Talk:Edwin Gray

Untitled

There is another Edwin Gray - just search with Google and you'll find it at the first place!

more work needed

I'm writing here because my cyberbullies have been active this last month-plus, I have other obligations, and my attempt to cleanup this article (and check the genealogy of the very-long established) Gray family of Virginia has proven complex. One of the more common (but frustrating) errors made by even accomplished genealogists before the internet age was combining men (especially) of two or more generations who share the same name. This is one such. Back in 1915, Lyon Gardiner Tyler amalgamated at least two generations of southeastern Virginia men in the Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary eras named Edwin Gray. In the early days of the internet (1981), The Genealogical Publishing Company of Baltimore (and Springfield VA) published three multi-volume compilations, one five volume set comprising articles from the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, another probably 5 volume set from the (three series of the) William and Mary Quarterly (the earliest dating from the late 1800s and edited by the same Lyon Gardiner Tyler), and another probably 5 volume set from another series not at the northwestern Virginia libraries from which I'm typing. The family's ancestor, Thomas Gray, emigrated from England and patented land in then-vast Surry County (across the James River from Jamestown) in 1635. Surry county divided a lot before 1800, giving rise to Isle of Wight, Sussex, Nansemond and Southampton Counties, among others. The Grays had wealth, but not to the degree of the top-tier First Families of Virginia, such as the Byrds, Harrisons and Carters. A number of Grays served as burgess, but for relatively short terms: Francis Gray for Surry County in 1666, William Gray for Surry County in 1710-1715, another William in 1723 and 1726 and probably yet another William Gray in 1744. According to the third volume of the 5 volume GPI compilation of Va Mag.Hist.&Bio pp.222-224 (on which Tyler may have relied more than a century ago), the son of that last William Gray, Joseph Gray, was burgess for Southampton County pretty much from 1744-1769. That Joseph was the father of the Edwin Gray who was burgess after his father (from 1769 to 1776), as well as a patriot too old to serve in the military and delegate. However, the author of that very old article failed to realize that he died in 1790, a couple of years after his brother James mentioned in that article, and so could not have served in Congress 1799-1813. However, the official FFV genealogy volumes first compiled by now-dead John Frederick Dorman (continued by others now in their 4th 3-volume edition), seem only to follow this family to the fifth generation, i.e. not quite long enough, for these politicians are probably 6th or 7th generation where that Thomas was Gen1). Probably Congressman Edwin Gray was related to his successor as Congressman, John C. Gray (who might be related to another John Gray who might've married after the Civil War and moved far northwest to Loudoun County before his missionary son moved to down to Amherst County and retired and died in the area of these early Grays). If I cannot soon both find time to (and actually) visit libraries with histories of Southampton County that mention this Gray family, I hope a successor can use this note to understand the problem.Jweaver28 (talk) 23:09, 5 March 2025 (UTC)

Turns out Lyon Gardiner Tyler pretty much recycled the same erroneous Edwin Gray article in volumes 1 and 2 of the 1915 Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography. That in Vol.2 explicitly cites as its source the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol.3 p. 403. For what it's worth, that was published in 1896, so the error is longstanding. Also, according to the that article, as well as reliable modern genealogist Martha McCartney (Jamestown People to 1800, p. 179), the first of this Gray family to serve in the House of Burgesses was Francis Gray, the son of emigrant Thomas Gray and his third wife, who represented Charles City County as a burgess but later moved back to the family's extensive properties in Surry County. His son and grandson, both named William Gray, represented Surry County as Burgess in various years before Joseph. While the old article believed William Jr. the burgess in 1744 was Joseph's father (citing his will naming a son of that name), Dorman believes Joseph was the son of Gilbert, William Jr's brother, tho both believe William Gray Sr. the great-grandfather. However, I don't have time to do all those articles. Right now I'm trying to figure out how to untangle these Edwins. Probably in the near future, I'll do a new skeletal article about Joseph Gray the grandfather from the red link in the House of Burgesses member list (notwithstanding no birth date in any of the sources), then create within it a link to his son the burgess and later patriot (naming him Edwin Gray Sr. and copying this article as it stands today), then cleaning rewriting it to reflect this Congressman Edwin Gray. FYI, the old article believes Congressman Edwin Gray's successor, Congressman Joseph Cowper Gray, was descended from a burgess William Gray.Jweaver28 (talk) 22:28, 10 March 2025 (UTC)