William Gray (21 December 1814 – 6 February 1895) was an English

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

from 1857 to 1874. Gray was the second son of William Gray of Wheatfield, in the Haulgh,

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...

, and his wife Frances Rasbotham, daughter of Dorning Rasbotham of Birch House, near Bolton. He was educated privately and in 1835 was cornet in the Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry Cavalry. He was captain in the 4th Royal Lancashire Militia, and Lieutenant-Colonel of the 27th Lancashire Rifle Volunteers. He owned the Lever Bridge cotton mill in Darcy Lever which in 1891 had 21,000 spindles and 420 looms. From 1850 to 1852, Gray was Mayor of Bolton. He was a Deputy Lieutenant and J.P. for Lancashire.Debretts House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1870
/ref> At the 1857 general election Gray was elected as a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for

. He held the seat until he was defeated at the 1874 general election. He was a liberal Conservative and was in favour of education based on religion. Gray lived at

Darcy Lever Darcy Lever is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton in Greater Manchester, England. Historically part of Lancashire, the area lies on the B6209 (Radcliffe Road), between Bolton and Little Lever. Its history dates to the time of William ...

Hall, near

, in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

(now

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

) and Farley Hill Place in

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

. He was

High Sheriff of Berkshire The High Sheriff of Berkshire, in common with other counties, was originally the King's representative on taxation upholding the law in Saxon times. The word Sheriff evolved from 'shire-reeve'. The title of High Sheriff is therefore much older ...

for 1882–83. He died at the age of 80. Gray married Magdalene Robin, daughter of John Robin of West Kirby Cheshire, in 1861.

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Bolton Council-The Mayors of Bolton
1814 births 1895 deaths People from Bolton Mayors of Bolton Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies People from Swallowfield UK MPs 1857–1859 UK MPs 1859–1865 UK MPs 1865–1868 UK MPs 1868–1874 Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry officers High Sheriffs of Berkshire Deputy Lieutenants of Lancashire {{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1810s-stub