Scholars of Woodstock School,’ a volume of English and Latin verses composed by Gregory and his pupils. Shortly afterwards he became head-master of a newly founded school at Witney, Oxfordshire, and 22 Sept. 1661 he was incorporated D.D. of Oxford University from St. Mary Hall. He was appointed a chaplain to the king, and in 1671 was presented by Earl Rivers to the living of Hambleden, Buckinghamshire. He. kept this post till his death in 1707. He was buried in the church, where a tablet was erected to his memory.
Gregory published:
- ‘Έτυμολογικòν μικρòν, sive Etymologicum parvum ex magno illo Sylburgii, Eustathio Martinio, aliisque magni nominis auctoribus excerptum,’ 1654, practically a Greek-Latin lexicon.
- ‘Instructions concerning the Art of Oratory, for the Use of Schools,’ 1659.
- ‘Όνομαστικὸν βραχύ, sive Nomenclatura brevis Anglo-Latino-Græca,’ 1675, a classified vocabulary, which reached a thirteenth edition in 1695. Each of these works was published for use at Westminster School.
- ‘The Triall of Religions, with cautions against Defection to the Roman,’ 1674.
- ‘The Grand Presumption of the Romish Church in equalling their own traditions to the written word of God,’ 1675, dedicated to his friend Thomas Barlow, bishop of Lincoln.
- ‘The Doctrine of the Glorious Trinity not explained but asserted by several Texts,’ 1695.
- ‘A modest Plea for the due Regulation of the Press.’
He also printed several sermons, including ‘Tears and Blood, or a Discourse of the Persecution of Ministers … set forth in two Sermons,’ Oxford, 1660; ‘The Gregorian Account, or Spiritual Watch,’ 1673, preached at St. Michael's, Cornhill; and ‘The Religious Villain,’ 1679, preached before the lord mayor at St. Mary-le-Bow Church, was printed because the preacher was ‘rather seen than heard by reason of the inarticulate noise of many through catarrhs and coughs drowning the voice of one.’
[Welch's Alumni Westmon. pp. 117, 303; Lipscombe's Buckinghamshire, iii. 573; Lysons's Buckinghamshire, p. 569; Wood's Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 258-9; Cole's MSS. vol. xlv. f. 265; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
GREGORY, GEORGE, D.D. (1754–1808), divine and man of letters, son of an Irish clergyman, was educated at Liverpool for the counting-house. For several years he was clerk to Alderman C. Gore, merchant of Liverpool, but took more interest in literature and the drama than in his employment, and was director of a small private theatre, for which he wrote several farces and plays. Resolving to give up business, he studied at the university of Edinburgh, and was ordained in the established church. He was admitted to the degree of D.D. in 1792. Gregory settled in London in 1782, and became evening preacher at the Foundling Hospital. In 1802 he was presented to the living of West Ham, Essex, a preferment said to have been given him by Addington for his support of the administration. He became prebendary of St. Paul's in 1806, and at the time of his death was also chaplain to the Bishop of Llandaff. Gregory was a hard-working parish priest, and an energetic member of the Royal Humane Society. He died on 12 March 1808.
Gregory was for the most part self-educated, and acquired a very creditable amount of erudition. His first work was a volume of ‘Essays Historical and Moral’ (1st ed. published anonymously 1783, 2nd 1788). In 1787 he published a volume of sermons to which are prefixed ‘Thoughts on the Composition and Delivery of a Sermon’(2nd edition, 1789). He was also the author of a ‘Translation of Bishop Lowth's Lectures on the Poetry of the Hebrews’ (2 vols. 8vo, 1st ed. 1787, last 1847); ‘The Life of T. Chatterton’ (1789, a reprint from Kippis's ‘Biog. Brit.,’ iv. 573-619); ‘An History of the Christian Church’ (1790, 2nd ed. 1795); a revised edition of Dr. Hawkesworth's translation of Fénelon's ‘Télémaque’ (1795); ‘The Economy of Nature Explained and Illustrated on the Principles of Modern Philosophy’ (1796, 2nd ed. 1798, 3rd 1804); ‘The Elements of a Polite Education, carefully selected from the Letters of Lord Chesterfield’ (1800, new ed. 1807); ‘Letters on Literature, Taste, and Composition’ (1808); and ‘A Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences’ (1808). On the death of Dr. Kippis in 1795 Gregory was appointed edit or of the ‘Biographia Britannica,’ but he made little progress with the work, and the sixth volume, to which he had contributed a preface, was burnt in the warehouse of Nichols & Son on 8 Feb. 1808. He was also for some years editor of the ‘New Annual Register,’ a publication started by Kippis in opposition to the ‘Annual Register’ in 1780, probably as successor to Kippis. Gregory changed its politics from whig to tory during the premiership of Addington.
[Gent. Mag. 1808, lxxviii. pt. i. pp. 277. 386; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
GREGORY, GEORGE (1790–1853), physician, grandson of John Gregory (1724-1773) [q.v.]. and second son of the Rev. William Gregory, one of the six preachers of Canterbury Cathedral, was born at Canterbury on
