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Mrs Sarah GRAY (c.1800–1871)
Her grandson Frederick William GRAY (1849–1869)
St Mary Magdalen section: Row 19, Grave D66

Mrs Sarah Gray was born in Reading in c.1799. Her husband was the coachsmith James Gray, and they may be the Sarah Shurvill and James Gray who were married at St Mary's Church in Reading on 15 June 1818. They began their married life in Reading, and appear to have had just one child (the father of the young man who is buried with Sarah in this grave):

• Charles James Gray (born in Reading in 1822 and baptised at St Mary's Church there on 6 October).

At the time of the 1841 census Sarah (41) and her husband James (c.45) were living at Penson's Gardens, St Ebbe's with their son Charles (19), who was a coachsmith's apprentice and presumably working for his father.

On 13 January 1845 at Wolvercote, Sarah and James's son (and Frederick's father) Charles James Gray, now himself a coachmaker, married Mary Preston, the daughter of the upholsterer Charles Preston: both were then living in that parish. They had the following children:

• Ann Gray (born at Thames Street, New Hinksey in 1845 and baptised at St Aldate's Church on 5 August)
• Charles James Gray junior (born at Bridport Street, Oxford near the end of 1846 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church in St Ebbe's on 13 January 1847)
• Frederick William Gray (born at Bridport Street, Oxford in 1849 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church, St Ebbe's on 9 September).

The couple initially lived in Thames Street to the south of Oxford, but had moved to Bridport Street in St Ebbe's by 1847. Frederick's wife Mary Gray died at Bridport Street at the age of 29 around the time of Frederick's birth and her funeral was at Holy Trinity Church on 13 September 1849: she is probably buried in Osney Cemetery.

At the time of the 1851 census Frederick's father Charles, a widower of 28, was still working as a coachmaker and was living on his own in the Jericho area of Oxford at 2 Richmond Road (then 2 Worcester Terrace) in a separate part of the home of the college servant John Wheeler and his family. Frederick (2) and his sister Ann (5) and brother Charles (4) were living at Tidmarsh in Berkshire as the nurse children of Mary Ann Barker, a farm labourer's wife, who also had seven children of her own to look after.

Charles's father James Gray appears to have died between 1841 and 1851, and at the time of the 1851 census his mother Mrs Sarah Gray, now a widow of 61, was a nurse and lodging on her own at Paradise Square, Oxford. (Her address was given as 47 Paradise Square in 1861, when she was still working as a nurse.)

On 18 September 1858 at North Hinksey Church, Frederick's father Charles James Gray (37) married his second wife, the widowed laundress Mrs Ann Herbert, née Davis (40), who was born at Clifton, Somerset in c.1818, the daughter of the smith John Davis): at the time of their wedding both were living in Isis Street, North Hinksey (then in Berkshire). They had two children, who were Frederick's half-siblings:

• Mary Jane Gray (born in North Hinksey in 1860, reg. Abingdon district fourth quarter but not baptised at Holy Trinity Church, St Ebbe's until 19 April 1863).
• George James Gray born at Friars Wharf, Oxford near the beginning of 1863 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church, St Ebbe's on 12 April 1863)

By the time of the 1861 census Frederick Gray (12) was reunited with his father, and living at Isis Street, North Hinksey with his father Charles (39), his stepmother Ann (42), who was working as a laundress, his sister Ann Gray (15), his stepsister Mary Ann Herbert (16), and his half-sister Mary Jane Gray (five months). Edward Herbert (14), who was paying a visit, was probably Frederick's stepbrother.

Frederick's father Charles James Gray died In Oxford (reg. Headington district) at the age of 46 near the beginning of 1869.

Frederick then may have gone to live with his grandmother at Gloucester Green: in any event, he died there later the same year:

† Frederick William Gray died at Gloucester Green at the age of 20 on 18 October 1869 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 24 October (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).

At the time of the 1871 census Frederick's stepmother Mrs Ann Gray (52) was still working as a laundress and living at 1 Alma Place in east Oxford. Her son Edward Herbert (23), who was now a college servant, her daughter Mary Jane (10) and her niece Mary Brookes (17) were living with her.

Meanwhile in 1871 Frederick's grandmother Sarah (71) was lodging at 7 Gloucester Green with the beerhouse keeper Charles Cherrill and his family. She died just after the census was taken:

† Mrs Sarah Gray died at Gloucester Green at the age of 71 on 4 April 1871 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 7 April (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).