John Gregory

John Gregory (6 September 1806—c. May 1848) was an English railway and naval engineer. He served as engineer aboard HMS Erebus during the 1845 Franklin Expedition, which sought to explore uncharted parts of what is now Nunavut, including the Northwest Passage, and make scientific observations. The ships were outfitted with former railway locomotive engines which served as auxiliary power units, which is why Gregory, who had never been to sea, served on the expedition. All expedition personnel perished in uncertain conditions, mostly on and around King William Island. In 2021, Gregory's remains became the first of the 129-man expedition to be positively identified using DNA analysis.

Biography

Early life John Gregory was born 6 September 1806 in Salford, Lancashire (now part of Greater Manchester), the eldest child of William Gregory, a grocer, and his wife Frances. He was baptized in the Church of St. Michaels, Angel Meadow, a chapel of ease in the most notorious slum of the city during the nineteenth century. His father William was literate, and John likely learned to read and write from a young age. Historian Ralph Lloyd-Jones had in 2018 supposed a 1790 birth date for John Gregory based on genealogical research. In 2021, a team led by Douglas R. Stenton verified that this was an error, as the 1790 John Gregory, a son of John and Mary Gregory, died in infancy and was buried on 1 April 1791.

Life and career John Gregory married Hannah Wilson at St. Michael's Church in Ashton-under-Lyne (Hannah's birthplace) on 14 April 1823.

Gregory was employed by Lambeth-based engineering company Maudslay, Sons & Field, a prominent manufacturer of boilers and steam engines. He and his family lived at 7 Ely Place, London in 1845.

In addition to the engines, Maudslay, Sons & Field provided two men to maintain them: James Thompson on Terror and John Gregory on Erebus. On Gregory's naval book it was written: "This Engineer was recommended by Messrs Maudslay to serve in one of the Vessels employed in the Arctic Expedition having been accustomed to locomotive Engines. His pay to be double that allowed to 1st Class Engineers (Woolwich 6th May 1845) Admiralty 13 May/45." Warrant officers served as heads of specialist technical branches aboard ship and reported directly to the captain.

Leaving England The expedition was Gregory's first time at sea. On 9 July 1845, two weeks after Erebus and Terror departed Greenhithe, Kent, he wrote a letter to his wife in which he described his first time seeing whales and icebergs. The letter was sent from Greenland before the expedition sailed into the Canadian Arctic, and was the last contact Gregory had with his family. The letter concluded with the line “Give my kind Love to Edward, Fanny, James, William, and kiss baby for me – and accept the same yourself." The letter is held in the Scott Polar Research Institute Archives at the University of Cambridge.

In the Canadian Arctic The ships spent the first winter at Beechey Island, where three men (John Torrington, John Hartnell, and William Braine) died and were buried. The ships were trapped in ice northwest of King William Island in 1846. In April 1848, the ships were still beset by the ice, in the northern Victoria Strait and twenty-one men including John Franklin had died. On 22 April 1848, Francis Crozier and one-hundred-four more surviving officers and men deserted the ships, moved equipment including small boats across twenty-eight kilometres of sea ice and encamped on the northwest corner of King William Island, only a few kilometres south of Victory Point. Four days later, they set off to find the Back River and help from a Hudson Bay Company post on the Canadian mainland.

John Gregory survived three years trapped aboard Erebus and was one of the survivors led by Crozier south along King William Island. He was among at least twenty-three sailors who were left with two ship's boats in Erebus Bay. He died seventy-five kilometres south of the landing site, on the shore of Erebus Bay. Douglas Stenton estimated he died in May 1848. He found in Erebus Bay a ship's boat resting on its sledges, large quantities of supplies and personal effects, and the partial remains of two skeletons. In 1861, Netsilik Inuit travelled there to find useful artefacts, finding two boats and large quantities of skeletal remains. Schwatka buried the human remains he found, including those that would later be identified as belonging to John Gregory. The skull was photographed by Andrew Gregg and appeared in a 1995 CBC Television special hosted by Carol Off. Using the skull as a base, a facial reconstruction of John Gregory was made by Diana Tretkov prior to the identification of the remains. The archaeological DNA of twenty-nine expedition personnel has been analyzed as of 2021, with twenty-three coming from sites in Erebus Bay. The identification of Gregory has been described as one of the most important developments in Franklin expedition research in 2021.