Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/15



GRAY, EDWARD WHITAKER (1748–1806), botanist, was the youngest brother of Samuel Frederick Gray, the translator of Linnæus's ‘Philosophia Botanica,’ and consequently uncle of Samuel Frederick Gray [q. v.], author of ‘The Practical Chemist.’ He acted as librarian to the College of Physicians previously to 1773, in which year he became a licentiate. He graduated M.D., and became subsequently keeper of the department of natural history and antiquities in the British Museum, where he incurred criticism for arranging the natural history collections on the Linnæan system. He is stated to have been eminent as a botanist, and was made one of the first associates of the Linnean Society in 1788. In 1789 he contributed ‘Observations on the … Amphibia’ to the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ of the Royal Society, of which he was a fellow, and of which in 1797 he became secretary. He died at the British Museum, 27 Dec. 1806, in his fifty-ninth year. His portrait by Calcott is at the Royal Society's apartments.

[Munk's Coll. of Phys. ii. 298; Gent. Mag. 1807, vol. lxxvii. pt. i. p. 90.]  GRAY, EDWARD WILLIAM (1787?–1860), topographer, born about 1787, carried on the business of a cheese factor and mealman in Bartholomew Street, Newbury, Berkshire. At the passing of the Municipal Act in 1835 he was chosen member of the town council, served the office of mayor in 1840, and was subsequently appointed alderman and magistrate. He died at his residence, Woodspeen, on 19 June 1860, aged 73, and was buried on the 26th of that month in the family vault in Enborne churchyard, near Newbury. He edited anonymously ‘The History and Antiquities of Newbury and its Environs, including twenty-eight Parishes situate in the County of Berks; also a Catalogue of Plants,’ 8vo, Speenhamland, 1839, an excellent specimen of thorough workmanship. It was his original intention to publish the book in numbers, but after the appearance of the first number in 1831, he abandoned the plan.

[Reading Mercury, 23 and 30 June 1860; Pigot's London and Provincial Directory for 1823–4; Notes and Queries, 4th ser. iii. 554, 607.]  GRAY, GEORGE (1758–1819), painter, born at Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1758, was son of Gilbert Gray, a well-known quaker of that town. He was educated at the grammar school, and was first apprenticed to a fruit-painter named Jones, with whom he resided some time at York. Besides painting, Gray studied chemistry, mineralogy, and botany. In 1787 he went to North America on a botanical excursion, and in 1791 he was sent on an expedition to report on the geology of Poland. In 1794 Gray settled in Newcastle as a portrait, fruit, or sign painter, and was employed as a drawing-master. He also occupied himself with numerous ingenious inventions, such as making bread from roots and weaving stockings from nettles. Gray's humour and originality made him popular. Late in life he married the widow of a schoolmaster, Mrs. Dobie, whom he survived. He died at his house in Pudding Chare on 9 Dec. 1819. A crayon portrait of John Bewick, by Gray, is in the museum of the Natural History Society at Newcastle.

[Mackenzie's Hist. of Newcastle-on-Tyne, ii. 377; Robinson's Life and Times of Thomas Bewick.]  GRAY, GEORGE ROBERT (1808–1872), zoologist, the youngest son of Samuel Frederick Gray [q. v.], was born at Chelsea July 1808, and educated at Merchant Taylors' School. At an early age he assisted John George Children [q. v.] in arranging his extensive collection of insects. In 1831 he became an assistant in the zoological department of the British Museum, and subsequently published various catalogues of sections of the insects and birds. He contributed to the entomological portion of the English edition of Cuvier's ‘Animal Kingdom,’ and to the ‘Proceedings of the Zoological Society.’ In 1833 appeared his ‘Entomology of Australia.’ In 1840 he printed privately a ‘List of the Genera of Birds,’ containing 1,065 genera, noting the type species on which each genus was founded; a second edition in 1841 extended the list to 1,232 genera; the third edition (1855) contained 2,403 genera and subgenera. In 1842 he and Prince C. L. Bonaparte assisted Agassiz in the ‘Nomenclator Zoologicus.’ Finally, near the end of his life, his great ‘Hand-List of the Genera and Species of Birds’ (1869–72) enumerated more than eleven thousand species, and recorded forty thousand specific names given by various authors. The utility of this work was marred by the want of references, and it rapidly passed out of date. His most valuable work was the ‘Genera of Birds,’ in three folio volumes, excellently illustrated by D. W. Mitchell and J. Wolf (1844–9); it brought the number of recorded species of birds up to date, and was a starting-point for much subsequent progress in ornithology. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1866, and was a member of the ‘Academia Economico-Agraria dei Georgofili’ of Florence. He died on 5 May 1872. His work lacked originality,