Robert Gregory (MP)
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Robert Gregory (1727 – 1 September 1810) was a British East India merchant and politician who sat in the
British House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 memb ...
from 1768 to 1784. Robert was the only son of Mary Shawe and her husband Henry Gregory of
Galway Galway ( ; , ) is a City status in Ireland, city in (and the county town of) County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay. It is the most populous settlement in the province of Connacht, the List of settleme ...
youngest son of Captain George Gregory of Killerida, Co. Kerry, the hero of the
Siege of Derry The siege of Derry in 1689 was the first major event in the Williamite War in Ireland. The siege was preceded by an attempt against the town by Jacobite forces on 7 December 1688 that was foiled when 13 apprentices shut the gates. Thi ...
. Robert went to India where he served with
Honourable East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...
and made a considerable fortune. In 1766 he returned from India and settled in Kent.Gregory family papers
/ref> In 1768, he acquired the
Coole Park Coole Park is a nature reserve of approximately located a few miles west of Gort, County Galway, Ireland. It is managed by the Irish National Parks & Wildlife Service, part of the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. The park is in ...
estate of 8,000 acres near
Gort Gort ( or ) is a town of around 2,800 inhabitants in County Galway in the west of Ireland. Located near the border with County Clare, the town lies between the Burren and the Slieve Aughty and is served by the R458 road (Ireland), R458 and R460 ...
in County Galway in Ireland and built a house there. Gregory was a Member of Parliament (MP) for
Maidstone Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, l ...
from 18 March 1768 – 8 October 1774. He was then MP for Rochester, Kent from 7 October 1774 to 1 April 1784. He was also a director of the East India Company between 1769 and 1782 and then chairman briefly before he retired through ill-health. Gregory married Maria Auchmuty, daughter of an official of the East India Company, and they had three sons. Of these, William Gregory was civil
Under-Secretary for Ireland The Under-Secretary for Ireland (Permanent Under-Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland) was the permanent head (or most senior civil servant) of the British administration in Ireland prior to the establishment of the Irish Free State in 192 ...
from 1812 to 1830 and was the father of another Robert Gregory, who died in 1847 from a disease he contracted ministering to his sick tenants in the Great Famine. He in turn was the father of
William Henry Gregory Sir William Henry Gregory PC (Ire) KCMG (13 July 1816 – 6 March 1892) was an Anglo-Irish writer and politician, who is now less remembered than his wife Augusta, Lady Gregory, the playwright, co-founder and Director of Dublin's Abbey Theat ...
.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gregory, Robert 1727 births 1810 deaths Politicians from Maidstone People from Rochester, Kent British MPs 1768–1774 British MPs 1774–1780 British MPs 1780–1784 Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies Directors of the British East India Company 18th-century British merchants