James Gray (c. 1770 – 1830) was a Scottish educator,

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

and

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

. While master of the high school of

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; sco, Dumfries; from gd, Dùn Phris ) is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is located near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth about by road from the ...

, he became a friend of

Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 175921 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who hav ...

, later teaching his children. He later held posts at the

high school of Edinburgh The Royal High School (RHS) of Edinburgh is a co-educational school administered by the City of Edinburgh Council. The school was founded in 1128 and is one of the oldest schools in Scotland. It serves 1,200 pupils drawn from four feeder primar ...

and the

Belfast Academy The Belfast Royal Academy (commonly shortened to ) is the oldest school in the city of Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is a co-educational, non-denominational voluntary grammar school in north Belfast. The Academy is one of 8 schools in Northern ...

. He then took orders in the

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second ...

, serving as a chaplin for the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

in Kutch and serving as tutor to the young Rao or Prince of that province,

Deshalji II Maharajadhiraj Mirza Maharao Shri Deshalji II Sahib Bahadur (b 1814- d 1860) (reign: 1819–1860) was the Rao of Cutch belonging to Jadeja dynasty, who ascended the throne of Princely State of Cutch upon deposition of his father Bharmalji II b ...

Life

Gray was originally master of the high school of

, and there became good friends with

. From 1801 till 1822 he was master in the

. In 1822 he became Headmaster of the

. Gray subsequently took orders in the

and in 1826 went out to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

as chaplain in the

's service at

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

. He was eventually stationed at

Bhuj Bhuj () is a Municipality and District Headquarters of Kutch District in the state of Gujarat, India. Etymology According to legend, Kutch was ruled by the Nāga chieftains in the past. Sagai, a queen of Sheshapattana, who was married to Kin ...

in Kutch, and was entrusted by the British government with the education of the young Rao of that province

, being, it is said, the first

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

who was ever honoured with such an appointment. Gray died at Bhuj on 25 March 1830.

Works

Gray published anonymously ''Cona; or the Vale of Clwyd. And other poems'', London, 1814 (2nd ed., with author's name, 1816); and edited the ''Poems'' of

Robert Fergusson Robert Fergusson (5 September 1750 – 16 October 1774) was a Scottish poet. After formal education at the University of St Andrews, Fergusson led a bohemian life in Edinburgh, the city of his birth, then at the height of intellectual and c ...

, with a life of the poet, Edinburgh, 1821. He left in manuscript a poem on ''India''. Another poem, entitled ''A Sabbath among the Mountains'', is attributed to him. His Kutchi version of the Gospel of St. Matthew was printed at

in 1834. A manuscript collection of his poems in Scots, now in the possession of the

National Library of Scotland The National Library of Scotland (NLS) ( gd, Leabharlann Nàiseanta na h-Alba, sco, Naitional Leebrar o Scotland) is the legal deposit library of Scotland and is one of the country's National Collections. As one of the largest libraries in the ...

, is one of the earliest extant collections of Scots poetry. It includes variant readings of several poems by

Robert Henryson Robert Henryson (Middle Scots: Robert Henrysoun) was a poet who flourished in Scotland in the period c. 1460–1500. Counted among the Scots ''makars'', he lived in the royal burgh of Dunfermline and is a distinctive voice in the Northern Renai ...

, as well as a collection of prayers, geographical tables and chronological tables of early Scottish history, all written in Latin.Royl, Trevor. The Mainstream Companion to Scottish Literature (Edinburgh: The Mainstream Publishing Co., 1993).

Family

Gray married Mary Phillips of Longbridgemoor, Annandale, eldest sister of the wife of

James Hogg James Hogg (1770 – 21 November 1835) was a Scottish poet, novelist and essayist who wrote in both Scots and English. As a young man he worked as a shepherd and farmhand, and was largely self-educated through reading. He was a friend of many ...

. His family mostly settled in India. Hogg introduced Gray into the ''Queen's Wake'', as the fifteenth

bard In Celtic cultures, a bard is a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise t ...

who sang the

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

of ''King Edward's Dream''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, James 1770 births 1830 deaths Scottish poets Scottish literature Scots-language poets 19th-century poets 19th-century linguists Scottish linguists Scottish educators People from Duns, Scottish Borders 19th-century Scottish people Year of birth uncertain