Charles Gray FRS (baptised 20 September 1696 in Colchester, Essex, England - 12 December 1782) was a lawyer, antiquary and Tory Member of Parliament for Colchester.
Gray was baptised in 1696, the only son of George Gray, a glazier and local landowner, and his wife Elizabeth. He was educated at Colchester Royal Grammar School from 1702, before possibly spending some time at Cambridge University and entering Gray's Inn to become a lawyer in 1724. He was called to the bar in 1729 and became a bencher in 1737. Finally, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1754. In 1726 he married Sarah Creffield, née Webster, the well-off widow of Ralph Creffield, and after her death in 1751, in 1755 Gray married Mary, the daughter of Randle Wilbraham, Member of Parliament for Chester.[1]
Gray's political career was a long one; he served in five parliaments from 1742–1755 and 1761–1780, during the reigns of George II and George III.[2] By the end of his term, however, Gray was too ill to attend, being, in 1780, "too infirm and too ill to stand".[3] "A classical scholar as well as a reformer, he was one of the original trustees of the British Museum."[4]
Locally, Gray is now most remembered for being gifted Colchester Castle as part of his marriage settlement, and subsequently making a number of efforts to preserve it for future generations. Likewise, he also purchased a great part of the surrounding land, which was later gifted to the town to become Castle Park.[2] In the castle itself he constructed the Italianate domed tower and the library, and founded in the latter, in 1750, the Castle Society Book Club; among whose members was Philip Morant.[2] The library was to contain the books of Samuel Harsnett, bequeathed to the town, and tended to and documented by Morant.[1] He also roofed the castle in red tile, which survives. His son, Charles Gray Round was also a local notable, and Gray's successor as owner of the manor of Little Birch.[5]
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