Robert Gray

Awarded compensation for Green Pond estate and part of the compensation for Mount Oliphant or Olivant both in Manchester Jamaica, the latter in right of wife as tenant for life under the will of John Anderson Kennedy. Robert Gray had married Margaret Kennedy, almost certainly the widow of Mount Oliphant's previous owner John Anderson Kennedy', in Dublin in 1828. Robert Gray's brother was awarded another part of the compensation Mount Olivant [sic] as trustee of their marriage settlement and creditor.

1. Will of John Anderson Kennedy of Manchester Lancashire [sic: in fact Jamaica] proved 27/10/1830. In the will he left £500 each to three of his nephew and nieces, and his estate in trust for his wife Margaret for life and then to his half-sisters Elizabeth Anderson Kennedy and Ann Kennedy.

2. Robert Gray's path to the compensation for Green Pond is not yet known. However, a fully-docmented family tree on Ancestry.com shows a son of Margaret Kennedy and Robert Gray as Thomas Sill Gray (1832-1901), implying some form of patronage by or family tie to the slave-owner Thomas Walker Sill, who had owned Green Pond. Thomas Sill Gray was Rector of Garsdon Wiltshire in the 1881 and 1891 censuses.

T71/915 Manchester Nos. 413 and 415; Manchester claim no. 412; Ancestry.com, Dublin, Ireland, Probate Record and Marriage License Index, 1270-1858 for Robert Gray [database online]

1. PROB 11/1777.

2. Wilson-Leckband-Thorp-Priborsky, https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/48177/person/430085526573/facts; the death-date in the entry is also drawn from this source.