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Historical records matching Mary Gray
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About Mary Gray
After settling in Foxton, Alexander Gray sent for his elderly widowed mother Mary Bruce Gray, whom he had left in Aberdeen in the care of his brother William Gray. In response to Alexander’s message, a party comprising Mary Bruce Gray, William Gray, his wife and six year old son William, embarked on the ship “Simla” in late 1851. The voyage was eventful and interrupted by a mutiny which compelled the vessel to put into Hobart Town in Tasmania. It eventually arrived at New Plymouth in 1852 and the Grays disembarked there. Alexander came up from Wellington to collect his mother and took her back to his home. William remained in New Plymouth to enter the Postal Service, moving in due course to its head office at Wellington.
From that time on, Alexander kept his elderly mother with him in his various households until her death in Foxton at the age of 98 years. Mary Bruce was a true Highland Scot whose native tongue was the Gaelic which she spoke and read to the end of her long life. Her parents, William and Mary Bruce, were farmers in the North Highlands and claimed undisputed descent from the great chieftain Robert the Bruce who ruled Scotland in the early 14th century. Mary was born at Port Gower, Sutherlandshire, in 1783 - 32 years before the Battle of Waterloo!
“Grannie Gray” played an active role in the life of the community and of “Aberdeen House” until a very advanced age, and indeed survived her daughter-in-law by six years. Her great friend was the Presbyterian Minister the Reverend James Duncan, with whom she spoke the Gaelic. Her Gaelic Bible survives in her great-great-grandson’s possession, together with a few lines of lovely Georgian copperplate handwriting in Gaelic.
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Mary Gray's Timeline
| 1783 |
1783
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Portgower, Sutherlandshire, Scotland
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| 1817 |
July 28, 1817
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Old Machar, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
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| 1821 |
March 27, 1821
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Old Machar, Aberdeen, UK
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| 1830 |
1830
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Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
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| 1881 |
February 4, 1881
Age 98
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Foxton, Horowhenua District, Manawatu-Wanganui, New Zealand
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February 6, 1881
Age 98
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General Block 8, Plot 44, Foxton Cemetery, Foxton, Horowhenua District, Manawatu-Wanganui, New Zealand
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