| Administrative History | David Gregory (1625 - 1720) was the second son of John Gregory (1598 - 1652), minister of Drumoak in Aberdeenshire, and his wife Janet Anderson. He inherited the estate of Kinnairdy in 1664: the Gregorys inherited the Kinnairdy estates after the Crighton family got into debt, and Alexander (1623 - 1664), brother of David Gregory (1625 - 1720), was murdered by their family in 1664. Their younger brother, James Gregory (1638 - 1675), is often credited with the discovery of calculus and was a contemporary and rival of Sir Isaac Newton (1642 - 1727).
David Gregory's early working life was spent trading in Aberdeen and the Netherlands. However, in 1655 he settled in Aberdeen and from this time devoted himself to literary and scientific studies. He held the post of librarian at Marischal College from 1663 to 1669 and became a local doctor. He was entirely self-taught and provided his services free of charge to wealthy and poor alike.
David married twice and is reputed to have had 29 children, three of whom, David (1659 - 1708), James (1666 - 1742), and Charles (1681 - 1754), were educated at Marischal College in Aberdeen, and went on to hold distinguished academic careers at the Universities of Edinburgh, St Andrews and Oxford. Their issue, in turn, included several notable individuals: David's (1659 - 1708) son, David Gregory (1696 - 1767), became Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford from 1723 to 1736, and Charles's (1681 - 1754) son, also David Gregory (1712 - 1765), succeeded his father to the Chair of Mathematics at St Andrews from 1739 to 1763.
Two of his daughters are also of note: Margaret Gregory, wife of Lewis Reid, minister of Strachan, was the mother of philosopher and Enlightenment scholar, Thomas Reid (1710 - 1796). Isabel Gregory, wife of Patrick Innes, was the grandmother of Alexander Innes (1716 - 1742), professor of philosophy at Marischal College from 1739 to 1742. |