The fourth of the fifteen children of
David Gregorie, a doctor from Kinnairdy, Banffshire, and Jean Walker of Orchiston, David was born in Upper Kirkgate, Aberdeen. The nephew of astronomer and mathematician
James Gregory, David, like his influential uncle before him, studied at
Aberdeen Grammar School and
Marischal College (
University of Aberdeen), from 1671 to 1675. The Gregorys were
Jacobites and left Scotland to escape religious discrimination. Young David visited several countries on the continent, including the Netherlands (where he began studying medicine at
Leiden University) and France, and did not return to Scotland until 1683. On 28 November 1683, Gregory graduated M.A. at
University of Edinburgh, and in October 1683 he became Chair of Mathematics at University of Edinburgh. He was "the first to openly teach the doctrines of the
Principia, in a public seminary...in those days this was a daring innovation." Gregory decided to leave for England where, in 1691, he was elected
Savilian Professor of Astronomy at the University of Oxford, due in large part to the influence of
Isaac Newton. The same year he was elected to be a
Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1692, he was elected a Fellow of
Balliol College, Oxford. Gregory spent several days with
Isaac Newton in 1694, discussing revisions for a second edition of Newton's
Principia. Gregory made notes of these discussions, but the second edition of 1713 was not due to Gregory. In 1695 he published
Catoptricae et dioptricae sphaericae elementa which addressed
chromatic aberration and the possibility of its correction with
achromatic lens. In 1705 Gregory became an Honorary Fellow of the
Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. At the
Union of 1707, he was given the responsibility of re-organising the
Scottish Mint. He was an uncle of philosopher
Thomas Reid. Gregory and his wife, Elizabeth Oliphant, had nine children, but seven died while still children. On his death in
Maidenhead, Berkshire he was buried in Maidenhead churchyard. ==Works==