GREGORY, David, the son of the reverend John Gregory, minister of Drumoak, in the county of Aberdeen.
Gregory. He was born about the year 1628, educated by his father for business, and bound apprentice to a mercantile house in Holland. But as his love of letters exceeded his desire for money, he relinquished commerce in the year 1655, and on the death of an elder brother he succeeded to the estate of Kinnairdie, about 40 miles from Aberdeen, where he resided many years, and had no fewer than 32 children borne to him by two wives. Three of his sons became eminent for their extensive literature, and were at one time professors of mathematics in the universities of Oxford, Edinburgh, and St Andrews.
The neighbouring gentlemen made a jest of Mr Gregory for his ignorance of what was doing on his own farm, but esteemed him highly as a man of letters. Having studied physic merely for amusement, he practised gratis among the poor; and his knowledge of it being so extensive, he was employed by the nobility and gentry in the neighbourhood, but he would take no fees. Having much business during the day, he went very early to bed, rose to his studies about two or three in the morning, and then slept an hour or two before breakfast.
In the country where he dwelt he was the first person who had a barometer, to the changes in which, according to the changes in the weather, he paid great attention, and was once in great danger of being tried by the presbytery for witchcraft or conjuration. He was waited upon by a deputation of ministers, who inquired into the truth of certain reports which had come to their ears, whom he so far satisfied as to induce them to waive a prosecution against a man who, by the extensive knowledge of medicine which he possessed, was a public blessing to the country.
About the beginning of last century he removed to Aberdeen, and during Queen Anne's war he turned his attention to the improvement of artillery, to make great guns more destructive, and executed a model of his intended engine. We are informed by Dr Reid, that he knew a clock-maker who had been employed in making this model; but as he made so many different pieces without knowing their design, or the method of uniting them, he could give no consistent account of the whole. Mr Gregory being satisfied with his invention by various experiments, he desired his son to show it to Sir Isaac Newton, concealing the name of the inventor; but Sir Isaac was much displeased with it, and declared that the inventor was more entitled to punishment than reward, as it was solely calculated for destruction, and might come to be known to the enemy. That great man urged the necessity of destroying it, and it is probable that Mr Gregory's son, the Savilian professor, followed his advice, for the model was never found.
When the rebellion broke out in 1715, the old gentleman went a second time to Holland, and returned when it was over to Aberdeen, where he died about 1720, in the 93d year of his age, leaving behind him a history of his own times, which was never published.