Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/223

Grey Tweed with six thousand foot and two thousand horse. He moved by easy marches, and on 4 April the protestant lords of the congregation joined him at Prestonpans. He was annoyed to find that their men had been engaged for twenty days only, twelve of which had already expired; but finding Leith too strong to be attacked without reinforcements, he proposed to utilise the Scotch force at once by seizing Edinburgh Castle, where the queen-regent had taken refuge with Erskine. The Scots were apathetic, and Grey referred to Norfolk for advice. Norfolk would not sanction the scheme for taking the castle without the knowledge of Elizabeth, and the queen, on being appealed to, forbade Grey to think of it. He was ordered either to compose matters without force or bloodshed, or else to finish the work at once, 'for the navy could not be suffered to remain.' Fighting began before Leith, but it was interrupted by an armistice, concluded in order to give time for Howard to go to London for instructions. Grey was incensed at being compelled to rest upon his arms. After conferences with the Duke of Chatelherault and the Scottish lords, the peace proposals fell through. The siege of Leith at once began, and on 30 April a third of the town was destroyed by fire. But there were complaints of Grey's dilatory action. The blockade failed. Grey resolved to take the place by assault. This took place on 7 May. The attack was repulsed with heavy loss, half the officers and eight hundred men being left dead and wounded in the trenches. Grey clung tenaciously to his ground, dreading only that he might be driven from it before assistance could arrive. Cecil wrote at this time, 'My Lord Grey is a noble, valiant, painful, and careful gentleman,' but his failure was patent. Negotiations were set on foot, and a treaty was concluded at Edinburgh, peace being proclaimed in Leith on Sunday, 7 July. Grey was left governor of Berwick and warden of both the marches, but afterwards Sir John Forster took the middle marches with Grey's consent; the other two offices Grey kept until he died. In 1561 Grey left Berwick for the south, and on 14 Dec. 1562 he died at Cheshunt, near Waltham in Hertfordshire, 'in the house of his son-in-law, Henry Denny (son of Sir Anthony Denny [q. v.]), and was buried in the parish church there, near to the communion-table, leaving issue by Mary, his wife, daughter to Charles, earl of Worcester, two sons, viz. Arthur (fourteenth baron Grey de Wilton [q. v.]) and William, and one daughter, called Honora, wife of the same Henry Denny' (, Baronage).

[A Commentary of the Services and Charges of William Lord Grey of Wilton, K.G., by his son, Arthur Lord Grey of Wilton, K.G. With a Memoir of the Author and illustrative Documents. Edited by Sir Philip de Malpas Grey Egerton, Bart., M.P., &c. (Camden Soc. 1847); Holinshed's Chronicle; Dugdale's Baronage; Burke's Hist. of Extinct Peerages, 1883; Froude's Hist. of England.]

 GREY, WILLIAM (fl. 1649), topographer, a burgess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, is supposed to have been an ancestor of the Greys of Backworth (, Hist. of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, i., Preface). He was the first to publish an account of his native town in a meagre outline, entitled 'Chorographia, or a Svrvey of Nevvcastle upon Tine … as also a relation of the county of Northumberland,' &c. [dedication and preface signed W. G.], 4to, London, 1649, but printed at Newcastle by S[tephen] B[ulkeley]. A survey of the river Tyne by Hollar is prefixed to some copies of the tract. It has been reprinted in vol. iii. of both quarto editions of the 'Harleian Miscellany;' by the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1813, folio; and in 1818 in octavo by the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Typographical Society, under the editorship of William Garret.

There is extant among the town records an agreement made on 26 July 1647 between the corporation of Newcastle and William Grey, probably the topographer, concerning the water to be conveyed from the latter's conduit in Pandon Bank to Sandgate (M. A., The Local Historian's Table Book, i. 278).

[Authorities cited; Lowndes's Bibl. Manual (Bohn), ii. 945, Supplement, p. 162.]  GREY, WILLIAM, (d. 1674), a descendant of Sir Thomas Gray of Heton (d. 1369) [q. v.], was the son of Ralph Grey of Chillingham, Northumberland, by Isabel, daughter and heiress of Sir Thomas Grey, knt., of Horton in the same county. He was created a baronet on 15 June 1619, and was raised to the peerage on 11 Feb. 1624 as Baron Grey of Werke, Northumberland. When Charles I announced his intention of proceeding against the Scots in 1639, Grey was commanded to attend upon him at York with horses and equipage by 1 April 1639; but he was subsequently ordered to repair to his estate in Northumberland by 1 March at the latest, so as to be in readiness to defend the county (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1638-1639, pp. 366-7, 372). During the civil war he timidly supported the parliament. In December 1642 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the forces raised in the eastern