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 (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

. While master of the high school of

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; ; from ) is a market town and former royal burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, near the mouth of the River Nith on the Solway Firth, from the Anglo-Scottish border. Dumfries is the county town of the Counties of Scotland, ...

, he became a friend of

Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the List of national poets, national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the be ...

, later teaching his children. He later held posts at the high school of Edinburgh and the

Belfast Academy The Belfast Royal Academy (also known as ) 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 Ireland w ...

. He then took orders in the

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland (, ; , ) is a Christian church in Ireland, and an autonomy, autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the Christianity in Ireland, second-largest Christian church on the ...

, serving as a chaplin for the

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

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 (1814–1860; 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 by B ...

Life

Gray was originally the master of the high school of

, where he became good friends with

. From 1801 to 1822, he was master of the high school of Edinburgh. 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, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

as chaplain in the

's service at

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

. He was eventually stationed at

Bhuj Bhuj () is a city and the headquarters of Kutch district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Etymology According to legend, Kutch (Kachchh) was ruled by the Nāga chieftains in the past. Sagai, a queen of Sheshapattana, who was married to King B ...

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 A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

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 – 17 October 1774) was a Scottish poet. After formal education at the University of St Andrews, Fergusson led a Bohemianism, bohemian life in Edinburgh, the city of his birth, then at the height of intel ...

, with a life of the poet, Edinburgh, 1821. He left a poem on ''India'' in a manuscript. Another poem, ''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; ; ) is one of Scotland's National Collections. It is one of the largest libraries in the United Kingdom. As well as a public programme of exhibitions, events, workshops, and tours, the National Library of ...

, 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 language, Scots ''makars'', he lived in the royal burgh of Dunfermline and is a distinctive voice in th ...

and 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, the eldest sister of

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

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

bard In Celtic cultures, a bard is an oral repository and 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 a ...

who sang the

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

of ''King Edward's Dream''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, James 1770s births 1830 deaths Scottish poets Scottish literature Scots-language poets 19th-century Scottish poets 19th-century British linguists Linguists from Scotland Scottish educators People from Duns, Scottish Borders 19th-century Scottish people