GREGG-L Archives

From: Richard Huseth <>
Subject: Mime-Version: 1.0
Date: Sat, 03 Mar 2001 17:03:15 -0600

The recent discussions concerning the Gregg cane have prompted me to relate
some of the more recent information I have discovered about the early
Greggs in Delaware.

Last May, my wife Janice (the Gregg in the family) and I traveled to
Delaware, Pennsylvania and Virginia to visit her "roots." Perhaps some of
you have viewed my photographs of Brandywine Creek, the Quaker meeting
houses in the above three states, and the wonderful DuPont gardens of
Longwood and Winterthur. They can be viewed at:

http://users.ev1.net/~rhuseth

While staying in the Wilmington area, we visited the Hagley Museum and
Library, the site of the original DuPont gunpowder mills which led to the
DuPont chemical empire. We knew that the Greggs originally owned some of
the land which was later purchased by the du Ponts, but we didn't realize
what still exists to memorialize these Greggs and didn't discover it,
unfortunately, until we returned home. We looked for the Strand Millas
stone house in the vicinity of Montchanin, but did not see it. We only had
time for a hour or two at the Hagley Library and we were shown one folder,
related to the Greggs, which contained a few interesting old letters of
John Gregg, the son of William.

I later became aware that the library holds much more Gregg information
which was collected by Pierre du Pont, the grandson of E.I. du Pont, the
founder of the gunpowder mills. After contacting the library by mail, I
have received many, many pages of very interesting information on the
history of the Greggs in the area. Based on this source and a couple of
others, here, briefly is what I have learned about William Gregg and his
descendants in the area:

William "the Immigrant Quaker" Gregg, and his the family arrived in America
in the fall of 1684. As you probably know, William named his estate
"Strand Millas." I have wondered about the origin of this name and have
recently learned that "Stranmillis" is the name of the university district
along the north bank of the Lagan River in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It
is the home of Queen's University which includes Stranmillis University
College. William was born in Glenarm, County Antrim, not far from the
Stranmillis district of Belfast. Amazingly, the original log cabin which
was built by William survived until 1948. A frame exterior was added at
some point, but the original logs could still be seen in the interior of
the building which was used for storage by the du Ponts after they acquired
the property in the 1800s. The Hagley Library has a fuzzy photograph of
the modified cabin. I am still attempting to determine the exact location
of William's log cabin.

William's son, John Gregg, built his home in 1694 at a place called Rock
Spring about halfway between Montchanin and Rockland, Delaware. This house
still exists after 300 years and "extensive remodeling." It is listed on
the National Register of Historic Places.

John's brother, Richard, inherited their father's Stand Millas estate when
William died in 1687 and, in 1701, built a stone house near John's Rock
Spring home (on the road from Montchanin to Rockland). When Richard died
in 1719, John inherited the property and gave it to his son Samuel. This
house also exists and is listed on the National Register of Historic
Places. The applications for listing on the National Register of Historic
Places contain some excellent photographs of the houses as well as some of
their history.

The fourth Gregg home, which also still exists, became the first home in
America of E.I. du Pont and his family. In 1802, du Pont purchased land
along Brandywine Creek north of Wilmington for the location of his
gunpowder mills. It is not clear who built this two-story stone house
along the Brandywine. John Gregg owned the land from 1733 until his death
in 1738; his son, Samuel Gregg, owned it from 1738 until 1767; and Samuel's
son, John Gregg, owned it from 1767 until 1794. The only known reference
to the house is on a 1790 survey. Therefore, John, or his son Samuel, or
his grandson John must have built it.

It was this house which was the focus of the interest of Pierre du
Pont. During 1948-50, he and his researcher wrote many letters to Gregg
descendants, to libraries, and to government agencies in an attempt to find
someone, or some document, which would tell him who built this house and
when it was built. It appears that he was unsuccessful in this quest, but
as noted above, it must have been a Gregg.

The land on which this house was built was purchased December 31, 1733, by
John Gregg from John, Thomas, and Richard Penn, sons of William Penn. The
Historical Society of Delaware in Wilmington has the original land patent
for this purchase. It is a thick parchment-like paper, about 10 inches by
21 inches, with the original seal still attached by a ribbon. We were very
excited hold such an old document in our hands. It was rather difficult
to read this document, but I found a "translation" in Pierre du Pont's
papers. If there is interest, I will pass it on to you in another message
to the group

It is said that William Gregg was buried on his plantation called Strand
Millas. I have been told that this burial ground is now part of the
Wilmington Country Club along Montchanin Road and that there may be some
stones marking its boundary.

In summary, it is amazing to me that three stone houses built by the Greggs
during the 1690s and 1700s still exist, two of them on the National
Register of Historic Places, and a fourth (a log cabin!!!) existed until 1948.

If there are any Gregg researchers in the vicinity of Montchanin, I would
greatly appreciate some help in determining the exact location of the three
stone house and the Gregg burial ground.

Richard Huseth
Austin, Texas

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• Mime-Version: 1.0 by Richard Huseth <>