notice, who succeeded Dr. Cullen as professor of the practice of physic in the university of Edinburgh. Besides Dr. James Gregory, he had another son and two daughters, namely, the Rev. William Gregory, rector of St. Mary’s, Bentham; Dorothea, the wife of the Rev. W. Allison of Baliol college, Oxford; and Margaret, wife of John Forbes, Esq. of Blackford, Aberdeenshire.

  
  

• Sources

  [S1021] Ar Teaglach, Prof. John Gregory (Reliability: 3). Added by confirming a Smart Match