George Gray Sr.
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George Gray Sr. (1625 - 1693)

George Gray Sr.
Born in Edinburgh, Scotlandmap
Ancestors ancestors
[sibling(s) unknown]
Husband of — married 1655 [location unknown]
Husband of — married Jul 1672 in York, Massachusetts Bay Colonymap
Descendants descendants
Died at age 67 in Berwick, Massachusetts Bay Colony, Mainemap
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Profile last modified | Created 20 Aug 2011
This page has been accessed 4,286 times.

Biography

George Gray was born on 14 Apr 1625 in Edinburgh, Scotland, son of James E Gray (~1600 - ) and Alison (Gifert) Gray (~1605 - ).

George married Alison Wardlaw (1624 - >1659) in 1655. Their son was William Gray (1658 - ).

George married Sarah Cooper (~1658 - ~1698) in 1672 in York, Maine (York). Their children were:

  1. Robert Gray (1680 - <1754)
  2. James Gray (1688 - ~1726)
  3. Alexander Gray (<1690 - ~1725).
  4. Sarah (Gray) Jellison (1692 - 1728)

George died on 31 Mar 1693 in Berwick, Massachusetts Bay Colony aged 67.[1]

George's death as 31 March 1693 in Berwick which is now in Maine of course then it was part of the Massachusetts Colony. Source is the book by William A. Householder, European Connections the Householder, Gray and Grindle families (Fort Collins,, Colorado: n.p., 1990)

George's Will is published.[2] and his probate, will and inventory reside at York County Courthouse (Maine) [3][4] A copy is available here: Page 1 and Page 2

Research Notes

Marriage record: GRAY, George (-1693); Sarah ____, m/2 Francis HARLOW by 1698; Jul 1672; Kittery, ME (Berwick) {GDMNH 283, 310; Kittery 475}

George and Sarah were charged with fornication before marriage on 2 July 1672, and convicted. They probably paid a fine rather than being whipped.

Sarah is sometimes said to have been the daughter of Alexander Cooper, a fellow Scottish POW. Alexander’s records are that he married in 1667, and his will of 1684 mentions only his minor son John. Sarah could not have been a daughter from the 1667 marriage, and there is no record of Alexander having an earlier marriage or child.

Sources

  1. Gray, Almon A; Snow, Walter Adelbert. The Gray family of Hancock County, Maine (1976) Page b https://archive.org/details/grayfamilyofhanc00gray/page/n13/mode/2up?view=theater
  2. Maine Wills: 1640-1760 By William Mitchell Sargent, Page 41. accessed on 8/13/18 at https://archive.org/stream/cu31924081314852?ui=embed#page/n57/mode/2up
  3. York County Register of Probate, Volume 2, Page 5, York County Courthouse, Alfred, Maine
  4. York County, Maine Probate Records, No. 2, 1707-1719, database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89JS-L9Z8-2  : 7 April 2021), FHL microfilm 007600380, image 151-152.
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Comments: 4

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George Gray could not have married Alison Wardlaw in 1655 as he was taken prisoner after the Battle of Dunbar in 1650.

The Edinburgh parents above did not marry until 1629.

I am confident George was born 1622 in Haddington to Robert Gray and Nycolas Wilson and named his first son born Robert after his father.

When taken prisoner in 1650 age 28 he would have had a young family he was taken from.

My ancestor Alexander Gray and his older brother Robert both born in Haddington in the 1640s were his Scottish born sons - both naming their eldest sons George.

Alexander, Robert, and their uncle James (brother of George) lived together in Prestonkirk near Haddington.

Myself and 5 very distant cousins all have multiple DNA cousin matches to the children of George born in Maine.

posted by William James
Gray-13466 and Gray-2187 appear to represent the same person because: Gray, Almon A., and Walter A. Snow. 1987. The Gray family of Hancock County, Maine. [Place of publication not identified]: [publisher not identified]. lists children Robert, George, Alexander, James, Sarah who m. Joseph Jellison . We know he left a will that was signed on March 13 1692 and probated Aug 30 1693 - The given birth dates 14 Apr 1625 / 21 Dec 1622 do not have confirmed sources. His parents are speculative.
posted by Darryl Rowles
Originally part of Kittery, the area later comprised by Berwick was settled about 1631 and called Kittery Commons or Kittery North Parish. It was later called Unity after the ship that transported Scots prisoners of war from the Battle of Dunbar in 1650 to the colonies. These Scots had been force-marched to Durham Cathedral in Durham, England, then tried for treason for supporting Charles II rather than Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector.[5] Many settled near Berwick in an area near the northern Eliot-York border, which came to be known – and still is – as Scotland Bridge.[6]

Landing in Massachusetts, the royalist soldiers were sold as indentured servants, many of whom went to work at the Great Works sawmill, located on the Great Works River, until they were able to pay for their own freedom. (George Gray, formerly of Lanark, Scotland, was an example of the 150 prisoners who endured this ordeal. In 1675, he defended his family and lands when the community was attacked during King Philip's War, and died in Unity in 1693. His descendants would populate other areas of Maine, notably Deer Isle and Stonington, Maine).

The raid by Indians in 1675 was the first of several during what was known as King Philip's War. In 1690–1691 during King William's War, the village was burned and abandoned in the Raid on Salmon Falls. It was resettled in 1703 and called Newichawannock, its old Abenaki name. In 1713, it was incorporated by the Massachusetts General Court as Berwick, after Berwick-upon-Tweed, England. The first schoolhouse in the state was built here in 1719. The town was raided numerous times during Father Rale's War. Berwick was once considerably larger in size, but South Berwick was set off in 1814, followed by North Berwick in 1831. Lumbering was a principal early industry. The first lumber exported from the American colonies was clapboards and barrel staves loaded aboard Pied Cowe at South Berwick in 1634.[7] Beginning in the 19th century, Berwick had a symbiotic economic relationship with Somersworth, New Hampshire, the mill town to which it is connected by bridge.[8]

Gray-2808 and Gray-2187 appear to represent the same person because: Profiles appear to be the same!
posted by [Living Woodhouse]

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Categories: United States, Gray Name Study