Spelling and Math ....

One of the resources I rely on often in my research is the Census. It is in a way both very reliable and yet very unreliable at the same time. It does tell us who was living in the house at that time, usually indicating with some degree of accuracy what their relation was to the head of the household. Ages are often wrong. I expect it's because the person giving the information didn't know the actual birthdate of each person and just gave their best guess. Like "oh .... I'd say about 9" ... not remembering that 10 years ago at the previous census the child had been recorded as being 2. 

Some census years are better than others in the areas I've been focusing on, and I imagine it's the same everywhere else. The census taker probably didn't lay eyes on everyone he was listing, so he may not have noticed that someone was older or younger than recorded, or if it should be listed as Male or Female. Some often put down the nickname of a person rather than their actual formal name. So little "Gussie" listed as being a 9 year old boy may have actually been Augusta, an 11 year old girl. Spelling varies greatly from one census to another ... if a person lived long enough to span several censuses you could see a whole slew of different spellings. 

I can't be too hard on them though, seeing as many had little to no actual schooling and were doing the best that they could with what they had. I guess I should be grateful that I haven't come across a census with "One-eyed Willie" listed in it.

Following the slaves ....

Lately I've been reading a couple of really good books:  The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, and Black Loyalists by Ruth Holmes Whitehead.  Both excellent books, full of information, some of which I had never heard of before.  As usual, every time I read anything I'm constantly on the lookout to any reference to the Grays or other names I've seen associated with them along the way.

Of course I couldn't read The Book of Negroes fictional novel without having a look at the ACTUAL Book of Negroes.  Among the many lists are 5 slaves listed as such (the names in parentheses are in possession of the slave at that time):

Nero Denton, 40, stout fellow, (Cornet Gray, B. Legion). Formerly the property of William Denton of Goshen; left him in 1776. GMC.

Dalkeith, 25, stout fellow, (Cornet Gray, B. Legion). Formerly the property of James Ronaldson, Smithfield, Virginia; left him in 1778. GMC.

Toney, 20, stout wench, (Cornet Gray, B. Legion). Property of Cornet Gray per Bill of Sale.

Jem, 1, (Cornet Gray, B. Legion). Property of Cornet Gray per Bill of Sale.

Nicholas, 20, stout fellow, (Cornet Gray, B. Legion). Formerly the property of Benjamin Fisher, Pennsylvania.

Cornet was a rank in the British Legion equivalent to 2nd Lieutenant.  Capt Jesse's brother Samuel was a 2nd Lieutenant when he was in St Augustine, this I know.  I don't know if he was also the Cornet Gray listed above, but it is entirely possible.

In Ruth Holmes Whitehead's book, Black Loyalists, she makes reference to a letter from John Cruden, commissioner of sequestered estates, to the local magistrate, George Nibbs in 1783 advising that a Mr. Gray was transporting Negroes from Carolina under the pretense of setting them free but then selling them in the British West Indies.  A few weeks later Cruden wrote to the Honorable J. Fahia, Esq, president of the council at Tortola, about the same thing.  Cruden believed this Mr. Gray to be either Capt Jesse or his brother Samuel.  

We do know that when Capt Jesse went from St Augustine to Nova Scotia, they did detour to Bermuda before heading north.  We also know that in 1786 Samuel bought a number of slaves from Gov Tonyn in East Florida.  Samuel was later recorded as living in Jamaica in 1817.

In Ruth Holmes Whitehead's book she speaks about Boston King, a former South Carolina slave.  King had been the property of Richard Waring of Charlestown, SC, he later worked as an orderly to a militia Capt Grey/Gray in SC.  We know that Mary Postell had also been the property of a family by the name of Waring in Charlestown.

Upon doing a bit of online poking around I was reading through some ads posted for runaway slaves in the newspaper in South Carolina in 1783-85.  You can see them here.  On Sept 2-6, 1783 and Jan 3-6, 1784 a Henry Gray was looking for 4 runaway slaves.  The part that set off my alarm bells was that they had been purchased from Postell and Waring .... BOTH names associated with Capt Jesse, Samuel, and Mary Postell.

Hmmmmmm.........

So ... factual information, I have none.  Well, it's all factual and it's all information, but it doesn't all necessarily belong to me.  It is thought provoking though.  A bit too coincidental for my liking ... I am definitely going to have to do some more investigating into these areas.

Working the numbers ....

That's what it all comes down to ... the numbers.  If the dates don't line up within reason, then certain names and associations go right out the window.  This is one of the 3 main reasons I have discarded the many Jesse Grays I've come across until now, the dates just don't work.  The next reason is locations.  Based on the bits of information I do know about Capt Jesse since the American Revolution, I can reason out certain places that just don't make any sense.  This goes along with the 3rd reason, which is common names.  First names were handed down through the generations, naming children after parents, grand-parents, uncles, etc.  Often a child would be given the mother's maiden name as a first name.  They also married locally, so often we have brothers marrying sisters or cousins, with common surnames popping up all over the place within that particular section of the tree.

Using these 3 main processes of deductive reasoning I've eliminated pretty much every Jesse Gray I've come across.  Every now and then I get an email from my dad asking if I'd checked out a name he'd gotten from Uncle Gary (his brother).  So far every one I've been able to definitively tell him they're not the one we're looking for.

But every now and then I get a family line that looks too good to NOT be ours.  There's a Fielding Gray who was born in 1799 in VA, died 1850 in TN.  On the face of that it doesn't look like anything.  Just another Gray.  His middle name is Wells.  Interesting ... Capt Jesse's father-in-law's name is Wells.  Still, not much to go on.  Fielding's father is usually listed as James Gray.  Again, no big deal, there are lots of James Grays out there.  Then I discovered his name is actually James Samuel Gray and he married Mary Mangum, of the same Mangums that my Capt Jesse and Samuel had dealings with in the Mary Postell trial and more.  Capt Jesse has 2 sons that married Mangums.

James Samuel Gray didn't, to my knowledge so far, have a brother named Jesse.  But he did have a cousin Jesse. 

On the face of it I'm only related to these Grays through the Mangums:

James Samuel Gray (1750 - )

husband of 2nd cousin 5x removed

Mary Mangum (1775 - 1800)

wife of James Samuel Gray

Micajah Mangum (1730 - 1787)

father of Mary Mangum

Joseph Micajah Mangum (1710 - 1762)

father of Micajah Mangum

John Mangum (1674 - 1737)

father of Joseph Micajah Mangum

William Mangum Sr. (1706 - 1787)

son of John Mangum

William Mangum Jr. (1736 - 1818)

son of William Mangum Sr.

Mary Mangum (1800 - )  ***** married to Capt Jesse's son, Jesse jr. ... she is 2nd cousin to the Mary that James Samuel Gray married!

daughter of William Mangum Jr.

Benjamin Samuel Gray (1820 - 1890)

son of Mary Mangum

Edgar Athlene Gray (1863 - 1925)

son of Benjamin Samuel Gray

Keith Albert Gray (1908 - 1976)

son of Edgar Athlene Gray

Keith Gerald Gray (1940 - )

son of Keith Albert Gray

Deborah Gray

No matter where I start to dig and add names to fill in holes in the branches, I always have to return to these people.  The dates line up.  The locations are plausible.  The people are familiar.  I have to keep at this until I can definitively say that these people are or are not Capt Jesse's people.  Then I can either do a happy dance or roll up my sleeves and set this branch aside and move on to another.

Haven't given up, just been busy ...

Just realized now that I haven't posted anything since the end of July so I figured I'd best do something about that.  I'm still digging, though I haven't found anything of any great significance in a little while.  Still reading everything I can get my hands on that even mention a Gray in eastern and southern states and in Nova Scotia.  Mainly I've been doing a lot of filling in names and dates of distant relatives, like 3rd cousins twice removed and stuff like that.  I still keep finding a lot of repetition in names that are familiar throughout the parts I already do know about ... so it's good to be reassured even when I'm off on a distant trail that I'm still on the right track.

I've seen some intermingling with families named Crocker, Cann, Robbins, and more.  In the case of Capt Jesse vs Mary Postell there was a similar dispute between a Joseph Robbins and two of his slaves.  Robbins had also been in St Augustine at the same time as Capt Jesse, he moved to Nova Scotia around the same time, and also lived in Kemptville.  They were both friends with the Andrews, Fannings, and Mangums, and had several dealings with each other, and there are some Robbins in my tree (haha!) that lead back to Joseph.

It's so weird finding out that I'm related to these names that I've heard my entire life and had no idea.  Of course, they didn't either, it's all pretty much lost history.  

Anyhow, back to the digging I go ... hopefully I'll match up some more names that will lead somewhere other than down the rabbit hole again.

Getting cross-eyed!!!

Today for some reason I was drawn to the Hurlburt section of the tree.  I've known for a while that it's a mess ... thought maybe this was a good time to try to sort it all out.  When I look at the tree on ancestry as Family View, as opposed to Pedigree View all I can say is Oh. My. God!!!  So many lines criss-crossing this way and that from cousins marrying back and forth over and over and over!!!  Confusion reigns with lack of dates of birth or death ... then we have a bunch of brothers who decide to name some of their kids the SAME NAME.  Over and over again!  Come on people -- someone should have dragged them by the ear to the next village to meet some other girls and introduce some original names to the family.  Once again I am ever-so-grateful and amazed that we who have descended from these people don't have tails and a 3rd arm.

It's late, I've got to get up early tomorrow, needless to say the Hurlburts will have to wait for another day.

The will of Wells Morton

I often wonder how many other people are finding huge road blocks in their family history, as Capt Jesse is for me, as well as his wife's family.  Sarah Moulton/Morton's father was Wells Morton jr, his father was Wells Morton sr.  I think his father was Robert Morton, based on various things I've read about the Morton family.  Then BABOOM!  another dead end.  People are always saying about how cool it would be to have a time machine and go back to visit great historic happenings, or change things they wish they could change .... I'd probably spend all my time just snooping on my family and taking notes on who belongs to whom.

I have now transcribed the will of Wells Morton jr.  Unlike Capt Jesse, Wells did leave instructions on the care of his wife, so obviously he died before she did.  This contradicts the information I had so I'll have to do some more research to get that sorted out.  He also states that at the time he wrote the will he had 1 son and 8 daughters.  I have the son, Joshua, and 6 daughters ... and NO IDEA who the other 2 daughters are.  I know they often referred to daughters- or sons- in-law as daughter and son, but this doesn't seem to be the case. 

As in Capt Jesse's will, there are some spots that I couldn't tell what a word was and have put ??.  If anyone figures these words out or notices that I've misinterpreted something please let me know asap!  I will post a picture of the actual will on the Searching for Jesse facebook page.  There are also a couple of separate pages of this will written by Benoni d'Entremont (first French Acadian Magistrate of NS and Justice of the Peace) but they are virtually un-readable.  I'll keep at it and see what I can figure out.  In the meantime, here's Wells Morton's will:
 

In the Name of God Amen. I Wells Morton of Argyle in the County of Shelburne & Province of Nova Scotia, Farmer, being very sick & weak of Body, but of perfect Mind and Memory thanks be to God for it.

Calling unto Mind the mortality of my Body & knowing that it is appointed for all men once to Die.  Do make & ordain this my last will and Testament, that is to say principally & first of all I give & recommend my soul unto the hand of Almighty God that gave it & my Body to the Earth to be buried in a decent Christian Burial at the discretion of my Executor, nothing doubting but at the general resurrection, I shall receive the same again by the mighty Power of God.  And as touching such worldly Estate wherewith it has pleased God to bless me in this life, I give, demise & dispose of the same in the following Manner & form.

First I give and bequeath to my beloved Son Joshua all my ? & personal Estate excepting three acres laying on the Southern end of the neck which is to be reserved for my daughter Kezia and the said Joshua shall take my beloved Wife Kezia in care & charge during her natural life or as long as she remains my widow, and shall provide for her the necessaries of life clothing and such like. 

I do also give to each of my Eight Daughters twenty shillings a piece, and at my decease all my stock of creatures such as oxen, cows, hogs, yet that remain, together with the household furniture and movables of all sorts shall be equally divided between my son Joshua and daughters.

I likewise constitute, make & ordain Benoni Dentremont my sole Executor of this my last will and testament, all & singular my lands ?? and ?? by his freely to be possessed & enjoyed.

And I do hereby utterly disallow, evoke & disannul all & every other former testaments, wills, legacies, bequests & executors, by me in anywise before named, willed & bequeathed, ? & confirming this & no other to be my last Will & Testament.

The above said ? legacies of sums of money I will and order shall be paid to the said respective legatees, within twelve months after my decease. 

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand & seal this twentieth day of May in the year of our Lord Eighteen hundred & Eleven & in the fiftieth year of his Majestys Reign.

Signed, Sealed, published, Pronounced & declared by the said Wells Morton as his last will and Testament in his presence & in the presence of each other- have hereto inscribed our names

Wells Morton

William W Mathews

William Goodwin

Samuel Hamilton

Wills!!!!!

Yesterday I got mail from the Nova Scotia Archives containing the wills of Capt Jesse Gray and Wells Morton!!!  I had emailed them a week or so ago to see if there was any chance the wills were still around, accessible and if I could get a copy.  They were very obliging and said they'd send it out to me right away.  
I haven't had a chance to get them scanned yet to share, but I have transcribed Capt Jesse's just this morning.  The writing is, of course, challenging to read, some words are spelled unusually, but for the most part it's pretty understandable.  It does clear up a few things. 

 Jesse Gray senior's last will & testament. In the name of God Amen, I Jesse Gray Senior of Kemptville in the county of Yarmouth and province of Nova Scotia, farmer, being weak in body but of perfect mind and memory thanks be unto God but calling to mind the mortality of my body and knowing that it is appointed unto all men once to die do make and ordain this my last will and testament that is to say principally and first of all I give and recommend my soul into the hands of Almighty God who gave it and my body I recommend to the earth to be buried in a decent and Christian-like manner at the discretion of my executor and as touching rich worldly estate wherewith it has pleased God to bless me in this life I give remit and dispose of the same in the following manner and from 1st recommend that previously and before every thing all my just debts be fully paid and all the wrong or damage I may have done to any one be fully satisfied and paid. 2nd I give and bequeath all my real estate to my children in the manner following: 3rd to my well beloved sons Ebenezer and Nelson Gray I freely give and bequeath my homestead farm containing two hundred acres of land with all improvements stock and farming utensils to be equally divided between them which they have promised by bond to allow and give me a comfortable maintenance in every thing requisite during my natural life. To my grandson Collin Gray my daughter Rebecca's son I give and bequeath fifty acres of land for services performed to me. 4th I give and bequeath the remaining seven hundred acres of land to be equally divided amongst all, the girls to draw an equal part with the boys there being fourteen in number which will entitle them to fifty acres each. Lastly I make constitute and ordain my trusty and beloved friends Nathaniel Churchill & John Roberts sole executor of this my last will and testament to whom I give power to execute all the articles of it according to their purport and I hereby utterly disallow revoke and disannul all and every other former testaments will legacies bequests and executor ratifying and confirming this and no other to be my last will and testament. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this twelf = 12th day of April in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty one. Signed and published and declared by the said Jesse Gray senr as his last will and testament in his presence at his request and in presence of each other who have hereunto subscribed their names as witness Jesse Gray ? James ? Pennington Josiah Harding John Harding - Registered the twenty second day of June 1844 on the oath of John Harding there being no interlineations in the original will.

 
It had been previously unclear as to who exactly Collin Gray was.  We had speculated that he was probably a grandson, but nobody knew through whom.  It is obvious by this will that he was Rebecca's son, apparently illegitimate.  I had heard that one (or more) of Capt Jesse's daughters had at least one illegitimate child, so here's one of them.  Exactly when his wife, Sarah, died has also been unclear.  From what I've been able to figure, she died shortly after the birth of their youngest son, Nelson (b.1815) , around 1817.  He made no provision for her in his will, so obviously she did die before he did.  He does say that his children number 14, so at least that's not a curveball, all are accounted for.  The only ones he mentions by name are Ebenezer, Nelson, and Rebecca ... I assume this is because they're the youngest boys and likely still living at home, and she's got Collin and was as yet unmarried.

He also lists a few people as his trusted friends and then his executors.  These include Nathaniel Churchill, John Roberts, James Pennington, Josiah Harding, and John Harding.  There are some Churchills, Roberts, and Hardings in our tree ... I'm thinking maybe I'll take some time to focus on them for a bit and see what I can come up with, maybe find some other connections.

I'll transcribe Wells Morton's will next, probably within the next week.

more dead-ish ends

It's been a little while since I last posted ... mainly because I haven't had many very productive searches lately.  Same old story ... dig, dig, dig, ooohhhh, splat.  I haven't given up, just making sure I thoroughly research every branch of every tree as much as can be found so I don't end up on a wild goose chase.

Up until not so long ago people were still having huge families with as many as 12 children or more.  Granted, not all of them survived to adulthood, but many did.  Then they had a bazillion kids, who then had their own bazillion kids, etc etc etc.  I expect that's where I'll find Capt Jesse ... hidden among the branches of some obscurely convoluted family tree. 

I haven't found much more on Robert Gray, and I've read almost all I can find on the Grays of the Carolinas.  The fact that I haven't found him is evidence that I obviously haven't read EVERYTHING, so until I do I'll keep on digging.

Loyalist arrivals in NS

Capt Jesse was supposedly born in either North or South Carolina.  Different people say different things and as we know I haven't figured out which is right yet.  There is consistent mention of him being in the Fairforest militia and that of Ninety-six District, both in South Carolina.  Once he was finished as a soldier, he fled to St Augustine, Florida, then from there he moved to Nova Scotia.  He arrived at Shelburne, NS on the spring transport in 1785 (I'm not sure if "spring transport" means the ship was named the Spring or they arrived in the spring.  There were 2 other Grays on that ship, an Isaac Gray (from Pennsylvania) and a Peter Gray (don't know where from).  I've done some poking around on each of them, of course, and have determined that Isaac ended up in Lunenburg, married to Anna Herman.  If Isaac is related to my Grays I'm pretty sure it's not the ones in Capt Jesse's line.  Not directly anyhow.  As for Peter Gray, I haven't found much of anything more on him yet.

Then we have Robert Gray.  There are several Loyalist Robert Grays, so of course first we have to weed out the ones we KNOW are not ours.  Then there are some that we don't have enough information on to make a final decision ...... yet.

The Robert Gray whose signature is shown here was born 7 Sep 1747 in Dunbartonshire, Parish of Kirkentilloch, Scotland.  His parents were Andrew Gray and Jean Gray (cousins, both of the Grays of Lanarkshire).  

** over and over I keep finding all these cousins marrying cousins and again I'm amazed that I don't have 3 arms and a tail

Robert's family was tight with Thomas Hamilton's (of Overton) family ... Capt Jesse's Grays are intermingled with many Hamiltons.  He served under Col Edmund Fanning in the American Revolution, Capt Jesse served under John Fanning.   Robert landed in Shelburne around the same time as Jesse, Isaac and Peter mentioned above.  He moved to PEI in 1786.

There's another Loyalist Robert Gray, a Colonel, who was the paymaster of the militia in Charlestown, SC.  In some of his pay lists we find a number of Grays, including Capt Jesse and his brother Samuel. Then we have a Robert Gray who is known for his "Gray's Observations", written about various events going on at the time.   Are they related?  Are any of these Roberts actually the same person?  I don't know ...... yet.  But that's where I'm focusing right now ... until I have definitive evidence that they are not related, I consider them too coincidental to be anything but.

Connections

As I search I try to be as thorough as I can at every branch of this convoluted tree of mine.  I know Capt Jesse's people are in there somewhere, it's just a matter of figuring out where.  He did a damn good job of wiping away the footprints that would lead anyone from his military service back to his parents, grands, etc.  

Most of the families from about the early 1900s and back had many kids ... often more than 10, some with the same or similar names even within the same family.  That makes for a lot of spouses, children and inlaws.  The branches just keep spreading the further along I go.  

Many times I'll be working my way through a branch and I get lost ... no idea how I got there, so I pick a name and click "view relationship to me" for a little perspective and I get something like this:

"wife of grandson of husband of aunt of husband of 1st great grand niece of husband of mother"

... maybe just a tad off track, you think?  But I am convinced that this is the way to find him so I'll just keep on filling in the names until I find THE name.

Tragic ends

Been reading a lot of death certificates and records lately.  You can find a lot of information in them that isn't necessarily in other records ... like parents' names (including mother's maiden name), birth & death dates, spouses, children ... and if it's from a list in a death registration book you can also see who lived nearby, since they usually list by area.  Often they also list the person's middle name, which is also very helpful to help discern from others born around the same time.  

I'm getting used to the way they list cause of death, sometimes what they call it isn't always what we would call it now.  Like "consumption" was tuberculosis, "dropsy" was encephalitis, "phthisis" was wasting away due to tuberculosis, "dyspepsia" was often misdiagnosed as bad heartburn but was actually heart attack symptoms.

It's very sad when I'm going down a list and I see a whole family wiped out due to typhoid fever, tuberculosis, small pox ..... makes me grateful that I live in a world where many of these old diseases are either extinct or very very rare.

A quick peek around the Mayflower

I had learned a few years back from my aunt that we had family on the Mayflower.  No Grays, of course, that would be way too easy ... but other family that eventually merged in with the Grays.  The first one we found was Stephen Hopkins, my 10th great grandfather, through Hannah West (married Jeremiah Gray, grandson of Capt Jesse). 

 

So there's one.  Then there's James Chilton and Edward Winslow, my 11th great grandfathers.

Also, William Brewster, my 12th great grandfather through Sarah Moulton (wife of Capt Jesse).

John Billington descends to Mary Ritchie, who married Thomas Gray (grandson of Capt Jesse).

Peter Browne, Francis Eaton, Priscilla Mullins & John Alden descend to Lottie Jestings (my great grandmother, married to Reginald Gray).

And then we have Francis Cooke, my 10th great grandfather.

and on and on and on ...

I know there are more, I just got tired of looking.  Basically there were 120 people on the Mayflower, they all got cozy in Plymouth, Massachusetts and ended up making a bazillion descendants all inter-related, many of whom worked their way down to me.

It really is too bad there were no Grays on the Mayflower ... 

#$%$@#&%$!!!!!!!!!

There are SO MANY frickin Grays in history -- it's nearly impossible to sort them out as to who goes with whom!  And many of them had a bazillion kids from multiple spouses -- it's like rabbits breeding!!!!!

ok ... rant over.  back to work.

Feels like home

I haven't lived in Plymouth, NS for almost 24 years.  In fact, I've been in Vancouver, BC for the last 10 of those.  I've always prided myself on being very versatile, like the idiom: "Home is where you lay your hat".  Things can change quickly, often unplanned, sometimes for the good, other times not so much, but wherever I am is home at the moment. 

Don't get me wrong, I love love love my new city, but I do get a bit of melancholy thinking about where my hat used to lay and all the rich Gray history surrounding it.  Next time I visit I'll have to set aside a full day to go cemetery hopping.  I love cemeteries.  I don't even have to know any of the residents, I just love to walk among the stones, read the inscriptions, notice the flowers left by loved ones.  Some people find cemeteries creepy and full of death .... I find them peaceful and full of history.  I need to start maintaining a list of who is buried in which cemetery and get some good photos.  There are a number of NS cemeteries that are not documented at all, Plymouth being one of them.

Today was a day of bmd's ... reading birth/marriage/death records.  Most days have a bit of everything, but today I decided to stick to those and see if I found any not-so-obvious trails.  I was perusing a particular list of births in 1867, 100 years before I was born (ok, 99 years if you want to be nit-picky about it).  Scrolling through the lists of names I found Gray, Sims, Johnson, Hatfield, Stuart, Allen, Robbins, Ryder, Trefry, and many more ..... even after all this time, just reading this list sent me home.  I grew up around most of these names, or hearing of them from years past.  Trefry's had the Arcadia Meat Market for years.  My dad's best friend and neighbor as a child was a Johnson.  I was engaged to a Hatfield at one time.  My aunt married a Sims. 

The two florists in Yarmouth were  Crosby's and Robbin's.  I could go on and on, but my point is how very cool it is to run down a list of names and be able to say "I know that name ... and that one ... and that one ..." often with an anecdote or bit of information attached to each one.  This is Main St in Yarmouth.  The town clock there on the left was built by my cousin, Randy Forbes.  The building on the corner with the large turret at the top was Fitzer's Fine Clothes, now a tourist shop I believe.  One of the Florist shops was near that.  That's how I remember it anyhow.  Now, of course, it looks quite different.  There's that melancholy again.

 

A huge loss ...

Until about 1994 Grays lived in Plymouth.  As in Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia, not the rock in Massachusetts, although we were there too, but I digress.

I grew up in Plymouth with my sisters, cousins and grandparents all right there.  My dad was born and raised there.  His dad, Keith Sr,  was born and raised there.  His grandfather, Edgar, and great-grandfather, Benjamin, all the way to his great-great-grandfather, Jesse jr lived there in Plymouth.  For anyone who may not know, Plymouth is a very small community ... like just a few km (5 maybe?) and a population of probably no more than about 200.  Everybody literally knew everybody else and many were related somewhere along the line.

 My dad drove the school bus, just as Grampy had, and Uncle Gary did carpentry, but when they weren't out working their "regular jobs" they ran Gray Bros farm.  We had some cattle, a couple of ponies now and then, but mainly we grew and sold potatoes and turnips.  All of us kids spent many summer afternoons picking potatoes when the time came.  As the oldest I sometimes got to steer the tractor.  One year when they were plowing a field, for some reason the plow was too light and wasn't making deep enough furrows so I was used as "dead weight" to keep it down.  Doesn't every 13 year old girl want to be used to weight things down?  hmmm no.  Anyhow, I perched there on the cross beam of the plow as it was pulled up and down the rows.  Kinda hard on the butt but once we found an old seat cushion for me to sit on it wasn't too bad.  In this picture on the left the cattle would have been in the pasture in the front, gardens were out behind the barn.

 

There's Grammy on the left, Grampy smoking his pipe on the right.

There was always an old wooden wagon wheel on a post just outside their back door.  We would all climb on and whoever could reach the ground (yep, usually me) would push with 1 foot to make it spin.  I don't recall anyone really ever getting hurt on it, though I'm sure someone went flying off of it at some time or another, it provided us with hours of dizzy spinny fun.

And now I come to the point of this post.  Last week while talking to a friend about  grandparents and when we were kids I had told her about how I grew up next door to Grammy and Grampy and every evening after dinner I would go over there for a few hours. Grammy and I would talk and talk, do crosswords, watch tv, knit, sometimes she'd tell me stories of when she was young.  (Grampy was gone by then)

The next morning, Jan 23, 2014, I got a text from my sister.  The old house had burned down in the night.  Apparently nobody was living there at the time, arson is not suspected, it was a total loss.  

I'm still coming to terms with it.  I look at the pictures from the newspaper article, and then pictures of it the way I remember it.  I just doesn't seem real.  I know it'll hit me sooner or later, and then I'll grieve.

Not quite gold, but getting there

I had mentioned in my last post about a Samuel Gray I had found buying slaves in Florida in 1786.  After a bit more digging around and of course reading reading reading I do believe this is our Samuel, brother of Capt Jesse.  

I've been going back to the reading on Mary Postell.  She had gotten a certificate of freedom at Gov Patrick Tonyn's state house where Mary Postell got her certificate of freedom.  In 1786 Tonyn sold several of his slaves, 5 went to Samuel.   An Alexander Gray was also involved in a lot of slave stuff in the area at that time, still looking for more on him, not sure yet if he's one of ours or not.  Then in  1817 there is a triennial registry of slaves in Dominica showing a Samuel Gray with 7 slaves. A similar list from 1820 lists Samuel Gray with an increase of 10 (total 43) and decrease of 29 slaves (some of these have the same name as some he bought from Tonyn).  

So, no concrete evidence yet, but it's getting there.  It has crossed my mind though, that if and when I do link them all up and find the roots where Capt Jesse came from ... what then?

Ashamed and outraged

Lately I've been back to focusing on Capt Jesse's brother Samuel.  Besides the information on the two of them in the war, the only other obvious mention of Samuel is in regards to the slave woman, Mary Postell.  In my searching I've spent a lot of time delving into slave records, stories, lots of information out there and none of it good. 

Some people say how "it was another time, not like things are today and we can't judge".  Yes, it was a different world then, but people were still people and it never fails to hit me like a punch in the gut to read the accounts of what these people went through.  Just today I was reading a list of a sale of slaves in East Florida in 1786.  Samuel is mentioned as a purchaser in this list.  I'm not sure yet if this is my Samuel, but it's a possible start.  

Sales of Slaves, Property of Major General Patrick Tonyn.

1796	Purchasers	Negroes Names	Appraised Value	Sold For
Sept 15	Samuel Gray	Piero, Charlotte, Johnny, Bella & Harry	225	225

There was a Pero in Nova Scotia around the same time as the Mary Postell stuff.  I don’t know if just a common name or if maybe it could be the same guy.  Reading through the list I get this overwhelming feeling of humiliation and shame … these were PEOPLE …. appraised as if they were a horse or wagon.  In this particular list most of them sold at or above their appraised value, some to other slave owners, some just for cash.  There are a few on the list that were appraised at $0.  How do you put a value on a person?  And how do you justify someone being worth absolutely nothing?

Yes, it was  another time.  Yes, things have changed a lot since then.  But neither of these facts change the hard truth that it was just plain wrong.  

It’s when I get to these parts of my research that I just feel ashamed and outraged that this was my family.