William GREGG
(1642 - July 1, 1687)

GENETIC PARENTS

Father: William GREGG (1616 - 1672)
Mother:

SPOUSE

GENETIC CHILDREN

BASIC DATA

Names: William GREGG
Born: 1642 - Glenarm Barony, County Antrim, Ireland(?)
Married: Ann WILKINSON Abt. 1666
Resided: Ireland and Delaware
Occupation:
Died: July 1, 1687 in New Castle Co., Delaware.
Buried: July 1, 1687, Strand Millas, Christiana Hundred, New Castle County, Delaware.
Age at death:

NOTES:

Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy Volume 6: Virginia
Loudon County, Virginia
page 495

GREGG FAMILY
(from Albert Cook Myers' Immigration of Irish Quakers pp 122/339, etc.)
Since so many Gregg families settled within the verge of Fairfax monthly meeting, Loudon Co., Va. it seems needful to give their background, as far as known. According to A.C. Myers,
"Wm. & Ann Gregg came to America with the Dixon, Hollingsworth, Sharpley, etc. families, who came from the North of Ireland, probably County Armagh; William Gregg settled on a tract of 400 acres of land in Christiana Hundred, New Castle Co., Delaware, surveyed to him 11-3-1685. He died ye 1st of ye 7th mo and was buried on his own plantation 1687.

Wm. & Ann Gregg
Ch:
Richard
Ann (marry about 1690 Henry DIXON)
page 496
John born circa 1668 died 1738 marry 11mo1694 to Elizabeth COOKE
(John Gregg of Christiana Hundred, New Castle Co., yeoman, aged about
[p.496] 67 years, made a deposition about 1735 "that he has dwelt in said County about 51 yrs")

Early Families known to the GREGGS

Among the first land owners of the Delaware area was William PENN. On Feb. 17, 1699 he directed Henry HOLLINGSWORTH to lay out 30,000 acres to his children William and Letitia Penn. Letitia's portion was later sold to settlers in the area. According to the "Immigration of Irish Quakers" William GREGG (1642-1687) and his wife Ann came to America with the DIXON, HOLLINGSWORTH, and SHARPLEY families of northern Ireland.

In the book "Quaker Greggs" William Gregg left Ireland in 1682 on the ship "Caledonia" with William HOGE. William built a log cabin located on Stand Milas in 1684, his neighbors were Henry, and Thomas HOLLINGSWORTH, Thomas WOOLASTEN, George HOGG, William HOGE, John HUSSY, and William DIXON. Ann Gregg the second child and only daughter of William Gregg, was the second wife of William DIXON 1662-1708. William DIXON purchased a one hundred acre farm from Letitia Penn which was located between the farms of John and Isaac DIXON. West of William Dixons land was a plot belonging to Thomas DIXON which completed the belt across the Hockessin Valley with the exception of John Houghton's one hundred acres.The DIXONS and the HOUGHTONS were old family friends and after Williams death Ann married John HOUGHTON.

The book Quaker Greggs refers to the Dixon family as "THE FAMOUS DICKSONS". The family's origin is Scottish from the clan of Dick(Richard)de Keith. Marshall Hervey de Keith who died in 1240, married Margaret, daughter of William Douglas who was the 3rd son of Lord Douglas of Scotland. Their son "Richard de Keith" was head of the lowlands clan. Richard was succedded by his son Thomas Dickson 1247-1307 who was killed on Palm Sunday. Thomas was succeeded by his son Thomas. When King James I transported whole Scottish communities to Ireland, many of the Dicksons left Scotland and became Quakers.

William's oldest son John GREGG 1668-1738 married Elizabeth COOKE in 1694. The COOKE family originated in England. In 1702 John Gregg purchased the first land sold out of Letitia's Penns Manor. On his 200 acres he built a mill which he conveyed to his son William in 1730.

Willaim's second son George GREGG 1674-1744 married Sara HOGG, daughter of George and Ann Hogg. The HOGG family are descended from Sir John Hogge of Musselton, Scotland. George and Ann's children were John GREGG 1716-1788 who married Susanna CURLE, Richard GREGG 1718-1754 who married Anne HADLEY, and George GREGG 1720-1794 who married Elizabeth HANBY.

From: http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/l/u/s/Lynn-F-Lusby/BOOK-0001/0002-0001.html

Gregg History - From "Quaker Greggs"

The Gregs, deeply imbued with spiritual piety, were most receptable to the teachings of William Penn when he visited Waterford, Ireland in 1678 and converted many Scottish settlers to the Society of Friends. So the Gregs became Penn Quakers.

As a devout adherent William Gregg was a member of a colonial Friend group which left southern Ireland after October 1623, possibly in the ship "Caledonia" with William Hoge. He had with him the silver-studded ivory-headed cane inherited as next to the oldest son from his father, William Greg, who left Glenarm Barony, County Antrim after May 1653. By this time the cane had become an heirloom whose story he recited many times to his children just as it was the custom for his ancestors to retain a bard whose duty was to sing the exploits of the Greg ancestral line. Charles A. Gregg, Fredericktown, Ohio, now is the proud hereditary owner of the cane.

The ship of Friends landed at Upland, now Chester, Pennsylvania, 1682. No doubt married relatives came with William Gregg besides his wife and four small children. Sedate and reserved in appearance they later made their way down the Delaware River to settle that part of Christiana Hundred bordering the Pennsylvania line and lying between Brandywine and Red Clay Creeks on the west side of Brandywine Creek near the present site of Centerville. The surface is elevated and broken with generally fertile soil. In this northern part was one of William Penn's principal manors, Rockland Manor, in which William Gregg was granted 200 acres in 1683 and a warrant for 400 acres on January 26, 1684. (Conrad's History of Delaware. Vol. 2, p. 462). Here he built a log cabin on a location which he called Strand Millas. It adjoined the lands of Mattias Defosse on Squirrel Creek, who died May 1708, had wife Sarah. Other neighbors were Henry Hollingsworth, Thomas Hollingsworth, Thomas Woolasten, George Hog, William Hoge, John Hussy, William Dixon.

William Gregg's family of a wife, a young daughter, and three young sons was well cared for and also entertained by his stories of the clan Greg's fortunes and misfortunes. These stories were never forgotten by his children who passed them on to the next generation. He was most congenial in his home.

The earliest monthly meetings of the Quakers on west side of the Delaware River was organized at New Castle about 1681 and held in a private house until 1687 when the meetings were changed to a log meeting house on the grounds given by Valentine Hollingsworth.

In 1686 William Gregg gave 5 shillings "toward a public stock for ye relief of ye friends in necessity" with Cornelius Empson, Edward Blake. Valentine Hollingsworth, John Richardson, Robert Turner, and Thomsa Snelling. He was one of the Friends who in the winter of 1687 was granted permission to hold their meetings in the winter months on Christiana side instead of going to the Brandywine Hundred Meeting at Neward "by reason of the dangerousness of ye ford" they must cross. When about forty-five he died and was buried on his own plantation at his home of Strand Millas on July 1, 1687. His four children were successfully reared by the mother, relatives, and friends, as the oldest child John was only nineteen when the father died. The children lived in their own home Strand Millas and kept possession of their father's land.

More About WILLIAM GREGG:
Burial: July 01, 1687, Strand Mills, New Castle Co., Delaware
Christening: Glenarm Barony, Antrim, Antrim, Ireland

More About ANN WILKINSON:
Burial: January 1692, New Castle Co., Delaware

Children of WILLIAM GREGG and ANN WILKINSON are:

1.   JOHN GREGG, b. 1668, Ardmore, Ardmore, Waterford, Ireland; d. April 27, 1738, Wilmington, Newcastle, Deleware.
2.   GEORGE GREGG, b. 1674, Ardmore, Ardmore, Waterford, Ireland; d. September 14, 1744, New Castle Co., Delaware; m. SARA HOGG, 1744.

Notes for GEORGE GREGG:
To George, the next oldest son, descended the silver-studded ivory-headed cane.

3.   ANN GREGG, b. 1670, Ardmore, Ardmore, Waterford, Ireland; d. 1729, Newcastle, Newcastle, Delaware.
4.   RICHARD GREGG, b. 1676, Ardmore, Ardmore, Waterford, Ireland; d. September 14, 1716, Christiana Hundr, New Castle, Delaware (G.B.); m. ANN HADLEY, New Garden Meeting House, Chester, PA.

Notes for RICHARD GREGG:
Youngest son, Richard was the last one to occupy the home after the mother's death about January of 1692. The land had been surveyed on May 11, 1685 by Henry Hollingsworth and after the father's death was divided by him on April 23, 1692 between sons John and Richard Gregg leaving 150 acres for Richard Gregg including Strand Millas.

Evidently Richard had poor health for years. He had signed a petition to the King 1715 relating to the early boundary difficulties between Pennsylvania and Delaware. The evidence that he died without heirs surviving is scant and negative, but conclusive. In the deed of gift from his brother John to brother George 1719 John could not have had any right, title, or demand on his property by inheritance if any direct heirs of Richard were living. He made no statement indicating any debt or obligation of his brother Richard to himself conferring such a claim, such statement being necessary to make the deed valid if such were the basis of his claim. An oldest son inherited at least twice as much as another son at that date by English law and might, with unconfirmed land as "heir-at-law", have a right in all.

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Last updated May 2000 by Web Genealogist Chris Stefanovich.