William Gregg (1715 - 1797)

Born 1715 in Ballyarnet, N. Ireland

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth (Kyle) Gregg — married about 31 Jan 1739 in Haverhill, MA

Descendants

Died 1797 at about age 82 in Windham, Rockingham Co., NH

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Biography

William Gregg...was born about 1715 in or near Londonderry in Ulster, Ireland. When eight years of age he was brought to New England by his parents about 1723, and lived with them in Watertown, Mass. until 1730. He then accompanied them to Londonderry, N. H., where he later located on a farm that in 1742 was set off into the new town of Windham, N. H., for the incorporation of which he was one of fifty petitioners in 1741. In this community he soon became a man of prominence; was elected moderator in 1744, 1745 and 1767; town clerk 1747-1752; constable in 1759; and selectman in 1742, 1743, 1756, 1757, 1762 and 1763. During the French and Indian Wars he enlisted 24 August 1745 in Capt. Peter Pattee's cavalry company and served a few days of scouting in the Merrimac Valley.

During the War of the Revolution, on 12 April 1776 the Committee of Safety of New Hampshire directed the follow-ing declaration (called the Association Test) to be read in each town to every male over twenty-one years of age, who were requested to sign it, and also ordered lists to be returned of those who refused to sign. In Windham it was signed by 96 men (including William30 Gregg and all the other Greggs there), and there were only three Tories who refused to sign; similar percentages of Whigs and Tories prevailed throughout the Colony. "We the Subscribers, do hereby solemnly engage and promise that we will, to the utmost of our Power, at the Risque of our Lives and Fortunes, with Arms oppose the Hostile Proceedings of the British Fleets and Armies against the United American Colonies". "Hugh Graham, Jr., William Gregg, Jr., Alexander McCoy, John Campbell, Henry Campbell, Robert Park, David Gregg, William Gregg, David Gregg, Jr., Thomas Gregg, Alexander Gregg", etc.

William Gregg resided on the farm in Windham owned in 1880 by Wellington Russell, and was listed in the United States Census of 1790 as head of a family in Windham of one male over sixteen years and one female. Unlike his father he was rather short in stature, but like him he had great muscular strength and even greater vitality and powers of endurance. He was a noted hunter of the bears, catamounts, wolves, deer and other wild animals abounding in the region before the Revolution. His mind and memory continued remarkably strong and vigorous until his death in his ninety-second year; although he left Ireland at the age of eight years, over eighty years later he could describe with minute detail the streets, buildings, walls, fortifications and other features of the old city of Londonderry; and he left a vivid relation of the history of three generations of his ancestors in Ireland as recounted to him by his father and other older natives of old Londonderry. He was a man of the deep piety, strong convictions and indomitable resolution characteristic of the Scottish Presbyterians; and his naturally strong intellect had been improved by a good education for his times and environment. He died in Windham in 1807 in his ninety-second year. [Bartlett Ms.]

Sources

Find A Grave Memorial# 35414788: (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=35414788 : accessed 29 May 2014)

• Source: S540 Author: Morrison, Leonard A. Title: History of the Town of Windham, New Hampshire, 1719-1883 Abbreviation: Morrison, Leonard A. Publication: Cupples, Upham & Co., Boston, 1883 Note: Images accessed online in Heritage Quest. Digital copies in BK database. Italicized: Y Paranthetical: Y

• Source: S578 Author: Bartlett, J. Gardner Title: Ancestral Line of Clark Chamberlain Gregg (1822-1891) Abbreviation: Bartlett, J. Gardner Publication: Bartlett, J. Gardner/circa 1925 Note: Thoroughly researched, with all sources listed. Digital copy in R. B. Nichol genealogical files. Originally published by The New England Historical & Genealogical Soc. when Rob Gregg discovered and donated it. Italicized: Y Paranthetical: Y

Birth

C. 1715

Ballyarnet, N. Ireland Source: #S577 Source: #S540 Source: #S578

Emigration

1721

Ireland to Watertown, MA Source: #S540 Source: #S577