Moses Wilson Gray, known as Wilson Gray (1813 – 4 April 1875) was an Irish-born barrister, member of the

Victorian Legislative Assembly The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The presiding ...

and district judge in New Zealand. Gray born in

Claremorris Claremorris (; ) is a town in County Mayo in the west of Ireland, at the junction of the N17 and the N60 national routes. It is the fastest growing town in the county. There was a 31% increase in the town's population between 2006 and 2011 an ...

County Mayo County Mayo (; ga, Contae Mhaigh Eo, meaning "Plain of the Taxus baccata, yew trees") is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Conn ...

, Ireland, the son of John Gray and his wife Elizabeth, ''née'' Wilson. Gray decided to emigrate to

Victoria (Australia) Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in ...

, and with

Charles Gavan Duffy Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, KCMG, PC (12 April 1816 – 9 February 1903), was an Irish poet and journalist (editor of ''The Nation''), Young Irelander and tenant-rights activist. After emigrating to Australia in 1856 he entered the politics of ...

, sailed in the ''Ocean Chief'' arriving in Melbourne in 1856. Gray took an active part in the solution of the land question on liberal lines, and was one of the founders of the Victoria Land League, under whose auspices was summoned a great assemblage of delegates from all parts of Victoria to discuss the land question with a view to promoting the settlement of a farming population on the public estate. The Land Convention, as it was called, met in Melbourne in 1857, and condemned the abortive Haines Land Bill then passing through the Lower House. Wilson Gray was elected the president of the Convention, which also passed resolutions in favour of manhood suffrage, equal electoral districts, abolition of property qualification, and payment of representatives. Gray was member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly for Rodney from January 1860 to September 1862, when he went to

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

, New Zealand, and became a district court judge. He died in Lawrence, Otago, New Zealand on 4 April 1875. The central Victorian goldrush town Graytown was named after Mr Gray in 1869.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Moses Wilson 1813 births 1875 deaths Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly District Court of New Zealand judges Irish emigrants to colonial Australia People from County Mayo Colony of New Zealand judges 19th-century Australian politicians