Ancestors
Capt. James Gregg
1673-1758
Born 1673, Ayrshire, Scotland
Died 1758
Children include Samuel
He was born in Ayrshire and went over to the north of Ireland with his parents about 1690, after serving an apprenticeship to a tailor. In Ireland he married Janet Cargil, set up as a linen draper, and did well enough at it to accumulate what a town historian called considerable property. In 1718 he sailed for New England with the Ulster Presbyterians who founded Londonderry. They arrived too late in the year to settle and passed the winter at Cape Elizabeth on the Maine coast, where they suffered badly, and because he had money and was willing to spend it he was one of the men who kept the company together through it. In the spring of 1719 he was one of the sixteen who took up the first lots at Londonderry. He was afterwards commissioned a captain and commanded the first company of soldiers the town raised.
His grandson Samuel Gregg of Peterborough, writing down what he knew of the family in 1805 and 1806, added the details the town history lacks. The family had come to Scotland from Aberdeen. In Ireland James lived in County Derry, in a parish the grandson wrote as Muaskee, and worked as a bleacher of linen cloth. He was about forty when the family left Ireland in 1718, and his youngest son was about ten. They landed at Boston with passengers from other ships. Their own ship went down east and spent the winter at Casco, now Portland, and in the spring the company came back to Newbury and got a township granted, which they called Nutfield.
In the new town he was one of the proprietors and helped lay it out into lots. He built the first grist mill in the town and was captain of its first militia company, and the town granted him three hundred acres for his trouble. He settled all four of his sons in Londonderry.
He died on 10 March 1758. His slate stone in the old burying ground at East Derry, carved with a face in a circle at the top, reads: "In Memory of Capt. James Gragg who died March 10th 1758 in ye 85th year of his age."
Sources
EDWARD L. PARKER, The History of Londonderry, comprising the towns of Derry and Londonderry, N.H. (Boston, 1851), genealogical sketches, pages 274 and 275.
"Captain James Gregg, one of the sixteen who first settled in Londonderry, was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, and emigrated with his parents to Ireland, about the year 1690. Previous to his leaving Scotland, he had served as an apprentice to the tailoring business. He married Janet Cargil. They had four sons and one daughter; namely, William, John, Samuel, Thomas, and Elizabeth. Soon after his marriage he commenced the business of linen-draper, and for several years pursued it with success, and accumulated considerable property. In 1718, he embarked with many others for America, and was among those who passed the following winter at Cape Elizabeth, where they endured many privations and much suffering. As Mr. Gregg possessed the means, and also the disposition, he was very efficient in aiding and encouraging this company of settlers amid their trials and wants. He subsequently received a captain's commission, and commanded the first company of soldiers raised in the town."
"Samuel married Mary Moor, by whom he had four sons and three daughters; James, John, Samuel, David, Margaret, Mary, and Elizabeth."
That is the sentence that joins two books. Cogswell's New Boston, written thirteen years later and eighteen miles away, says Robert Hogg "married Margaret, daughter of Samuel Gregg, of Londonderry; her mother was Mary Moor." Parker, who never mentions the Hoggs, has a Samuel Gregg of Londonderry married to a Mary Moor with a daughter Margaret. There was one Samuel in the captain's family, and his brothers' wives were Rankins and a Leslie. The two accounts never met and they agree.
Parker also has the captain's daughter Elizabeth marrying a James Moor. Whether Mary Moor was that James's sister is not said. Leonard A. Morrison, The History of Windham in New Hampshire, 1719-1883 (Boston, 1883), genealogies, GREGG FAMILY, pages 543 and 544 (archive.org historyofwindham00morr): "Capt. James Gregg, one of the sixteen who first settled in Londonderry in 1719, was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, and emigrated to Ireland about 1690. He was ancestor of the Derry Greggs, and not connected with David Gregg, of Windham."
Autobiography of Major Samuel Gregg, 1806 (printed 1903 from the manuscript among the papers of Washington P. Gregg of Boston), pages 7 to 9, archive.org autobiographyofm00greg.
Gravestone of Capt. James Gragg, Forest Hill Cemetery, East Derry, New Hampshire, section W, lot 36; Find a Grave memorial 23794600, photograph added by D. J. Goldman, 2009.
Autobiography of Major Samuel Gregg, 1806 (printed 1903 from the manuscript among the papers of Washington P. Gregg of Boston), pages 7 to 9, archive.org autobiographyofm00greg. Gravestone of Capt. James Gragg, Forest Hill Cemetery, East Derry, New Hampshire, section W, lot 36; Find a Grave memorial 23794600, photograph added by D. J. Goldman, 2009.
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Cite: Heirology, "Capt. James Gregg (1673-1758)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/capt-james-gregg-1673-1758-36c32c.