Dr Mathew Gregory

Resident slave-owner in Jamaica, according to the will of Hon. John Scott in 1772 still alive then, and shown in Monumental Inscriptions as 'the younger' [presumably to distinguish him from his father Mathew Gregory senior d. c. 1715] with a will made in 1779. This man was father-in-law of Hon. John Scott and of William Lewis, the grandfather of Monk Lewis.

1. There is some confusion over Matthew or Mathew Gregory. Vere Langford Oliver gives a Mathew Gregory, son of Mathew Gregory, Speaker 1704-6 (d. c. 1715). President of the Council 1755, 'died about 1764'. Oliver might have confused this man's death with that of John Gregory, Mathew Gregory's brother, which did occur c. 1764. The Mat[t]hew Gregory son of John of Jamaica, who matriculated Christ Church Oxford 1728/1729, aged 15 was probably the nephew of Dr Mathew Gregory and predeceased John Gregory his father, whose will [made in 1763] is silent about him.

2. M.D. Leyden, July 6, 1714, "de febre ardente." Thesis at B.M. Dedicated to Francis Rose, Esq., and John Stewart, M.D. Practised at Jamaica where he died 1779, aet. 86.

3. Matthew Gregory was listed in the Jamaican Quit Rent books for 1754 as the owner of 300 acres of land in St Catherine, 99 acres in St Dorothy and 2036 acres in St John, total 2435 acres. Gregory and Cussans were listed in the Jamaican Quit Rent books for 1754 as the owners of 1201 acres of land in St Thomas-in-the-East (this may be Matthew, John or Thomas Gregory, all q.v.).

4. Dr Matthew Gregory contributed £20 to the University of Pennsylvania following Dr John Morgan's fundraising tour of the West Indies in 1772-1773.

5. Matthew Gregory of St Catherine, Esquire. Estate probated in Jamaica in 1780. Slave-ownership at probate: 713 of whom 385 were listed as male and 328 as female. 164 were listed as boys, girls or children. Total value of estate at probate: £35,369 Jamaican currency of which £39,779 currency was the value of enslaved people. Estate valuation included £0 currency cash, £0 currency debts and £0 currency plate.

1. Caribbeana Vol. III p. 9.

2. R.W. Innes Smith, English-speaking students of medicine at the University of Leyden (Edinburgh/London: Oliver and Boyd, 1932), p. 102.

3. A List of landholders in the Island of Jamaica together with the number of acres each person possessed taken from the quit rent books in the year 1754', TNA CO 142/31 transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Samples2/1754lead.htm.

4. William Smith, Joseph Hopkinson, and Plunket Fleeson Glentworth, Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania Minute Books, Volume 2, 1768-1779 p. 74, entry for 13/12/1773. Note amounts are in Jamaican currency.

5. Trevor Burnard, Database of Jamaican inventories, 1674-1784.

We are grateful to Stanley Robert Criens for his help with this entry.