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SPECIAL ARTICLE |
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PRESENTED by THE GREGG FAMILY HISTORY PROJECT |
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From |
Source NEHGS # CS 71G8175 192-
Acknowledgements to Rob Gregg (M.A./USA)
PART TWO - IRELAND
History of the Clan Gregor
PART TWO - NORTHERN IRELAND
26. JOHN26 GREGG (25. John25 Gregg alias. MacGregor John MacCuichere24 MacGregor, Malcolm MacCuichere23 MacGregor, Gregor MacCuichere22, Dungal Culchere21, Dougal Ciar MacGregor20, Gregor19, John Cham MacGregor18, Gregor17, Malcolm16 , Gregor MacGregor15, Gregor14, Duncan13, Loin12, Gillefealan11, Malcolm10, Duncan Beg9, Duncan a Straileadh8, Eoin MacGregor7, Gregor Garbh6, Loin Mor5, Gregor Na Bratach4, Constantine3, Dongheal2, Gregor1 ), was born in Balquihidder in Perthshire, Scotland, about 1600. He belonged to the young generation of the Clan Gregor which suffered great persecutions and dispersion, besides proscription of their clan name, as a result of the battle of Glenfruin, 7 February 1602/3. This fatal affair took place a few years after John26 Gregg's birth, and for a score of years thereafter he witnessed the vindictive persecutions of the clan conducted mainly by the Earl of Argyll whose power extended over Argyllshire and Perthshire. Later removing from the regions dominated by this hated nobleman, John26 Gregg located fifty miles south of his native home, settling in Greenock on the Firth of Clyde, a dozen miles below Glasgow. Greenock was then a fishing port and agricultural parish of a few hundred families, but has now become an important sea-port with a population of about 80,000. John26 Gregg is called of Greenock at the time of his father's death in 1639, and doubtless he had settled there over a dozen years previously.
During the years 1649 and 1650, Oliver Cromwell subdued a great rebellion in Ireland, ravaged the country with fire and sword, and transported thousands of the inhabitants to the southern American and West Indian colonies. Many of the Catholic Irish rebels were dispossessed of their lands, which were soon granted to thousands of English and Scottish Protestants who emigrated with their families to Ulster in the north of Ireland. Among these Presbyterian, Scottish colonists to Ulster was John26 Gregg who removed from Greenock in Scotland, probably about 1655, and settled at Ballyarnet in the parish of Templemore and near the City of Londonderry in Ulster in the north of Ireland.
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(32 & 33 No Text)
The identity of this John26 Gregg is fortunately preserved by a transfer of land recorded by means of a notarial sasine. Sasine dated 29 July 1657, following a writ in charter of alienation etc., by John Gregg of the Liberties of Londonderry in the parish of Templemore in the Kingdom of Ireland, for enfeoffing David Gregg in Greenock in Renfrewshire in the Kingdom of Scotland, his brother, of a certain tenement in said Greenock. Charter dated 21 July 1657, signed by John Gregg and Janet Gibson his spouse.
In a subsidy roll of County Londonderry, Ireland, of 19 Charles II [1667], John Gregg in Ballyarnet in Co. Londonderry was assessed 2s. 2d. on goods rated at £4-O-O. This is the latest mention found of John26 Gregg.
He married about 1625, JANET GIBSON. Children born in Scotland:
27.i. DAVID27, b. about 1625.
ii. JAMES.
iii. MARGARET; m. ROBERT MILLER.
27. DAVID27 GREGG GREGG* (26. John26 Gregg, John25 Gregg alias. MacGregor John MacCuichere24 MacGregor, Malcolm MacCuichere23 MacGregor, Gregor MacCuichere22, Dungal Culchere21, Dougal Ciar MacGregor20, Gregor19, John Cham MacGregor18, Gregor17, Malcolm16 , Gregor MacGregor15, Gregor14, Duncan13, Loin12, Gillefealan11, Malcolm10, Duncan Beg9, Duncan a Straileadh8, Eoin MacGregor7, Gregor Garbh6, Loin Mor5, Gregor Na Bratach4, Constantine3, Dongheal2, Gregor1 ), was born about 1625, probably in Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland, where it is certain his father was living a, few years later**
He learned the tanner's trade and when a young man went to Ulster in the north of Ireland, according to tradition as a captain in Cromwell's army [1649].
*Much of the history of this David27 Gregg and his children is derived from an account of the family left by his great-grandson Williarn30 Gregg (b. Londonderry, Ireland, about 1715, d. in Windham, N. H. USA in 1807).
**David27 Gregg was of the same generation and a third-cousin of Rob Roy27 MacGregor, the famous Highland freebooter, although the latter was over forty years younger. (See ante, p.24.)
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No evidence of this military service has been found, and it is more likely that he emigrated with his father about 1655 as a colonist to take up leases of forfeited land in Ireland. He secured a small farm in Ballyarnet near Londonderry where he also established a successful tannery. In the subsidy roll of County Londonderry, Ireland, of 19 Charles II [1667], David Gregg in Ballyarnet, Co. Londonderry, was assessed 4s. 4d. on goods rated at £8-0-0.
James II who ascended the throne of England in 1685 was a Catholic and steadily endeavored to put the government into their hands; but by a bloodless Revolution in December 1688 he was obliged to flee to France, and his nephew William III, a Protestant, became King of England. James attempted to regain his crown by landing on 12 March 1688/9 with a considerable French force in Ireland, where he soon raised a large Catholic Irish army. The English and Scottish Protestants in Ulster were at once subjected to raids and massacres by the greatly outnumbering Irish, and to the number of thirty thousand were soon obliged to take refuge in the walled City of Londonderry which on 15 April 1689 was invested by James' army of forty thousand men. After enduring a siege of over a hundred days, with indomitable bravery under terrible privations, the Protestant defenders were relieved by the arrival of an English squadron on 30 July 1689 Eleven months later the army of James II was totally defeated by that of William III at the celebrated battle of the Boyne, 1 July 1690, which was soon followed by the subjugation of all Ireland.
Shortly after the arrival of James II in Ireland, a band of forty Irishmen early in April 1689 raided David Gregg's house, murdered him, his wife and his son John28 Gregg, carried off £300 in gold. and all his goods and stock, and burned the house and other buildings. The raiders were guided by an Irish apprentice of the Greggs. The wife and five young children of John28 Gregg escaped this massacre, as they had just been sent for safety into Londonderry whither the other less fortunate members of the family had intended shortly to follow.
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The name of the wife of David27 Gregg is unknown, and the names of only two of his children have been ascertained.
Children:
28.i. J0HN28, b. about 1655.
ii. ANDREW, b. about 1660; appears in Ballyarnet as abated 6d. on a poll tax in 1699 which he was charged for a servant that he did not have.
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