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.