Gregory, John

, a learned divine of a different family from the preceding, wus born November 10, 1607, at Agmondesham, in Buckinghamshire. There appeared in his infancy such a strong inclination to learning, as recommended him to the notice of some persons of the best rank in the town; and, his parents being well respected for their piety and honesty, it was resolved to give him a liberal education at the university, the ex pence of which they were not able to support. To this purpose, he was chosen at the age of fifteen, by Dr. Crooke, to go with sir William Drake to Christ church, in Oxford, whom he attended in the station of a servitor, and he was soon after retained by sir Robert Crook in the same capacity; Dr. George MorJey, afterwards bishop of Winchester, was their tutor. Mr. Gregory made the best use of this favour, and applied so closely to his studies, for several years at the rate of sixteen hours each day, that he became almost a prodigy for learning. He took his first degree in arts in 1628, and commenced master in 1631; about which time, entering into orders, the dean, Dr. Brian Duppa, gave him a chaplain’s place in that cathedral. In 1634, he published a second edition of sir Thomas Ridley’s “View of the Civil and Ecclesiastical Law,” 4to, with notes; which was well received, and afforded the world eminent proofs of his extensive knowledge; the notes shewing him well versed in? historical, ecclesiastical, ritual, and oriental learning, and a considerable master of the Saxon, French, Italian, Spanish, and all the eastern languages. All these acquisitions were the pure fruit of his own industry; for he had no assistance, except for the Hebrew tongue, in which Mr. John Dod, the decalogist, gave him some directions, during one vacation that he resided with him near Banbury. His merit engaged the farther kindness of Dr. Duppa; and, when that prelate was promoted to the bishopric of Chichester in 1638, he made Mr. Gregory his domestic chaplain, and | some time after gave him a prebend in that church. His patron also continued his favours after his translation to the see of Salisbury in 1G41, when he seated him in a stall of that cathedral.

But he did not enjoy the benefit of these preferments long being a firm loyalist, as well as his patron > he was deprived or both by the tyranny of the usurpers, and was reduced some years before his death to great distress. In. these circumstances, he was taken into the house of one Sutton, to whose son he had been tutor; this was an obscure ale-house on Kiddington-green, near Oxford, where he died March 13, 1646, of an hereditary gout, with which he had been troubled for above twenty years, and which at last seized his stomach. His corpse was carried to Oxford, and interred, at the expence of some friends, in that cathedral. He was honoured with the acquaintance and favour of the greatest men of the age, and held a correspondence with several eminent persons abroad, as well Jews and Jesuits, as others. His works are, “Notes and Observations on some passages of Scripture,” published a little before his death in 1646, 4to, and besides being reprinted four times in the same form, were translated into Latin, and inserted in the “Critici Sacri.” His posthumous works were published by his friend Mr. John Gurgany, B D. of Merton college, in a quarto volume, entitled “Gregorii Posthuma,1650, 1664, 1671, and 1683. This volume contains, I. “A Discourse of the LXX Interpreters; the place and manner of their interpretation.” II. “A Discourse declaring what time the Nicene Creed began to be sung in the Church.III. “A Sermon upon the Resurrection, from 1 Cor. xv. verse 20.” IV. “Kaivav tievrep-, or, a Disproof of him in the third of St. Luke, verse 36.V. “Episcopus Puerorum in die Innocentium.” VI. “De JEris & Epochis, shewing the several accounts of time among all nations from the creation to the present age.VII. “The Assyrian Monarchy, being a description of its rise and fall.” “VIII.” The description and use of the Terrestrial Globe.“Besides these, he wrote a tract entitled” Alkibla,“in which he endeavoured to vindicate the antiquity of worshiping towards the East. There is a manuscript of his entitled” Observationes in loca quaedam excerpta ex Johannis Malelae chronographia,“in the public library at Oxford; and he intended to have published a Latin translation of that author with annotations. He | translated likewise from Greek into Latin, 1.Palladius de Gentibus Indiae & Brachmanibus“2.S. Ambrosius de Moribus Brachmannorum“3.” Anonymus de Brachmanibus" which translations came after his death into the hands of Mr. Edmund Chilmead, chaplain of Christ church, Oxford, and then into those of Edward Byshe, esq. who published them in his own name at London, 1665, 4to. 1

1 Life prefixed to his Posthumous Works. Gen. Dict. Biog. Brit. Supply naeut. —Ath. Ox. vol. IL Lloyd’s Memoirs, folio, p. S6. Fulier’s Worthies.