John Robert Gregg (17 June 1867 – 23 February 1948) was an Irish
educator
A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching.
''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...
,
publisher
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
,
humanitarian
Humanitarianism is an active belief in the value of human life, whereby humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans to reduce suffering and improve the conditions of humanity for moral, altruistic, and emotional ...
, and the
inventor
An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...
of the eponymous
shorthand
Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''ste ...
system
Gregg Shorthand
Gregg shorthand is a form of shorthand that was invented by John Robert Gregg in 1888. Like cursive longhand, it is completely based on elliptical figures and lines that bisect them. Gregg shorthand is the most popular form of pen stenography in ...
.
Life
Childhood
John Robert Gregg was born in Shantonagh, Ireland, as the youngest child of Robert and Margaret Gregg, where they remained until 1872, when they moved to Rockcorry, County Monaghan.
Robert Gregg, who was of Scottish ancestry, was station-master at the Bushford railway station in Rockcorry. He and his wife raised their children as strict Presbyterians, and sent their children to the village school in Rockcorry, which John Robert Gregg joined in 1872.
[Cowan, 11.] On his second day of class, John Robert was caught whispering to a schoolmate, which prompted the schoolmaster to hit the two children's heads together.
This incident profoundly damaged Gregg's hearing for the rest of his life, rendering him unable to participate fully in school, unable to understand his teacher. This ultimately led to John Robert unnecessarily being perceived as dull or mentally challenged by his peers, teachers, and family.
[Cowan, 12.]
In 1877, one of Robert Gregg's friends, a journalist named Annesley, visited the village for a weekend. He was versed in Pitman Shorthand, and took verbatim notes of the sermon at the village church, causing the preacher to sweat and stutter, out of fear that his sermon, which he had plagiarized from a famous preacher, would be made public through Annesley's notes.
That day, Robert Gregg saw the shorthand skill as a powerful asset, so he made it mandatory for his children to learn Pitman shorthand, with the exception of John, who was considered by his family too "simple" to learn it.
[Cowan, 13.] None of the children succeeded in fully learning the system.
On his own, John Robert learned a different shorthand system, that of Samuel Taylor, published in a small book by Odell. He taught himself the system fully, since he did not require the ability to hear in order to learn from the book.
Due to hardships on the family, Gregg had to leave school before the age of 13 in order to support his family's income.
[Cowan, 14.] He worked in a law office, earning five shillings a week.
Career
Gregg said he initially set out to improve the English adaptation by John Matthew Sloan of the French Prévost
Duployé Shorthand, while working with one of Sloan's sales agents, Thomas Malone. Malone published a system called ''Script Phonography'', of which Gregg asserted a share in authorship was owed to him. Angered by Malone, Gregg resigned from working with him and, encouraged by his older brother Samuel, published and copyrighted his own system of shorthand in 1888.
It was put forth in a brochure entitled ''Light-Line Phonography: The Phonetic Handwriting'' which he published in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.
[Cowan, 30.]
In 1893, he emigrated to the United States. That year he published ''Gregg Shorthand''.
[Cowan, 43.] with great success. Gregg settled in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
where he wrote many books for the Gregg Publishing Company on shorthand and business practices.
See also
*
Gregg shorthand
Gregg shorthand is a form of shorthand that was invented by John Robert Gregg in 1888. Like cursive longhand, it is completely based on elliptical figures and lines that bisect them. Gregg shorthand is the most popular form of pen stenography in ...
*
Shorthand
Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''ste ...
* ''
The Gregg Reference Manual
''The Gregg Reference Manual: A Manual of Style, Grammar, Usage, and Formatting'' is a guide to English grammar and style, written by William A. Sabin and published by McGraw-Hill. The book is named after John Robert Gregg
John Robert Gre ...
''
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gregg, John Robert
1867 births
1948 deaths
Irish people of Scottish descent
19th-century American inventors
American educators
American Presbyterians
People from County Monaghan
Creators of writing systems
American deaf people
Scottish inventors
American people of Scottish descent
Irish Presbyterians