John Gregory (scholar)


John Gregory, a.k.a. John Gregorie, was an English orientalist.

Life

He was born at Amersham, Buckinghamshire, on 10 November 1607, and was from a humble background. He became a servitor of Christ Church, Oxford, in 1624, being placed along with his ‘master,’ Sir William Drake of Amersham, under the tuition of George Morley, afterwards bishop of Winchester. For several years he spent sixteen hours a day in study. His only teacher was John Dod, who directed his Hebrew studies during one vacation at his benefice in Northamptonshire. After graduating B.A. 11 October 1628, and M.A. 22 June 1631 he took holy orders. Brian Duppa, then dean of Christ Church, made him chaplain of the cathedral, and, on becoming a bishop, his own domestic chaplain.
The First English Civil War deprived him of patron and stipend. He retired to an alehouse on at Kidlington, near Oxford. There he died on 13 March 1646; his remains were carried to Oxford and buried on the left side of the grave of William Cartwright, in the aisle adjoining the south side of the choir of Christ Church Cathedral. Anthony Wood called Gregory "the miracle of his age for critical and curious learning".

Works

Collected editions of his writings were:
Two of his treatises were published separately:
Gregory also translated from Greek into Latin:
These translations passed after his death to Edmund Chilmead, and subsequently to Sir Edward Bysshe, who published them under his own name in 1665.