Mary Jane Rachel Gray was born in England to Thomas Gray and Elizabeth Granger. MJR was the only daughter; she had three illustrious brothers:
Eldest was William C Gray b. 1795 in Dorking, Surrey, near London, we believe. William married Maria Eliza Gnech and they had two children. After he died, Will married Harriet Elizabeth Green in 1818. They had four more children. The number of his offspring is greater though, because he had a relationship, probably with his slave and they had a daughter, Rhina Gray in 1846 GA. The Gradys have DNA connection with some 4th cousins on this line.
After MJR was John David Gray, b. abt 1808 in the London area, supposedly.–some say the family came from up in Tanfield, but there is no record that we can ascertain that the children of Thomas and Elizabeth were born there. John married Anna Amelia Gnech and they had five children before he remarried Mary Jane Moore in 1857 and had four more children.
There is an entry in the New Georgia Encyclopedia about J D Gray. The information was taken from a Ph.D dissertation written by another cousin: Margaret Obear Calhoon, “Building the South: The Enterprise of William C. and John D. Gray” (Ph.D. diss., Georgia State University, 2001). Highly recommended reading! Dr. Calhoon discusses all three brothers and the building of the south.
The youngest of Thomas Gray’s children was Robert Thomas, b.1816 in the London area. He married Francis Foster and they had six children.
MJR Gray’s three brothers went south, and created lives in Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, etc. They were instrumental in building the south ! Much has been written about these famous brothers. Google search and you’ll find them. Graysville, GA was named for the family plantation there. There are 300 unmarked slave graves on site.
We do not have a birth certificate, nor have we located her immigration record, but she had to have arrived before 1827. Her marriage to John Grady is the first US record of MJR Gray.
When 19, she married John Grady, 22, on 23 Oct 1827 in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. Though the marriage was announced in the Grafton MA, the wedding was held in Boston and officiated by a Reverend Patrick Byrne. Witnesses were David L. Brown, Esq. and Mrs. Cecilia Brown. These are probable relatives.
When her marriage intention was filed, her address was listed as Boston MA. Please see John Grady’s page for more information regarding their wedding.
John and Mary had 7 children:
Mary Cecelia (1828), Maria Theresa (1830-1851), John David William (1832-1892), Joseph BF (1834-1917), Charles Ignatius (1837-1886), Mary Elizabeth (1839-1856), and Mary Jane (1842-1843).
Some notes on the children: Mary Cecelia Grady was baptized in Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Boston, by Rev. Wm Wiley on 3 Sep 1828. She married William Harris on 20 Jul 1851. She died of asthma one month later, 16 Aug 1851 and was buried on 18 Aug 1851 in historic Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn.
Maria Theresa Grady was baptized by Rev. Wm. Tyler on 30 Dec 1830 in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Boston. She died at 21, in 1851, ten days before her elder sis. She is also buried in the Grady family plot in Greenwood Cemetery.
The later children were not baptized in the Cathedral. John David William (no doubt named after Mary Jane Rachel’s brother, who was four years younger than she) was born 1832 in North Carolina. He married Elizabeth Wingham in 1858. He became a prominent banker with Seventh National Bank of NYC. They had 3 children who survived infancy, including Dr. Mary Elizabeth Grady, an eye specialist, who worked untiringly with the poor, a well as being a professor. Four years after her dad died of TB (1892), she died in 1896, also of TB. They are both buried in the Grady family plot in Greenwood.
John DW’s daughter, Amy remained single. Youngest daughter, Emma, married Chauncey Howell. They had one daughter, Amy Fremont Howell who married Aaron Kievit.
The next son, Great Grandfather, Joseph Benedict Fenwick, was born in Massachusetts. We do not have his birth record, but the Bible says he was born on 3 Sep 1834. He married Frances Augusta Benedict from Danbury CT on 31 Aug 1861, though we do not know where, and do not have the certificate. They had 3 surviving children.
MOVE TO BROOKLYN
The area that the family moved to in Brooklyn is, today (2021) Park Slope. This is the neighborhood where Rabi and Myles were married in 1995. However, it looked a mite different 170 years ago. I will quote directly (maintaining his spelling and punctuation) from a 1918 history of Greenwood Baptist Mission by W.H. Jenks:
“Our section of the city was originally known as “Gowanns” but because of its proximity to Greenwood Cemetery its name changed to “Greenwood” , hence the name of our church. Our history commences with the year 1856 when the greater portion of our population resided in a district bounded by third an Fifth Avenues,- Seventeenth and Twenty-third Streets. Third Avenue was then the principal thoroughfare, Fifth Avenue had recently been paned and graded, Hamilton Avenue, east of the bridge, had not been opened. The untrameled waters of New York Bay washed green meadows along the line of Third Avenue for nearly a mile and a half, and open fields lately abandoned by the plough extended from 9th to 13th Streets.”
I am indebted to Jeremy Lintz, the current (2021) church historian/archivist for sending me a copy of this document. This is a true act of genealogical kindness. Thank you for finding and reaching out to us!!! Furthermore, the photo is shared because of a creative commons license; I believe it is his as well.
The youngest child to survive, Charles Irving, born 1 Jul 1837, we believe in Manhattan, though that record has not been located. He married Agnes Hamilton Servoss in Brooklyn. Their first daughter, Nellie was born in North Carolina in June 1873. She died in September and is buried in the family plot in Brooklyn. That family remained in the NYC area, because their only other child, Agnes, was born in Manhattan in 1877. Agnes never married.
1843….According to the Grady family Bible, her husband John Grady died at 38 years on 9 Nov 1843. Mary Jane Rachel was only 30 and she’d already lost an infant daughter (who died in October)and her husband. Baby Maria Jane is buried in Greenwood.
The 1845 and 1846 Brooklyn City Directory lists Grady, Jane, widow, 7 James.
Jane was 40 in 1850 and she lived in Brooklyn, Wd. 4, NY with Cecelia (22), Theresa (19), John DW (17), Joseph BF (15), Charles (13), Elizabeth (11).
1856 –Founding of the Greewood Baptist Church
Again, I will quote directly from the Jenks 1918 document:
“Into this neighborhood came the Reverend Henry Bromley, a missionary of Strong Place Church, who was then conducting a mission on Hamilton Avenue, near the Ferry. He came to “spy out the land”.
“No act falls fruitless, none can tell
How vast its power may be,
Nor what results infolded dwell
Within it silently”
Calling from house to house he soon discovered a few Baptists and imediately arranged for a prayer meeting which was held on the evening of January 11th, 1856 in the home of Mrs. Grady, mther of our brother, J.D.W. Grady.”
In 1860 Mary Jane Rachel (50) lived in Brooklyn Ward 10, District 3 with Phebe Allaire (30), Sarah E Allaire (11) Margaret M. ( 11) and Francis C. (6).
in 1870, she lived with son John and his family in Brooklyn’s 8th Ward.
The 1876,1879, 1880 Brooklyn City Directories list Mary (wid.John) living at 134 8th Street.
At 72 years (death cert says 74), Mary Jane Rachel died 7 Apr 1880 in Orange Mountain NJ (corner of Gregory and Chestnut Ave) where she had lived for 4 years. She’d suffered heart problems for many years.
Mary Jane Rachel was buried 10 Apr 1880 in Greenwood Cemetery Lot 9550, Lot 9550 Sec 109. We have the burial records thanks to diligent research by Sara Fetherolf at Green-Wood.
Her obit
uary appeared in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 9, 1880
TRANSCRIPTION:
GRADY–On Wednesday, at the residence of her son, Orange Mountain (West Orange), N. J., Mrs. M. J. R. GRADY, in the 74th year of her age. Relatives and friends are invited to attend the funeral from her son’s residence, J. D. W. Grady, No. 67 Schenectady Ave. Brooklyn, on Saturday afternoon, the 10th inst., at 2 o’clock.
[Georgia papers please copy…]
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