Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/16

 and he was over-sensitive to criticism, especially from younger men.



GRAY, GILBERT (d. 1614), second principal of Marischal College, Aberdeen, was appointed to that post in 1598. He was a pupil of Robert Rollock, the first principal of the university of Edinburgh, whose virtues and learning he extolled in a curious Latin oration which he delivered in 1611, entitled ‘Oratio de Illustribus Scotiæ Scriptoribus.’ Several of the authors eulogised in it are fictitious. Gray accepted literally ‘the fabulous stories of Fergus the First having written on the subject of law 300 years B.C.; Dornadilla a century after composing rules for sportsmen; Reutha, the 7th king of Scotland, being a great promoter of schools and education; and King Josina, a century and a half before the Christian era, writing on botany and the practice of medicine.’ Gray died in 1614.



GRAY, HUGH (d. 1604), Gresham professor of divinity, matriculated as a sizar of Trinity College, Cambridge, in May 1574, was elected scholar, and in 1578-9 proceeded B.A. He was elected a fellow on 2 Oct. 1581, and commenced M.A. in 1582. On 8 Jan. 1586-7 he preached a sermon at Great St. Mary's, wherein he asserted that 'the church of England maintained Jewish music, and that to play at dice or cards was to crucify Christ; inveighed against dumbs in the church, and mercenary ministers; insinuated that some in the university sent news to Rome and Rheims; and asserted that the people celebrated the nativity as ethnics, atheists, and epicures.' For this sermon he was convened before the vice-chancellor and heads of colleges. He afterwards made a public explanation, denying the particular application of the passages excepted against (, Annals of Cambr. ii. 429). He proceeded B.D. in 1589, was created D.D. in 1595, and was in December 1596 an unsuccessful candidate for the Lady Margaret professorship of divinity in his university, receiving twelve votes, while twenty-eight were recorded for Dr. Playfere (ib. ii. 564). On 9 April 1597 he was elected a senior fellow of his college. On 5 Nov. 1600 he was collated to the prebend of Milton Manor in the cathedral of Lincoln, being installed on 12 Dec. following (, Fasti, ed. Hardy, ii. 190). He also held the rectory of Meon-Stoke in Hampshire. Gray succeeded Anthony Wotton as Gresham professor of divinity, which office he resigned before 6 July 1604. His death took place in the same month. By his will, dated 20 May 1604, he bequeathed to Trinity College 13l. 6s. 8d. to build a pulpit, and to Gresham College a piece of plate worth 5l., to be in common among all the readers. The lectures which he had read at Gresham College he left to William Jackson, minister of St. Swithin's, London, to be disposed of as he pleased, but they do not appear to have been printed. His manuscript sermon upon Matt. xi. 21, 22, is in the library of the university of Cambridge, Dd. 15, 10 (Cat. i. 539).



GRAY, JAMES (d. 1830), poet and linguist, was originally master of the high school of Dumfries, and there became intimate with Burns. From 1801 till 1822 he was master in the high school of Edinburgh (Edinburgh Almanack, 1802, p. 106). In 1822 he became rector of the academy at Belfast. He subsequently took holy orders in the English church, and in 1826 went out to India as chaplain in the East India Company's service at Bombay (East India Register, 1826, 2nd ed., p. 289). He was eventually stationed at Bhuj in Cutch, and was entrusted by the British government with the education of the young Rao of that province, being, it is said, the first Christian who was ever honoured with such an appointment in the east. Gray died at Bhuj on 25 March 1830 (ib. 1831, 2nd ed., p. 104; Gent. Mag. 1831, pt. i., p. 378.) He married Mary Phillips of Longbridgemoor, Annandale, eldest sister of the wife of [q. v.] His family mostly settled in India. He published anonymously ‘Cona; or the Vale of Clwyd. And other poems,’ 12mo, London, 1814 (2nd ed., with author's name, 1816); and edited the ‘Poems’ of Robert Fergusson, with a life of the poet and remarks on his genius and writings, 12mo, Edinburgh, 1821. He left in manuscript a poem on ‘India.’ Another poem, entitled ‘A Sabbath among the Mountains,’ is attributed to him. His Cutchee version of the gospel of St. Matthew was printed at Bombay in 1834. Hogg introduced Gray into the ‘Queen's Wake’ as the fifteenth bard who sang the ballad of ‘King Edward's Dream.’



GRAY, JOHN (1807–1875), legal author and solicitor to the treasury, born at Aberdeen in 1807, was educated at Gordon's Hospital in that city. He entered the office