Introduction / William Gray and Mary Robertson / David Gray and Ann Harcus

Jane Gray and John Smith

Jane Gray was born 30th March 1853 on the island of Papa Westray, the second child and oldest daughter of David Gray and his wife Ann Harcus. She was named after her maternal grandmother Jane Foulis.

In the 1861 census she was 8 years old, and was recorded with her parents and siblings at Newhouses No. 1 on Papa Westray. At the time of the 1871 census she was 18 years old, and was a servant in the house of James and Elizabeth Walls in Kirkwall. Her mother died on Christmas Eve, 1874, and on 29th December Jane signed as informant on her mother's death registration form, indicating that she was there on Papa Westray at the end of 1874.

On 9th February 1877, Jane was married in Edinburgh. The groom was John Smith, a journeyman house painter who was also a fellow Orcadian, having been born in the parish of St. Andrews, on the Orkney Mainland. The marriage registration form doesn't give an occupation for Jane.

Jane and John apparently never had any children - at least, no record has been found for any children. In the 1881 census they were listed at 9 Brandfield St., in the district of St. Cuthbert's, Edinburgh. Ten years later, in the 1891 census, they were living at 11 Argyle Terrace, still in St. Cuthbert's, Edinburgh.

By the time of the 1901 census, John and Jane had moved again, to Almondbank Terrace. This is one of several streets of terraces - all named after trees - in the area just west of Harrison Park in Edinburgh. A current (2003) resident says that he has been told that they were all built about 1900, and many of the first occupants were members of the building trades. Below is an extract of the census record for the Smith household. (Margaret Foulis was the daughter of Jane's sister Ann and her husband James Foulis.)

1901 - 18 Almond Bank Terrace, Merchison, Edinburgh

	Relation	Status	Age	Occupation	Born
John Smith	Head	Married	46 years	House painter	St. Andrews, Orkney
Jane Smith	Wife	Married	48 years		Papa Westray, Orkney
Margaret Foulis		Niece	14 years	Servant	Kirkwall, Orkney

Jane died on 11th May 1911 at the house on Almondbank Terrace, at the age of 58 years. Her Death Registration form gives her mother's name as "Mary Gray, m.s. Harcus", rather than the correct "Ann Gray, m.s. Harcus". Her husband signed as Informant on the Death Registration form, but no record has been found yet to indicate what became of him after Jane's death.