5!94 Dr Reid on the Family o/’ Sir Isaac Newton, 
said Gregory : Sir Isaac said he was informed that his grand- 
father (or great-grandfather), was a gentleman of East (or West) 
Lothian : that he went to London with King James I. at 
his accession to the Crown of England : and that he attended 
the Court in expectation, as many others did, until he spent his 
fortune, by which means his family was reduced to low circum- 
stances. At the time this was told me, Mr Gregory was dead, 
otherwise I should have had his own testimony, for he was my 
mother’s brother. I likewise thought ■ at that time, that it had 
been certainly known that Sir Isaac was descended of an old 
English Family, as I think is said in his eloge before the Aca- 
demy of Sciences at Paris, and therefore I never mentioned 
what I had heard for many years, believing that there must be 
some mistake in it. 
Some years after I came to Glasgow, I mentioned (I believe 
for the first time), what I had heard to have been said by Mr 
Hepburn, to Mr Cross, late sheriff of this county, whom you 
mil remember. Mr Cross was moved by this account, and im-* 
mediately said, I know Mr Hepburn very well, and I know 
he was intimate with Mr Gregory : I shall write him this same 
night, to know whether he heard Mr Gregory say so or not.” 
After some reflection, he added, I know that Mr Keith, the 
Ambassador, was also an intimate acquaintance of Mr Grego- 
ry, and as he is at present in Edinburgh, I shall likewise write 
to him this night.” 
The next time I waited on Mr Cross, he told me that he had 
wrote both to Mr Hepburn and Mr Keith, and had an answer 
from both, and that both of them testified that they had seve- 
ral times heard Mr James Gregory say, that Sir Isaac Newton 
told him what is above expressed ; but that neither they nor Mr 
Gregory, as far as they knew, ever made any farther inquiry 
into the matter. This appeared very strange both to Mr 
Cross and me, and he said he would reproach both for their in- 
difference, and would make inquiry as soon as he was able. 
He lived but a short time after this, and in the last conversa- 
tion I had with him upon the subject, he said, that all he had 
yet learned was. That there was a Sir John Newton of New- 
ton, in one of the counties of Lothian, (but I have forgot 
v/Iiich), some of whose children were yet alive : That they re- 
}x)rted that their father, Sir John, had a lettct from Sir Isaac 
