The Dunkirk Gregories

Dunkirk family tree

There have been Gregorie connections with the Netherlands and Flanders since since the 1640s, when David Gregorie of Kinairdy was apprenticed to the Scottish mercantile house at Campvere (Kampen), in the Netherlands.

George Gregorie (d. 1731), was the 10th child of David of Kinairdy by his second wife, Isabel Gordon. He moved to Dunkirk where he married Sophia van Wyngaden, and then moved to Campvere. George and Sophia had two sons, David and John, both born at Campvere.

After George's death in 1731, Sophia married his cousin David Gregorie, 5th child of Professor James Gregorie and Catherine Forbes, who was a company agent at Campvere.

David Gregorie, eldest son of George and Sophia Gregorie, succeeded his step-father as staple-factor in 1739, but later moved to Dunkirk. His first wife, Anne Macaulay, was the daughter of Archibald Macaulay, Lord Provost of Edinburgh.

David Gregorie left his wife in Scotland when he returned to Dunkirk. He took Elisabeth Gibson as mistress and she bore him three children, George (1758-1823), David (1759-1822) and John (1761-1832). After Anne Macaulay's death, David married Elisabeth Gibson and had their children legitimised according to French law.

George married Susanne Christian, who was born at Douglas, Isle of Man, and they had one son, George, who was born in 1804.

David married Catherine Fraser, who bore him four children, David (1786-1806), Elisabeth Jean Sophie (b.1788), Emily, Catherine, Guilaume Frederick (b.& d. 1795), Caroline (b. 1796).

David joined the French army and was killed in battle in 1806. He died without issue. Emily married a Colonel Vannechent, but their children (if any) are unknown. Catherine and Caroline have no recorded descendants.

John Gregorie, third child of David Gregorie and Elisabeth Gibson, was born in 1761 at Dunkirk, where he lived until 1826, when he moved to St Omer with his wife and daughters.

John Gregorie, second son of George Gregorie and Sophia van Wyngaden, married Jeanne Christian, and they had two children, Leonard and Sophia.

A search through the telephone directories of the Netherlands, Belgium and France has revealed five Gregories in Belgium and one in France; all presumably descendants of George (b. 1804) or Leonard Gregorie.