Background
William Gray was born on June 27, 1750, in Lynn, Massachusets. He was the oldest son of Abraham and Lydia (Calley) Gray.
William Gray was born on June 27, 1750, in Lynn, Massachusets. He was the oldest son of Abraham and Lydia (Calley) Gray.
When Gray was a small boy, his father, a shoemaker in humble circumstances, moved to Salem, where the lad was apprenticed to Samuel Gardner. Later, he entered the counting-house of Richard Derby and at the age of twenty-eight started business for himself.
At this period, he signed his name “William Gray, Tertius, ” to distinguish himself from several other William Grays in Salem.
In 1775, as a member of the Salem militia, Gray made a forced march with his company to Lexington, arriving too late for the battle.
On June 6 of the following year, he was commissioned second lieutenant, but there is no record that he had any further Revolutionary service. His business ventures proved to be highly profitable, and he was the owner of a number of privateers during the Revolution.
From 1801 to 1807, when Salem’s prosperity was at its height, he employed annually about 300 seamen, and before 1815, he had owned at least 113 vessels.
When he moved to Boston in 1809, he was the owner of fifteen ships, seven barks, thirteen brigs, and one schooner, and his estate was estimated at $3, 000, 000. Like most of the able and well-to-do people of New England at that period, Gray had originally been a Federalist.
For some years, he was a selectman and in 1788, he was a delegate to the state convention held to consider the Federal Constitution and voted for ratification.
In 1792, he was an unsuccessful candidate for state senator, and in 1804, when the Jeffersonians were gaining strength, he was defeated as a candidate for representative, but in 1807, he was chosen as a Federalist senator from Essex County and was reelected in the following year.
In June 1808, however, although the Embargo was vigorously opposed by the New England merchants, Gray came out openly in its favor, thus incurring the enmity of his associates and bringing upon himself social ostracism.
He published a vindication of his conduct in the Salem Gazette, but party spirit was running so high that he felt it wise to move to Boston, where he resided during the remainder of his life.
Having deserted the Federalists, Gray was induced in 1810 to run for lieutenant-governor on the Republican ticket, with Elbridge Gerry, and was elected by a small plurality. During the campaign “all the virulence of invective” was heaped upon him.
He was reelected in 1811 but because of ill health declined a nomination in 1812. During the war with England, he consistently supported the Madison administration, subscribing with extraordinary liberality to all the government loans.
He was defeated as the Republican candidate for lieutenant-governor in 1814 and 1815 and declined a nomination for the governorship in 1816. He was also badly beaten for senator from Suffolk County in 1818, 1819, and 1820, but was chosen as a delegate to the constitutional convention of 1820.
In 1816, he had been unanimously elected president of the Boston branch of the Bank of the United States and served for the six following years. His last public appearance was as chairman of a public dinner in Faneuil Hall, March 4, 1825, to celebrate the election of John Quincy Adams to the presidency.
He died not long afterward, leaving an estate of more than a million dollars.
In 1820, Gray was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society.
Gray was a man of simple tastes, indefatigably industrious, scrupulously honest, and very generous. His portrait by Gilbert Stuart, painted in 1807, shows a rugged, plain face, marked by determination and good nature.
Quotes from others about the person
“William Gray of Salem is a man of unspotted character and for mercantile talents and extent of business, the first merchant in the United States. ” - Timothy Pickering
Gray was married, March 29, 1782, to Elizabeth Chipman, the daughter of Hon. John Chipman and Elizabeth (Brown) Chipman, of Marblehead. They had ten children of whom six survived their parents.
