acquiesced in his decision; but after the conference was over fifty-five bishops joined in the following declaration: ‘We the undersigned bishops declare our acceptance of the sentence pronounced upon Dr. Colenso by the metropolitan of South Africa, with his suffragans, as being spiritually a valid sentence.’ The debates, though not published, may be seen in the archives at Lambeth Library.
Gray's next step was to find a person willing to accept the bishopric, and who would be acceptable to all parties concerned. The see to which he was to be appointed was designated that of Pietermaritzburg. After many refusals the Rev. W. K. Macrorie in January 1868 accepted the post, and the next difficulty that arose was as to the place of consecration, it being found that there were legal difficulties as to a consecration taking place without the queen's mandate in any place where the Act of Uniformity was in force. The new bishop was finally consecrated at Cape Town on 25 Jan. 1869 by Gray, assisted by the bishops of Graham's Town, St. Helena, and the Free State.
The incessant work in which Gray had been engaged was now beginning to tell upon him, and his anxieties were increased by domestic afflictions. In 1870 he lost a daughter, and in the spring of the following year his wife died. He also sensibly felt the loss of the Bishop of Graham's Town, who had in the same year been induced to accept the bishopric of Edinburgh. The bishopric of Graham's Town being thus vacant, Gray had the satisfaction of consecrating for the see his old and tried friend, Archdeacon Merriman.
Gray died on 1 Sept. 1872, his death being supposed to have been accelerated by a fall from his horse about three weeks before. Up to this time he had been engaged incessantly in work in all parts of his large diocese, and before he died had been the means of adding to the South African church five new bishoprics, to which others have been added since his death. Perhaps Gray's most remarkable characteristic was his tenacity of purpose in carrying to the end what he judged to be his duty.
Gray published, besides many pamphlets and some charges, journals of visitations held in 1848 and 1850 (London, 1852), in 1855 (London, 1856), in 1864 (London, 1864), and in 1865 (London, 1866).
[Life of Bishop Gray, by H. L. Farrer, afterwards Lear, edited by the bishop's son; Chronicle of Convocation; Lambeth Archives.]
GRAY, ROBERT (1825–1887), ornithologist, born at Dunbar on 15 Aug. 1825, was the son of Archibald Gray, a merchant of the place. He was educated at the parish school, and at the age of fifteen (information received from the late William Sinclair) he became an apprentice in the branch of the British Linen Company Bank. Five years afterwards he went to Glasgow, where he entered the head office of the City of Glasgow Bank. Here he attained the position of inspector of branches, an appointment which had an important influence upon his scientific pursuits. From early years he had been addicted to the study of natural history. He soon adopted ornithology as his specialty, and wrote largely on the subject. During his frequent journeys for the inspection of the branch offices of the bank, he diligently availed himself of his extended opportunities for studying bird-life and adding to his collection of specimens. The note-books, which he filled in remote country inns during evening hours, after the day's work was ended, and their illustrations by his skilful pencil, formed the basis of his ‘Birds of the West of Scotland,’ published in 1871, a work, now out of print and scarce, which embodies in an eminently pleasant and readable form the results of years of observation.
Not less worthy of remembrance are Gray's labours in connection with various learned societies. In 1851 he was one of the founders of the Natural History Society of Glasgow. He contributed to the ‘Proceedings’ of that body, was its treasurer from 1854 to 1856, and was elected its secretary in 1858, a post which he resigned in 1871, when he was appointed agent of the branch of the City of Glasgow Bank in St. Vincent Street, Glasgow. On 8 April 1856 he had married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Anderson of Girvan, a lady much interested in science, who formed an extensive and valuable geological collection illustrative of the fossils of the silurian rocks of the south of Scotland, and materially aided her husband in his ornithological pursuits. In March 1874 Gray entered the service of the Bank of Scotland as superintendent of branches, Edinburgh, and eight years later he became cashier there, an appointment which he retained during the rest of his life. In Edinburgh he again devoted himself to the interests of science. In 1882 he was elected vice-president of the Royal Society there; but it was in connection with the Royal Physical Society that he made his influence most distinctly felt. This society, one of the oldest scientific bodies in Edinburgh, had ‘fallen into one of its periodic fits of depression,’ when, in 1877, Gray accepted its secretaryship. He entered on his duties with great energy, and, by his courtesy and singular charm of manner
