GRAY, Capt. William

GRAY, Capt. William

Male 1750 - 1804  (54 years)

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  • Name GRAY, William 
    Prefix Capt. 
    Birth 1750  Belfast City, Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Address:
    Belfast 
    Gender Male 
    Biography

    • Captain Gray was prominently identified with the history and development of his town and county. In 1778 he accompanied General Sullivan's expedition, and his draft of Col. William Butler's march and a letter to Robert Erskine are printed in the Pennsylvania Archives, Second Series, Vol. XV. He was made paymaster of the county militia in 1781; collector of excise in 1783; and deputy surveyor in 1791; he was auditor of Augusta township in 1787 and overseer in 1791; in 1796 he was one of the trustees appointed to purchase a schoolhouse for Sunbury.
       
      Captain Gray was a Presbyterian and in 1787 he and Abraham Scoot, representing the congregation of Sunbury, united with the representatives of the Northumberland and Buffalo congregations in extending a call to Rev.Hugh Morrison, a licentiate of the Presbytery of Root, Ireland, who had been admitted to the Presbytery of Donegal in 1786; this call resulted in the establishment of the first Presbyterian Church in Sunbury. He was a member of the Pennsylvania State Society of the Cincinnati, and was made a Mason in Royal Arch Lodge No.3, at Philadelphia, during the Revolution. He first appears in Lodge No. 22, at Sunbury, as a visitor on Aug. 31, 1781, and on Jan. 7, 1784, was elected a member of that lodge. He was elected worshipful master of the Lodge Dec. 27, 1784; Dec. 27, 1791; June 24, 1793; Dec. 28, 1795; Dec. 27,1797; June 28, 1798, and Dec. 27, 1799. He was an enthusiastic Mason and some of the meetings of the lodge were held in his house, which was a large two-story log house standing at the southeast corner of Second and Walnut streets. The tax records at Sunbury show that in 1795 he was assessed as the owner of 760 acres of land, sixty town lots, five horses, one house and lot and one slave. Captain Gray was drowned in the Bloody Spring, near Sunbury, July 18, 1804; he had been working in the harvest field and sustained a stroke of apoplexy while leaning over drinking from the spring.
       
      Capt.William Gray was married to Mary Brady, daughter of Capt. John Brady, who had served in the French and Indian and Revolutionary wars, and who was shot by the Indians near Muncy in 1779. Captain Brady was a son of Hugh Brady, of Cumberland county, Pa. His wife, whose maiden name was  Mary Quigley, was a daughter of James Quigley, of Cumberland county.
    _UID F14838F2C7B846F88F338A088406603B99B0 
    Death 18 Jul 1804  Sunbury, Northumberland, Pennsylvania, United States Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I6450  Milton Families
    Last Modified 19 Aug 2012 

    Family BRADY, Mary Quigley,   b. 22 Apr 1764   d. 13 Dec 1850, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 86 years) 
    Marriage 10 Sep 1784 
    Children 
    +1. GRAY, Lt. William M.,   b. 1792   d. 1858 (Age 66 years)
    Family ID F2014  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 18 Jan 2024 

  • Event Map
    Link to Google MapsBirth - Address:
    Belfast - 1750 - Belfast City, Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
    Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsDeath - 18 Jul 1804 - Sunbury, Northumberland, Pennsylvania, United States Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Earth 

  • Sources 
    1. [S14] Floyd's History of Northumberland County, PA 1911, Page 351.