Place-Name Scraps

Gregstown (Ards Peninsula, County Down)

The townland of Gregstown is the first townland encountered to the east of Newtownards as you drive past the Londonderry Playing fields on the Portaferry Road.

In Volume Two of the Place-Names of Northern Ireland, Gregstown is described as “An English form” where “the absence of forms earlier than the 19th-century suggests that this is a relatively recent name”.

Gregstown (pronounced Gregstoun) is clearly one of those many townlands we have throughout Ullans kintra which has been named after a person or family. However, almost all present-day ‘Greggs’ (including our Honorary President) spell this lowland Scots surname with two ‘g’s at the end.

The recent publication Newtown: a history of Newtownards by Trevor McCavery, now provides us with an explanation of the origin of this townland name. In 1642, the first Presbytery in Ireland was established by the covenanting forces at Carrickfergus. Immediately after this Mr John Greg had become the minister at Carrickfergus, and by 1649 Sir Hugh Montgomery was making every effort to attract Greg to the vacant ministry at Newtownards. Apparently in 1649 Montgomery was eventually successful, but only at the expense of granting him a townland near the town — hence ‘Gregstown’ with its peculiar spelling.

Tags:

NOTICE

The Ulster-Scots Academy has been an integral part of the Ulster-Scots Language Society since 1993. The name "Ulster-Scots Academy" is registered to the USLS with the Intellectual Property Office.

Ulster Scots Academy

LATEST

A new edition of Michael Montgomery’s From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English recounts the lasting impact that at least 150,000 settlers from Ulster in the 18th century made on the development of the English language of the United States. This new edition published by the Ulster-Scots Language Society documents over 500 ‘shared’ vocabulary items which are authenticated by quotations from both sides of the Atlantic. A searchable online version of this dictionary is now also available here.

FORTHCOMING

The Ulster-Scots Academy is currently working on the digitisation of Dr Philip Robinson's seminal Ulster-Scots Grammar and the English/Ulster-Scots part (with circa 10,000 entries) of a two-way historical dictionary of Ulster-Scots. These projects are planned to be completed and available on the site in 2016.

SUPPORT US

DONATE via PAYPAL

This site is being developed on a purely voluntary basis by the Ulster-Scots Language Society at no cost to the taxpayer. USLS volunteers have been involved in preserving and promoting Ulster-Scots for more than 20 years. All donations, however small, will be most gratefully received and contribute towards the expansion of the project. Thank you!

This site is being developed by the Ulster-Scots Language Society (Charity No. XN89678) without external financial assistance. USLS volunteers have been involved in preserving and promoting Ulster-Scots for more than 20 years. All donations, however small, will be most gratefully received and contribute towards the expansion of the project. Thank you!

(Friends of the Ulster-Scots Academy group)