GREGG – Descendants of Nutfield Settler James Gregg

Captain James Gregg, buried 1758
at the Forest Hill Cemetery, Derry, New Hampshire

James Gregg was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, and emigrated to Ireland with his parents around 1670.  James trained as a tailor’s apprentice in Scotland. Sometime later he removed to Northern Ireland and opened a linen draper business. He was married to Janet Cargill and had five children. He came with Rev. McGregor from Northern Ireland to New England in 1718 and was one of the first 16 men to settle Nutfield (now the towns of Derry, Londonderry and Windham in New Hampshire).  He was made captain of the militia and commanded the first soldiers in Nutfield.  James Gregg also built the first grist mill in Londonderry, New Hampshire.

Janet Cargill, his wife, was the sister of David Cargill, who also came to Londonderry, where he died 3 March 1734.   Her sister Annis Cargill married James McKeen, and another sister married Rev. James MacGregor.

James Gregg died on 10 March 1758 and is buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in (what is now) East Derry, New Hampshire.  His wife died on 28 December 1764 and is buried near him.   His descendants scatted nearby to New Boston, Windham, Peterborough, Vermont, New York, and Nova Scotia.

Children:

      1.       William, born about 1695 and married Janet Rankin and had six children:  Mary born 1 March 1726 and died 3 November 1730; James baptized 15 June 1726 and married Sarah Leslie and died 1777 in Oneida, New York;  Janet born 3 November 1730; Naomi born 1 Mach 1727/8; Agnes born 1734; and Frances born 1736.

      2.       Captain John, born about 1702 and married Agnes Rankin and had ten children: Hugh born 9 December 1725 and married Sarah Leslie; James born 9 December 1725 and married Mary McCurdy; John born 7 May 1728 and married Mary Elizabeth Gregg; William born 23 October 1730 married Barbara Aiken;  George born 1735 and died 16 September 1815; Major Samuel born 17 April 1739 and married Agnes Smiley;  Major Joseph born 10 December 1741 and married Susannah Aiken; Benjamin born 10 December 1743 and married Lettice Aiken; and twin daughters Elizabeth (married John Wilson) and Janet (married William Miltimore) born 27 November 1732.

      3.       Lieutenant Samuel, born about 1704 married Mary Moor and had eight children – James born 1 February 1732/3; John, Samuel, David, Margaret (married Robert Hogg), Mary, Agnes, and Elizabeth.

      4.       Elizabeth,  born 1707 and married James Moor and had children- Captain William born 1733 and married Martha Mack; Samson born 1730 and died 1782 at Salters Head, Colchester, Nova Scotia; Janet born 11 May 1739;  Sarah born 3 April 1740; Robert born 10 July 1745 and died 14 February 1826 in Goffstown; Hugh; Mary born 8 March 1743 and Elizabeth born 2 February 1741.

      5.       Thomas, born 1708 and married Ann Leslie and then married Barbara Choate and removed to Vermont, and died 31 Jan 1789 in Bradford, Orange County, Vermont.

Note:  There was another unrelated family headed by David Gregg in Nutfield.  He married Mary Evans and came to Windham in November 1722.  Children: William (married Elizabeth Kyle), David (went to sea at age 15 and returned at age 30, married a Miss Clyde and lived in Windham)

For more information:

Ancestral Line of Clark Chamberlain Gregg, by J. Gardner Bartlett

History of Londonderry by Rev. Edward L. Parker, page 274

History of New Boston, New Hampshire, by E. Cogswell, page 38

Autobiography of Major Samuel Gregg,  1806, pages 3- 5  (online at archive.org)

A sketch of New Hampshire Governor Hugh Gregg, with his genealogy at Janice Webster Brown’s blog Cow Hampshire:  http://www.cowhampshireblog.com/2008/03/03/nashua-new-hampshires-hugh-gregg-attorney-businessman-governor-1917-2003/

Gregg Family History Project:  http://www.chaimberlaingregg.gfhp.co.uk/ 

The Clan Gregor Society:   http://www.clangregor.com/ 

Click here for links to the sketches of all sixteen first Nutfield settlers: 
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/p/nutfields-first-16-settlers.html 



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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "GREGG – Descendants of Nutfield Settler James Gregg", Nutfield Genealogy, posted February 20, 2019, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2019/02/gregg-descendants-of-nutfield-settler.html: accessed [access date]).