Gray Clan Crest
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CREST: An anchor in pale Or MOTTO: Anchor, Fast Anchor TRANSLATION: N/A VARIATIONS: Grey |
| The Clan Gray, also known as Clan Grey, is a Scottish clan with a rich and fascinating history dating back to the 13th century. The surname Gray is believed to have originated from Fulbert, Breat Chamberlain of Robert, Duke of Normandy, who was granted the castle and lands of Croy or Gray in Picardy, France, which he thereafter assumed as the family surname.
In England, several families from this source were raised to high rank and spelled their name ‘Grey’, while in Scotland, the Grays swore fealty to Edward I of England in the Ragman Roll of 1296, but they soon followed Robert the Bruce on the long fight for Scottish independence. |
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| Sir Andrew Gray was one of the first to scale the rock of Edinburgh Castle when it was taken from the English in 1312. He was rewarded with several grants of land, including Longforgen in Perthshire, for his services to the Crown. One of his descendants, another Sir Andrew, was one of the Scottish nobles who met James I at Durham upon his return from captivity in England. He was created Lord Gray in 1444.
The Grays played a significant role in Scottish history, with several members of the family rising to high rank and serving in various capacities. Patrick, Master of Gray, son of the second Lord Gray, was a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to James II, and when the king stabbed the Earl of Douglas, Gray struck the next blow with a battleaxe. His son, the third Lord Gray, became Lord Justice General of Scotland in 1506. Patrick Bray of Buttergask, the fifth Lord, was taken prisoner at the Battle of Solway Moss in 1542 and was ransomed for £500 sterling. He was one of the first promoters of the Reformation in Scotland and in 1567 joined in the defense of the infant James V. Patrick, Master of Gray, the seventh Lord, was a great favorite of James VI but became embroiled in the intrigue of the time, including the death of the king’s mother, Mary, Queen of Scots. He was eventually tried for treason but on the intercession of the Earl of Huntly and Lord Hamilton, his life was spared, and he was exiled. The Clan Gray suffered persecution for their Catholicism during the 17th century. Andrew, eighth Lord Gray, was ordered to be banished from the kingdom by Order of the estates for being with the Marquess of Montrose in 1645, but the sentence was never carried out. In 1649, he was excommunicated by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland for his Catholicism. In 1663, Lord Gray resigned his honors to Charles I and obtained a new patent in favor after himself, of his daughter Ann who had married William Gray, younger of Pittendrum. William, like the rest of the family, was a staunch royalist and he commanded a regiment which he had raised mostly at his own expense, at the battle of Worcester in 1651. He was killed in a duel by the Earl of Suthesk in 1660. The title of Lord Gray passed to the Earls of Moray for a time, but on the death in 1895 of the fourteenth Earl of Moray and eighteenth Lord Gray, the title passed to his niece, Eveleen, Baroness Gray in her own right. The present Lord Gray is barred from the chiefship of his family by a famous decision of the Court of the Lord Lyon in 1950 – the case of Gray Petitioner, which established that in Scots heraldic law the bearing of a compound or double-barreled name was an absolute bar to assuming the chiefship on Scottish clan |
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