| Administrative History | John Gregory (1724 - 1773) was the youngest son of James Gregory (1674 - 1733) and his second wife, Anna Chalmers (d. 1770). He succeeded his half-brother, James Gregory (1707 - 1755), to the post of professor of medicine at King's College in Aberdeen from 1755 to 1766, held the prestigious chair of the practice of physic at the University of Edinburgh from 1766 to 1773, and was appointed First Physician in Scotland to George III in 1766. He developed the idea of ethics in science and medicine and for this reason is considered amongst one of the most influential medical figures of the eighteenth century.
He was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and King's College, Aberdeen, and in 1742 moved with his mother to Edinburgh where he studied medicine under Alexander Monro primus, Andrew Sinclair, and John Rutherford. He went to Leiden in 1746 where he continued his medical studies under Gaubius, Albinus and others. He received his M.D. from King's College in Aberdeen in 1746 and returned to Aberdeen that year, where he set up in medical practice and took up the appointment of Regent (or professor) of Philosophy at King's College. He resigned his Regent-ship in 1749 to concentrate on his medical practice but moved to London in 1754 where he took up with old friends, John Wilkes and Charles Townshend, and became acquainted with George Lyttelton, Edward Montagu and his wife, Elizabeth. A year later, he returned to Aberdeen to take up the appointment of professor of medicine at King's College.
He married Elizabeth Forbes (c.1728 - 1761) in 1752 and with her, had three sons, including physician James Gregory (1753 - 1821), and three daughters, including Dorothea Gregory (c1754 - 1830). He was deeply affected by Elizabeth's death and in 1764 moved his family to Edinburgh where his medical practice grew. In 1766 he was contentiously appointed to the chair of the practice of physic at the University of Edinburgh and later that year appointed First Physician in Scotland to George III. He held the chair until his death, when he was succeeded by William Cullen, the chief contender to his 1766 appointment. Cullen's promotion left a vacancy for the chair of the institutes of medicine at the University of Edinburgh which was filled in 1776 by Gregory's son, James Gregory M.D. (1753 - 1821).
John Gregory's eldest daughter, Dorothea, a companion and favourite of Elizabeth Montagu, famously rejected Montagu's nephew as a suitor, in favour of her brother's friend Reverend Archibald Alison (1757 - 1839), writer on aesthetics. In doing so, she gave up the prospect of a large inheritance and created a serious rift in their friendship. |
| Description | Freedom of the City of Old Aberdeen, 18 April 1743;
M.D. diploma awarded to John Gregory by Kings College, Aberdeen, 11 March 1746;
Assignation of bond to Dr James Gregory, 7 June 1753;
Letter from Professor Thomas Gordon regarding the vacant Chair of Medicine in Kings College, Aberdeen, 17 October 1755;
Instrument of admission to the professorship of medicine in Kings College, Aberdeen, 5 December 1755;
Letter to a Miss Gregory of St Andrews regarding an ailment to her leg, 15 January 1766;
Freedom of the City of Edinburgh, 12 February 1766;
Commission by the Magistrates and Council of the City of Edinburgh, 5 March 1766;
Commission under the privy seal of Scotland appointing John Gregory to be the first physician of Scotland to His Majesty George III, 12 May 1766;
Grant of arms to John Gregory, 10 September 1766;
Portrait of John Gregory, 1781;
Book list, undated;
Character of Dr John Gregory, post 1773;
Obituary of Dr John Gregory, June 1806;
'Formulae Remediorum', 18th century;
Mathematical and arithmetical notes, 1738 - 1739;
Cardinal Michele Angelo Ricci: 'Exercitatio Geometrica de Maximis et Minimis', c 1741;
'Reflexions on the Principles of Agriculture', 18th century;
Draft of 'Elements of the Practice of Physic', 1772;
Medical notes, 1743. |