Introduction / Families / Gray

James Gray and Jane Harcus

This James Gray may be any one of three James Grays who were baptised in Westray between 1746 and 1750. Nothing is actually known of this couple, other than that they had three sons who were christened in Westray.

The three sons named in the Westray OPRs, and listed in the IGI, are:

• James Gray, baptised on 11th June 1777. He appears to have moved to Kirkwall, where a James Gray, born in Westray, was recorded in the 1841 and 1851 censuses. He was 74 in the 1851 census, which indicates a birth date of about 1777. (Three other James Grays (sons of Henry, John, and Archibald Gray) were christened in Westray from 1771-1774, but no others from 1775 to after 1800.) He was a straw plaiter, married to Eliza/Elizabeth Sinclair (in Kirkwall, on 14th Dec. 1818, per IGI). They don’t seem to have had any children. He was a widower when he died in Kirkwall on 13th Feb. 1860. His age was given as 84 years, and the informant, a neighbour, did not know the names of his parents. He was buried in the Burying Ground of St. Magnus.

• John Gray, baptised on 24th October 1779. He may be the John Gray who married Janet Harcus/Hercus. (The only other John Grays christened in Westray between 1744 and after 1800 were the two sons of John Gray and Barbara Gray. Presumably the older one died, and the younger is known to have married Barbara Beaton.) They had a son George, christened in Westray on 7th November 1802, and a son John who was christened in Eday on 18th May 1807. The only information found on John Gray and Janet Harcus is the inscription on a gravestone in the Old Kirkyard in Eday: “In Memory of John Gray and Jannet Harcus 1844”.

• William Gray, baptised on 8th January 1783. It is possible that this William Gray was the one who married Barbara Allan early in the 1800s. There were two William Gray baptisms recorded in the Westray OPRs about 1780: this William and one baptised in 1780, son of Robert Gray and Marion Meil. William born 1780 has been shown to be the husband of Ann Sandison, so it is possible that the son of James Gray was the William married to Barbara Allan. (Of course it is also possible that the husband of Barbara Allan was born outside of Westray or that his baptism, if it took place, was not recorded.)