His education he began at the Grammar School, of which Robert Skene was the rector, and afterwards he studied either at Marischal College or King’s College. It was at the University of Edinburgh, however, where his uncle had had such a brilliant if short career, that he took his degree as Master of Arts in 1683. He was even as a student a man whose life was commented upon. People talked of his studiousness, of his joyful temper, and still more of his friendship with Dr Archibald Pitcairne, whose time was coming to make the tongues of Edinburgh wag. They really were wonderful friends. Pitcairne studied everything from sheer love of learning. He was educated in turn for the church, the law, and for medicine, and besides this he made a great excursion into the higher mathematics at the instigation of his friend. David Gregorie, on the other hand, was a pure mathematician, all else in his studies giving way to his love for his dear ‘Celestial Physicks.’ From his uncle, James, he had inherited a great number of mathematical manuscripts, and this inheritance was regarded by him with the deepest veneration. Some day he would edit all these papers, but meantime many happy hours were spent by these two friends going over the manuscripts. For David Gregorie there was moreover much to delight in, in every fresh discovery that came from the hands of Sir Isaac Newton. Soon he was as ardent an admirer of the philosopher as ever his uncle had been. If he were made a professor, Gregorie thought, he would admit none of the Cartesian fallacies, and already his appointment to the Chair of Mathematics was being discussed. At the age of twenty-two, then, and actually before David Gregorie had got his A.M. degree, he was appointed to this Chair in the Edinburgh University, an office which had not been filled up since his uncle’s death. Lectures had been given by a student called John Young, but he was only acting as mathematical tutor, filling the place temporarily, whereas when Gregory was appointed it was as professor, with a salary of £1000 (Scots).