Life

He was born at Amersham

Amersham

Amersham is a market town and civil parish within Chiltern district in Buckinghamshire, England, 27 miles north west of London, in the Chiltern Hills. It is part of the London commuter belt....

, Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....

, on 10 November 1607, and was from a humble background. He became a servitor of Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...

, in 1624, being placed along with his ‘master,’ Sir William Drake of Amersham, under the tuition of George Morley

George Morley

George Morley D.D. was an English bishop.-Life:He was born in London, England, and educated at Westminster school and the University of Oxford. In 1640, he was presented to the sinecure living of Hartfield, Sussex, and in the following year he was made canon of Christ Church, Oxford and exchanged...

, afterwards bishop of Winchester. For several years he spent sixteen hours a day in study. His only teacher was John Dod

John Dod

John Dod , known as “Decalogue Dod”, was a non-conforming English clergyman, taking his nickname for his emphasis on the Ten Commandments. He is known for his widely circulated writings...

, who directed his Hebrew studies during one vacation at his benefice in Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...

. After graduating B.A. 11 October 1628, and M.A. 22 June 1631 he took holy orders. Brian Duppa

Brian Duppa

Brian Duppa was an English bishop, a noted Royalist and adviser to Charles I of England.-Life:He was educated at Westminster School and Christchurch, Oxford, graduating B.A. in 1609. He was a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford in 1612, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford in 1632...

, 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

First English Civil War

The First English Civil War began the series of three wars known as the English Civil War . "The English Civil War" was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations that took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1651, and includes the Second English Civil War and...

 deprived him of patron and stipend. He retired to an alehouse on at Kidlington

Kidlington

Kidlington is a large village and civil parish between the River Cherwell and the Oxford Canal, north of Oxford and southwest of Bicester.-History:...

, 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

Anthony Wood

Anthony Wood or Anthony à Wood was an English antiquary.-Early life:Anthony Wood was the fourth son of Thomas Wood , BCL of Oxford, where Anthony was born...

 called Gregory "the miracle of his age for critical and curious learning".

Works

Collected editions of his writings were:

• ‘Gregorii Posthuma : or certain learned Tracts: written by John Gregorie. … Together with a short Account of the Author's Life; and Elegies on his much-lamented Death,’ published by his friend John] Gurgany], London, 1649. Some copies bear the date 1650 on the title-page. There are eight separate tracts, each with a separate title-page, but the whole is continuously paged. One of them, entitled ‘Discours declaring what time the Nicene Creed began to bee sung in the Church,’ contains a brief notice of early organs. The dedication states that Sir Edward Bysshe had been a patron of Gregory and Gurgany.
• ‘Gregorii Opuscula : or, Notes & Observations upon some Passages of Scripture, with other learned Tracts;’ the second edition (‘Gregorii Posthuma,’ &c.), London, 1650. ‘Works,’ in two parts, include the preceding, London, 1665; another edition, 2 pts. London, 1671; 4th edition, 2 pts. London, 1684-83.

Two of his treatises were published separately:

• ‘Notes’ on Sir Thomas Ridley's ‘View of the Civile and Ecclesiasticall Law. … The second edition, by J. G[regory], Oxford, 1634; other editions were issued in 1662, 1675, and 1676.
• ‘Notes and Observations upon some Passages of Scripture. By I. G.,’ &c., Oxford, 1646, inscribed to Bishop Duppa. Translated into Latin by Richard Stokes and inserted in Pearson's 'Critici Sacri
  Critici sacri
  Critici sacri was a compilation of Latin biblical commentaries published in London from 1660, edited by John Pearson. The publisher was Cornelius Bee. The work appeared in nine volumes, and collected numerous authors, both Protestant and Catholic, of early modern critical work on the Bible...
  
  . Gregory assisted Augustine Lindsell
  Augustine Lindsell
  Augustine Lindsell was an English classical scholar and bishop of Hereford. In church matters he was advanced by Richard Neile, and was a firm supporter of William Laud. As a scholar he influenced Thomas Farnaby.-Life:...
  
   in preparing an edition of ‘Theophylacti in D. Pauli Epistolas Commentarii,’ 1636. He left in manuscript ‘Observationes in Loca quædam excerpta ex Joh. Malalæ Chronographia,’ and a treatise on adoration to the east entitled ‘Al-Kibla,’ both of which went to the Bodleian Library
  Bodleian Library
  The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...
  
  .

Gregory also translated from Greek into Latin:

• ‘Palladius de Gentibus Indiæ & Brachmanibus.’
• ‘S. Ambrosius de Moribus Brachmanorum.’
• ‘Anonymus de Brachmanibus.’

These translations passed after his death to Edmund Chilmead

Edmund Chilmead

Edmund Chilmead was an English writer and translator, who produced both scholarly works and hack writing. He is also known as a musician.He studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he graduated M.A. in 1631...

, and subsequently to Sir Edward Bysshe, who published them under his own name in 1665.