Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/24



In June 1585 Gray had been appointed master of the wardrobe, and not long after his return he was again restored to that office. In 1592, along with Francis Stewart Hepburn, fifth earl of Bothwell [q. v.], he tried to capture the king at Falkland, but on resistance being offered they retired, after having plundered the king's stables of the best horses (Historie of James the Sext, p. 250). The same year he brought an accusation against the presbyterian minister, (1554–1631) [q. v.], of having schemed with Bothwell against the king (, v. 190). Meantime Gray had promised Bothwell to secure for him the king's favour on condition that Bothwell supported his accusation against Bruce, but Bothwell, fearing treachery, failed to appear at the court. Gray, having therefore no evidence, ‘left the court for shame,’ and afterwards ‘denied all accusation of Mr. Robert Bruce, and offered to fight his honest quarrel in that behalf with any man’ (ib.) After James ascended the English throne Gray acted frequently in a lawless manner, and more than once was summoned to answer for his conduct before the council or the estates. He, however, always retained the favour of the king. On 11 July 1606 the members of the privy council appointed by the king to inquire into the sums due by him to the Master of Gray found them to amount to 19,983l. 4s. 11d. Scots, which was ordered to be paid him (Reg. Privy Council Scotland, vii. 745). He succeeded his father as sixth Lord Gray in 1609, and died in 1612. By his first wife, Elizabeth, the daughter of Lord Glamis, from whom he soon separated, he had no issue. By his second wife, Lady Mary Stewart, eldest daughter of Robert, earl of Orkney, whom he married in July 1585 (Cal. State Papers, Scottish Series, p. 501), he had two sons (Andrew, sixth lord Gray, and William) and six daughters.

 GRAY, PETER (1807?–1887), writer on life contingencies, born at Aberdeen about 1807, was educated at Gordon's Hospital, now Gordon's College, in that city, from which he was sent on account of his promise and industry for two years to the university. Here he developed a taste for mathematics, and, with the sole desire to assist the studies of a friend, afterwards took a special interest in the study of life contingencies. He became an honorary member of the Institute of Actuaries, and his contributions to the ‘Journal’ of that society were numerous and valuable. He undertook, purely as a labour of love, the task of organising and preparing for publication the tables deduced from the mortality experience issued by the institute. Gray specially constructed for Part I. of the ‘Institute Text Book’ an extensive table of values of log 10 (1 + i), appending thereto an interesting note on the calculations. He was a fellow of the Royal Astronomical and Royal Microscopical Societies, and was distinguished by his knowledge of optics and of applied mechanics. Gray died on 17 Jan. 1887, in his eightieth year. With Henry Ambrose Smith and William Orchard he published ‘Assurance and Annuity Tables, according to the Carlisle Rate of Mortality, at three per cent.,’ 8vo, London, 1851, and contributed a preliminary notice to William Orchard's ‘Single and Annual Assurance Premiums for every value of Annuity,’ 8vo, London, 1856. His separate writings are: 1. ‘Tables and Formulæ for the Computation of Life Contingencies; with copious Examples of Annuity, Assurance, and Friendly Society Calculations,’ 8vo, London, 1849. 2. ‘Remarks on a Problem in Life Contingencies,’ 8vo, London, 1850. 3. ‘Tables for the Formation of Logarithms and Anti-Logarithms to twelve Places; with explanatory Introduction,’ 8vo, London, 1865; another edition, 8vo, London, 1876.

 GRAY, ROBERT (1762–1834), bishop of Bristol, born 11 March 1762, was the son of Robert Gray, a London silversmith. Having entered St. Mary Hall, Oxford, he graduated B.A. 1784, M.A. 1787, B.D. 1799, and D.D. 1802. His first literary undertaking was his ‘Key to the Old Testament and Apocrypha; or, an Account of their several Books, their Contents and Authors, and of the Times in which they were respectively written;’ a work compiled on the plan of Bishop Percy's ‘Key to the New Testament,’ first published in 1790, and repeatedly 