Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/97

 , and in general to caution democracy against the abuse of its power. His apprehensions may sometimes appear visionary, and sometimes exaggerated, but are in general the previsions of a far-seeing man, acute in observing the tendencies of the age, though perhaps too ready to identify tendencies with accomplished facts. His style is clear and cogent, but his persuasiveness and impressiveness rather arise from moral qualities, his absolute disinterestedness, and the absence of class feeling, even when he may seem to be advocating the cause of a class.

 GREGAN, JOHN EDGAR (1813–1855), architect, was born at Dumfries on 18 Dec. 1813. He studied architecture first under Walter Newall and afterwards at Manchester under Thomas Witlam Atkinson. He commenced practice on his own account in 1840, and was engaged on many important buildings erected in Manchester during the next fifteen years, including the churches of St. John, Longsight, and St. John, Miles Platting; the warehouses of Robert Barbour and Thomas Ashton, and the bank of Sir Benjamin Heywood & Co. in St. Ann's Street. His last work was the design for the new Mechanics' Institution in David Street.

His zeal for art and education led him to take much interest in various local institutions; he acted as honorary secretary of the Royal Institution, assisted materially in the success of the local school of art, and sat as a member of the committee which undertook the formation of the Manchester Free Library. On the visit of the British Archæological Association to Manchester, he read a paper entitled 'Notes on Humphrey Chetham and his Foundation,' which is printed in the association's journal for 1851. He died at York Place, Manchester, on 29 April 1855, aged 42, and was buried in St. Michael's churchyard, Dumfries.

 GREGG, JOHN, D.D. (1798–1878), bishop of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross, was born 4 Aug. 1798 at Cappa, near Ennis, where his father, Richard Gregg, lived on a small property. After attending a classical school in Ennis, he entered Trinity College, Dublin, in 1819, where he took a sizarship, a scholarship, and many prizes. He obtained his degree in 1824. A sermon which he heard from the Rev. B. W. Matthias in Bethesda Chapel determined him to enter the church, and in 1826 he was ordained in Ferns Cathedral, and became curate of the French Church, Portarlington, where he laboured with much earnestness. In 1828 he obtained the living of Kilsallaghan, in the diocese of Dublin, and threw himself with great energy into the work of the parish. His reputation as an eloquent evangelical clergyman procured for him in 1836 the incumbency of the Bethesda Chapel, Dublin. Trinity Church was built for him in 1839, and became in his hands a chief centre of evangelical life in Dublin. After refusing various offers of preferment he accepted the archdeaconry of Kildare in 1857, still remaining incumbent of Trinity. In 1862 he was appointed by the lord-lieutenant (the Earl of Carlisle) bishop of the united dioceses of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross. During his episcopate the new cathedral of St. Fin Barre was built at a cost of nearly 100,000l. He died 26 May 1878, and was buried in Mount Jerome cemetery, Dublin. He was one of the ablest and most earnest evangelical leaders of the Irish episcopal church. He married in 1830 Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Law of Dublin, by whom he had six children; his son Robert was elected bishop of Ossory in 1875, and succeeded him in the bishopric of Cork. He published 'A Missionary Visit to Achill and Erris,' 3rd edit. Dublin, 1850, besides many sermons, lectures, and tracts.

 GREGOR, WILLIAM (1761–1817), chemist and mineralogist, younger son of Francis Gregor, a captain in General Wolfe's regiment, by Mary, sister of Sir Joseph Copley, bart., was born at Trewarthenick in the parish of Cornelly, Cornwall, 25 Dec. 1761, and educated at Bristol grammar school under the Rev. Charles Lee. In 1778 he was placed under the care of a tutor at Walthamstow, and in 1780 was admitted at St. John's College, Cambridge. He graduated B.A. in 1784, and having gained a prize given for Latin prose by the representatives of the university in parliament, he was elected a Platt fellow of his college. Proceeding M.A. in 1787 he vacated his fellowship, and was collated to the rectory of Diptford, near Totnes, which had been purchased for him by his father. In 1790 he married Charlotte Anne, only daughter of David Gwatkin, by Anne, daughter of Robert Lovell, by whom he had issue one child, a daughter. Dr. John Ross, bishop of Exeter, to whom his wife was related, presented him in 1793 to the rectory of Bratton Clovelly, Devonshire, which in the same year