Henry Grey (1778–1859) was a Scottish minister in the Church of Scotland and following the Disruption of 1843 in the Free Church. He served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland in 1844.
St Mary's Bellevue, EdinburghHenry Grey by Hill & AdamsonHenry Grey of Edinburgh by John Kay5 East Claremont Street, Edinburgh
Grey was born on 11 February 1778, at Alnwick, Northumberland. His father was a physician in Morpeth. His education was at a private school in Highhedgely with a final 18 months in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. In Newcastle he attended lectures by Henry Moyes (on a tour of Britain) and was greatly influenced by his thinking.[1] His mother had an early breach with his father, and after his education moved with her son to Edinburgh in 1793. There he passed through the usual course of study preparatory to entering into the office of the ministry in the Church of Scotland. He was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Edinburgh in November 1800.[2] He was ordained in 1801.[3][4]
On 11 January 1821 Grey was appointed to the New North Church, one of the four parish churches of Edinburgh contained within St Giles Cathedral, in place of the late Rev David Dickson. In October 1824 the town council chose Grey as minister of St Mary's Church in the Bellevue district (which was still under construction) and on completion in January 1825 he was therefore its first minister, his first service there being on the first Sunday after 13 January.[2]
Four years after this last change of post, Grey clashed with Andrew Thomson, and they took opposite sides in the Apocrypha Controversy; they had been warm personal friends.[4]
In the ecclesiastical struggle of the next few years, Grey opposed the civil courts. At the Disruption of 1843 he left the Church of Scotland and joined the Free Church of Scotland. Taking a large proportion of the Bellevue congregation with him, and had a new church built for him on the north side of Barony Street, 300m south of the original church. The building held a congregation of 800.[6] This structure was short-lived, as it was not intended as the permanent home of the congregation. Although Grey was involved in the contract for the permanent building (on the corner of Albany street and Broughton Street) it was not completed until after Grey's death due to contractual problems.[7]
The grave of Rev Henry Grey DD, St Cuthberts Churchyard, Edinburgh
Grey retired from active ministry in 1857 with Free St Mary's being taken over by Rev Thomas Main.[9]
Grey died suddenly in his eighty-first year, on Thursday 13 January 1859[4] at his home 5 East Claremont Street, a very large Georgian flat on the eastern fringe of the Edinburgh New Town.[10]
He is buried in St Cuthbert's Churchyard at the west end of Princes Street[11] with his wife Margaretta (1786–1858) and children Emily Isabella and George Edward Grey. The grave lies in the north-east corner of the northernmost section, abutting the churchyard of St John.
In October 1808 he married his cousin Margaretta Grey (1786-1858) eldest daughter of his paternal uncle, Rev George Grey of West OrdinNorthumberland. Their children included:[2]
Mary Grey (1810-1857) married Rev John Hampton Gurney, rector of St Mary's Church, Bryaston Square in London
Harriet Jane Grey (1811-1863) married Rev Charles Birrell of Pembroke Baptist Church in Liverpool, parents to Augustine Birrell
George Edward Grey (1812-1819)
Rev Henry Campbell Grey (1814-1854) vicar of Watling, Sussex
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney, eds. (1890). "Grey, Henry (1778-1859)". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 23. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
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