GRAY, John

A textile manufacturer of Haulgh, Bolton who retired from business in order to take up yachting and eventually died at Claygate, Surrey. It was in Gray’s yacht 'The Miranda' that Hamlet Clark made his voyage to Brazil and in which Wollaston made most of his voyages to the Atlantic Islands. In a brief obituary in EMM., 18, 1878, pp.190-191, the writer notes that it was during these voyages that Gray showed himself 'a most enthusiastic collector and acute observer' of insects. Geoff Hancock, seeking information about Gray in EMM., 112, 1976, 211, noted that a collection of exotic Coleoptera and Hymenoptera made by him in a mahogany twenty drawer cabinet was acquired by Bolton Museum as a purchase from Alderman Smith in 1904. The specimens are marked with a 'G' or 'Gray Colln.' He also notes a reference in Chalmers-Hunt (1976), to an auction of collections including European Coleoptera and a library made by John Gray, formerly of Bolton, at Stevens' Rooms on 22-23 October 1883, part of which was bought by the Museum in St. Petersburgh. FRES from 1850 and one of the original subscribers to the EMM. (MD 1/03)