“Several years before I left Aberdeen (which I did in 1764), Mr. Douglas of Feckel, the father of Sylvester Douglas, now a barrister at London, told me, that having been lately at Edinburgh, he was often in company with Mr. Hepburn of Keith, a gentleman of whom I had some acquaintance, by his lodging a night at my house at New Machar, when he was in the rebel army in 1745. That Mr. Hepburn told him that he had heard Mr. James Gregory, professor of mathematics, Edinburgh, say, that being one day in familiar conversation with Sir Isaac Newton at London, Sir Isaac said, ‘Gregory, I believe you don’t know that I am a Scotchman.’—‘Pray, how is that?’ said Gregory. Sir Isaac said he was informed that his grandfather (or great-grandfather) was a gentleman of East (or West) Lothian: that he went to London with King James the 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 circumstances. 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 had been descended from an old English family, as I think is said in his _eloge_ before the Academy 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 will remember. Mr. Cross was moved by this account, and immediately 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. Gregory, 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 several 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 further inquiry into the matter. This appeared very strange both to Mr. Cross and me, and he said he would reproach them for their indifference, and would make inquiry as soon as he was able.