J [D] Gray and Rev J D Gray

[mossysal]

This sheet makes clear that the J Gray associated with Rev J D Gray 1845-1925 is also J D Gray. Is anything known about these two - father and son, perhaps?

[Chris Liffen]

Both were John Durbin Gray - and I think the following is reasonably accurate :

father - born 1821, educated Balliol, Oxford circa 1839 - 43. Wife Sophia (married 1844). Vicar of Abbotsley, Hunts and then Rector Market Weston Suffolk. Several children.
Died Worcester Terrace, Clifton Feb 1887.

son -born 1845, educated Clare, Cambridge, 1865. Married 1873 - Harriette Amy. Curate of St Leonard's Colchester, then Culford and Nayland 1877 -79.
Later lived at Undercliff, St Leonards on Sea. Died March 1925.
some 4000 specimens donated to Cambridge Univeristy Herb, circa 1908.


the above image from (archive.org)
The flora of Suffolk a topographical enumeration of the plants of the county, showing the results of former observations and of the most recent researches
by W.M. Hind

[oldnick]

Parishes - Abbotsley | A History of the County of Huntingdon ...
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx%3Fcompid%3D42496 - Cached
John Durbin Gray, vicar, d. 1875; and windows to two daughters of the above, d. 1850 and 1864; and Henry Alexander Douglas, Bishop of Bombay, formerly ...

Martin Sanford's recent Flora of Suffolk adds he lived 1845-1925, was vicar of Nayland 1878-1888, compiled a large British & European Herbarium, was a good friend of Hind, and often accompanied him on fieldwork in Suffolk.

The first mentioned was presumably the father, the other the son. Did Gray jnr collect in Hunts as well as Suffolk?
Although living nearby, I cannot add to this info, except to say Nayland is near Colchester but in Suffolk, and that Gray recorded numerous species from Nayland on the River Stour that are not there locally now.

[Chris Liffen]

I have emailed the herbarium at Cambridge to ask what info they have on the Gray's
"The Herbarium is particularly rich in British plants collected by Professor Babington, Professor Lindley, the Rev. J. D. Gray, and many other botanists "
C

[Chris Liffen]

Part of the reply from Christine Bartram at the Herbarium
"J.D. Gray Junior's herbarium is incorporated into the main collection here at CGE but I have been through and located quite a number of sheets. As you know, many collectors are represented in his herbarium but I can find no evidence so far of any specimens collected by J.D. Gray Senior.

As Junior was not born until 1844 the 1830 specimen may (only possibly) be a plant collected by his father who as you know had Oxford associations."

Chris