Edward Gray Sr. (abt. 1629 - abt. 1681)

Born about 1629 in England

Husband of Mary (Winslow) Gray — married 16 Jan 1651 in Plymouth Colony

Husband of Dorothy (Lettice) Clarke — married 12 Dec 1665 in Plymouth, Plymouth Colony

Descendants

Died about 30 Jun 1681 at about age 52 in Plymouth, Plymouth Colony

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Puritan Great Migration Project WikiTree [send private message], Brent Bowen [send private message], and Casey Clark [send private message]

Edward Gray Sr. migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Biography

Edward was probably born in England around 1629 based on his age at death recorded on his headstone.^[1] See Research Notes. He is often incorrectly identified as Edward Gray, baptized 15 April 1623 in Stapleford Tawney, Essex, England who died in England in 1667.

Immigration & Arrival in Plymouth

Edward arrived in Plymouth about 1643, took the freeman's oath in 1657, and was constable in 1668. He was a merchant and amassed an estate inventoried at £2751. His father-in-law, John Winslow of Boston, named his granddaughters Sarah and Anna Gray, daughters of Edward Gray. On 02 November 1665 Edward Gray "being about to marry a second wife" made provisions for his five daughters by his first wife.^[2]

Marriage

Edward married first Mary Winslow on 16 Jan 1650/1 in Plymouth, Plymouth Colony.^[3] They had at least 5 children:

1. Desire (b. 06 Nov 1651 - d. 04 Dec 1690).[2] m. (10 Jan 1672) Nath'l Southworth.[3]
2. Mary (b. 18 Sep 1653).[4]
3. Elizabeth (b. 11 Feb 1658).[5]
4. Sarah (b. 12 Aug 1659).[6]
5. John (b. 01 Oct 1661.).[7]

Mary died before November 1665.^[2]

Edward married second Dorothy Lettice on 12 December 1665 in Plymouth, Plymouth Colony.^[3] The had at least 8 children:

1. Edward II (b. 31 Jan 1666/7 - d. 1726)^[4]
2. Susanna (b. 15 Oct 1668).[8]^[5]
3. Rebecca [--1670--?].[9]
4. Thomas (b. 1669? - d. 05 Nov 1721).[10]^[6] m.1 Anna (b. 1673 - d. 16 Oct 1706).[11] m.2 Phebe (1666-1746).[12]
5. Hannah [--1673--?].[13]
6. Anna [--1671?--].[14]
7. Lydia [--1677?--].[15] m. (07 Aug 1696) Caleb Loring (b. 09 Jun 1674).[16]
8. Samuel (b. 1682?^[7] - d. 23 Mar 1712).[17] m. (13 Jul 1699) Deborah Church.

Dorothy remarried to Nathaniel Clarke.[18] She died in Little Compton, Rhode Island in 1726.

Death and Probate

He died in June 1681 at age 52 and was buried at Burial Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay Colony where his gravestone still stands.^{[8][9][10][1]}

In 1684, an agreement was recorded in the Plymouth land records dividing his real estate in Scituate among his heirs. The agreement was signed by John Walley, guardian of Anna Gray, Seth Arnold and his wife Elizabeth, Samuel Little and his wife Sarah, Nathaniel Thomas and Dorothy Gray, guardians to six younger children, Nathaniel Southworth and his wife Desire.^[11][12]

Research Notes

Disproven Parents / Origins: Because of the mistaken identification with the Essex Grays, this profile was originally attached to John Gray and Elizabeth Joan Ward as parents. Those were detached once it was ascertained that the other Edward Gray had died in Essex and never immigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Is the referenced headstone contemporaneous? Based on the images on FindAGrave, the headstone does not appear to be contemporaneous. There appears to be either a plaque or an inset in the stone, which could be made from the original marker. Unfortunately, the Plympton vital records don't identify a source for his entry (church, town, gravestone?). That should be kept in mind when evaluating the inscription as a source for his age. Cole-12288 17:13, 28 April 2024 (UTC)

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9304188/edward-gray: accessed April 28, 2024), memorial page for Edward Gray Sr. (15 Apr 1623–30 Jun 1681), Find A Grave: Memorial #9304188, citing Burial Hill, Plymouth, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, USA; Maintained by Carolyn N. Gray-Yeaw (contributor 47062093). (Includes gravestone photos and inscription.)
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Sherman, Robert Moody; Wakefield, Robert S.; Finlay, Lydia Dow. Mayflower Families Through Five Generations. James Chilton, Richard More. Volume Fifteen. (General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1997), p. 13.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} New England Marriages to 1700. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: Torrey, Clarence Almon. New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015. Accessed on 27 Apr 2024.
4. ↑ Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016). https://www.americanancestors.org/DB190/i/14012/666/253537914
5. ↑ disputed marriage to John Cole.[1]
6. ↑ see site #36257503
7. ↑ see record# 20495342
8. ↑ Death: "Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988"
   Original data: Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Vital and Town Records. Provo, UT: Holbrook Research Institute (Jay and Delene Holbrook)
   Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 2495 #81004686 (link by $ubscription) (accessed 28 April 2024)
   Edward Gray death Jun 1681 (age 52) in Plympton, Massachusetts, USA.
9. ↑ NEHGS, Vital records of Plympton, Massachusetts, to the year 1850 (Boston: NEHGS, 1923), p. 481. Archive.org.
10. ↑ Burial: "Epitaphs from Burial Hill, Plymouth, Massachusetts, from 1657 to 1892 : with biographical and historical notes"
    Epitaphs from Burial Hill, Plymouth
    Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Image (link by $ubscription) (accessed 28 April 2024); also Archive.org (free link)
11. ↑ "Massachusetts Land Records, 1620-1986," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9Z7-PCBN : 22 May 2014), Plymouth > Deeds 1664-1711 vol 1-5 > image 13-15 of 652; county courthouses and offices, Massachusetts.
12. ↑ Probate: "Mayflower Deeds and Probates, 1600-1850"
    Original data: Roser, Susan E. Mayflower Deeds and Probates: From the Files of George Ernest Bowman at the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc., 1994
    Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 3223 #4481 (accessed 28 April 2024)
    Edward Gray probate.

See also:

• Mayflower Families through Five Generations, V2, p5-20
• Mayflower Increasings Through three Generations, Susan E. Roser, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. Baltimore, 1989, p41-41.
• Mayflower Families Through Five Generations Vol. 15 Chilton/More 1997 p. 13
• Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988: death notice [Plympton VRs with additions]: GRAY (Edward, gentleman), of Plymouth, h. Dorothy (Lettice) (second w.), father of one son and five daughters by his first wife; by his second w. father of two daughters; married Coles; of Lydia (w. Caleb Loring Esq.); of Edward, settled (?) Tiverton, R.I. (father of Sarah (w. Lt. Samuel Bradford of P.)); of Thomas and Samuel, settled at Little Compton, R.I., last of June, 1681, a. abt. 52).
• Hayward, Elijah. Plymouth Colony Records, The New England Historical & Genealogical Register (New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Mass., 1855) Vol. 9

• Page 313: "Plymouth, Edward Gray, to Mary Winslow, Jan. 16, 1650-1."
• Page 315: "Plymouth, Edward Gray, to Dorothy Lettice, Dec. 12, 1665."

• Land Deed, (1676, November). Ancestry.com. Web.[19]
• Descendants. Ancestry.com. Web.[20]
• Edward Gray Notes. Ancestry.com. Web.[21]
• Raymond, Marcius Denison. Gray Genealogy: Being a Genealogical Record and History of the Descendants of John Gray, of Beverly, Mass. (Tarrytown, New York, 1887) Page 262
• Register of the Society of Mayflower Descendants In The State of California (Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1917) Page 87: Calf. No. 54, General No. 3088 Samuel Bradford Doten, Reno, Nevada.
• Earliest Inscriptions From Plymouth Burying Hill, New England Historical & Genealogical Register (NEHGS, Boston, 1850) Vol. 4., Page 254
• Chris, (2012, July 15). Edward Gray and Mary Winslow and Dorothy Lettice of Plymouth, Mass. Massachusetts and More Genealogy Blog. Web.[22]
• Austin, J.O. (1887). "Gray." The Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island: Comprising Three Generations of Settlers who Came Before 1690 (with Many Families Carried to the Fourth Generation), pp. 85. Genealogical Publishing Co. Google Books.[23]
• Perkins, F.H. (1896). Handbook of Old Burial Hill, Plymouth, Massachusetts: Its History, Its Famous Dead, and Its Quaint Epitaphs, pp. 13-15. A.S. Burbank. Google Books.[24] [includes tombstone inscription]
• Stratton, E.A. (1986). Plymouth Colony, Its History & People, 1620-1691. Ancestry Publishing. Google Books.[25]
• Clarke, Augustus Peck. Clarke's Kindred Genealogies (Harvard Print. Co., Cambridge, Mass., 1896) Page 66: Incorrectly claims his gravestone inscription is wrong because the Stapleford Tawney, England baptism record shows a date of April 15, 1623, who has been demonstrated to have died in England.