Sunday, January 19, 2014

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?

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