Edward Gray

London merchant, partner in Gray, Whitworth (q.v.), awarded part of the compensation for the enslaved people on Seaman's Valley in Portland Jamaica.

1. Son of Abraham Gray, wine merchant of Tottenham (d. 1794) & his wife Rebecca nee Walker. Brother of Walker Gray, brandy merchant of Southgate House. The family were prominent Quakers. Married (1) Lydia (d.1791), daughter Daniel Bayley of Cirencester 1784; (2) Rachel Satterthwaite 1794. One surviving daughter from first marriage, Lydia (1786-1820), married John Smith Wright.

2. Edward Gray's sister, Mary, married John Scandrett Harford of Blaise Castle, Gloucs, whose family were prominent Bristol merchants involved in the West India trade banking, America trade, shipping and the brass trade. The Harfords were also Quakers, who first established a brass works in the early 1700s. Edward Harford (John Scandrett's grandfather) was also a tobacco merchant and ship owner trading with the West Indies.

3. A second sister, Elizabeth (d. 1781), married John Vickris Taylor in 1776. They had two children Elizabeth (1777-77), & Abjohn b 1778. Taylor's family owned the Taylor Walker brewery. He became close friends with John Scandrett Harford, both of whom were active supporters of abolitionist movement. The Harford/Taylor families had a long standing connection through Truman Harford (1703-1750), married (1) Mary, daughter of Caleb Dickinson and Sarah Vickris of Jamaica; m. (2) Mary, daughter James Taylor and Elizabeth Vickris. John Vickris Taylor was in partnership in the brewery with Truman Harford Jnr before 1793.

4. Will of Edward Gray of Harringay House near Hornsey proved 31/10/1838. Edward Gray's property, including Whitworth & Gilbee's premises, was auctioned off by direction of the trustees and pursuant to the will of Edward Gray Esq.

5. Edward Gray built Harringay House in 1792 and built up a renowned art collection there: he also appeared in J.C. Loudon's Encyclopaedia of Gardening (1824). Gray's whole collection was bought by William Buchanan and James Morrison for £15,000 in 1839.

T71/868 Portland no. 44. Registered 1832 by James Johnson 'atty for Edward Gray Esq of London' T71/157 p.121.

1. 'Quaker British Isles', fully referenced family history at: http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/QUAKER-BRITISH-ISLES/2013-07/1374236902; Harringay Online: http://api.ning.com/files/hiOw4xekqhn01K-5U7-RgxiUbcON3JjKdJAyW*v6Tqw-5bpjWg0G534OegAQvr5CIUMx28rTRDYOfFlOhCLWJCnUO77rNWJE/GrayFamilyTree3.xls.pdf

2. 'Harford of Blaise Castle', in John Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol.4, pp. 638-40; Alice Harford, Annals of the Harford family (London, 1909). Available at: https://archive.org/details/annalsofharfordf00harf

3. 'The descendants of William Harford': http://www.pennyghael.org.uk/Harford.pdf

4. PROB 11/1901; Times 17/11/1838 p. 8.

5. For more information see images and notes on Harringay Online: http://www.harringayonline.com/photo/album/show?id=844301%3AAlbum%3A32564&test-locale=&exposeKeys=&xg_pw=&xgsi=&groupId=&groupUrl=&xgi=&commentPage=&page=1; Literary Gazette (1839)

We are grateful to Angela Burge for sharing her research and the work of Harringay Online in helping to compile this entry.