My Gray Family Story Begins, Weaving My Family History From Paisley, Scotland to the Don River

I have a memory, as a young girl, sometime in the 1960s, of observing my parents, some aunts and uncles and my grandpa Harold Gray, sitting around my Aunt Marg (Peg) and Uncle Jim’s dining table, going through piles of photographs and papers, and making notes on the backs of photos, so that the names of the people in the photos wouldn’t be forgotten. It was already too late for many as nobody could remember who some of the people were.

Among the papers was an old brittle creased document, which was the discharge papers for my 3x great uncle James Gray dating from 1815. Somebody decided in the aims of preserving the original that photocopies should be made and the wording gone over in ink, as the original ink was very faint, some words were already lost in the creases, with that in mind in the translation there might be a few mistakes.

It reads: His Majesty’s 1st Battalion, 90th Regiment of Foot, whereof General Thomas Graham, Lord Lynedoch is Colonel. This is to certify that James Gray, Corporal, born in the Parish of Old Church, Renfrew, in or near to the town of _________, Renfrew, hath served in the said Regiment for the space of nine years and 231 days, as likewise in other Corps, according to the following Statement, but in consequence of The Princes Agents Proclamation of the 24th September 1814 being discharged having completed his limited service of 7 years….to prevent any improper use of this Discharge, by it’s falling into other hands, the following is a description of the said James Gray, 28 years of age, 5 feet 11 inches in height, sandy hair, grey eyes, fair complexion….

Grampa Gray (Harold) said that it was due to James Gray’s service in the British Army, that James and 4 of his brothers, Alexander Gray, John Salmond Gray, George Gray, and William Gray (my Greatx2 Grandfather), would emigrate to Canada. With that in mind, and since James was the eldest brother that we know of, we will start our story with James. James Gray, born 1791, in Lanarkshire, was a weaver in Paisley, Renfrewshire, when he enlisted with His Majesty’s 1st Battalion, 90th Regiment of Foot, Perthshire Volunteers (light infantry)  in 1808, and served until April 26,1815.

Men from Scotland from artisan and middle class households enlisted due to the downturn in the weaving trade, and the general poor state of the economy, with two years of poor crops in 1799 and 1800, plus pressure from Napoleon affecting trade. In 1806 a system of ‘limited service’ was introduced to attract recruits, with infantry serving for a period of 7 years. Good timing for our James and a good thing too, because I’m sure there was no way he knew what he was getting into. At least only being enlisted for 7 years meant there was light at the end of the tunnel, unlike for the lifers, who’d signed their lives away.

The uniform of the Perthshire Volunteers was a red wool jacket with white facing, grey pantaloons, bearskin crested leather helmets of light calvary pattern and black gaiters.

Imagine if you will, how hot that uniform would be in the tropics.
James was 5 foot 10 1/2 with a fair complexion, sandy hair and grey eyes. I’m sure he looked very handsome in his dress uniform.

Part of the daily routine for a soldier was keeping his uniform looking sparkling which took about 3 hours a day, every day, getting ready for daily ‘parade’. That started with dressing their hair which had to be kept at 10 inches in length to allow it to be tied back and end before the collar. The hair was held stiff using pomade, grease, or wax, which they then had to powder white. In the Caribbean, using grease caused problems as the smell was attractive to rodents and bugs. Once their hair was done, they started on their uniform. All the white leather needed to be whitened with pipe clay, the cross straps, the belt; the boots needed polished black with blacking and wax, the 3 dozen brass buttons had to be shined, their gaiters had to be whitened with clay and put on wet so they’d dry snug. Then the weaponry, their musket had to be polished to a shine with emery and oil, as well as the cartridge case, and the sword and scabbard.

The British soldier of the time, did have a cooler more relaxed fatigue outfit that they would wear in the fort, when not on parade, or guard duty, with off loose white canvas pants, a white linen shirt with a short white wool jacket, a black felt forage cap, which was much more comfortable than the dress uniform for doing camp chores and drills, not necessarily much cooler, but more comfortable.

James served in the Lesser Antilles, being primarily at Fort Charlotte, St. Vincent, West Indies, waiting and keeping prepared for action.  1808: St Vincent 1809: January fighting in Martinique; based at Fort Royal; October – recalled to St Vincent; 1810: January fighting at Guadeloupe, Trois Rivieres; St Kitts, Basseterre; 1811: St Vincent 1812: St Vincent; received draft from 2nd Battalion; after the 2nd battalion arrived there were upwards of 1000 soldiers at Fort Charlotte, 1813: St Vincent, April – earthquake helped with rebuilding: 1814: St Vincent; May – to Canada; June – Quebec; Montreal; Kingston; October – Fort George; 1815: Fort Niagara; June – to England; arrive in England August 3rd,1815

The daily routine when in the fort: Up to the sound of a drum 2 hours before sunrise, make up your bed which involved taking your sheet and mattress outside to shake them out, rolling them up and placing it on the bed frame which has now been folded up with the frame being hinged in the middle so that the bottom of the frame could be flipped back over the top of the frame. This made room for tables down the middle of the barracks for meals and working on the maintenance of their gear. Then they washed their hands, face, neck and ears and combed their hair using water from a barracks bucket. This was all done in the dark, or by a little candlelight. At first light they’d assemble for morning parade in their casual fatigue uniform. After roll call, the soldiers went on to drills or to assigned duties. At 9 am they’d return to barracks for breakfast prepared by the mess orderlies. After breakfast they’d get their uniform ready for full dress parade at 11. After parade they were dismissed for dinner. After dinner they’d either continue with assigned duties or have free time which was often spent, chatting, drinking, gambling, airing their bedding and seeing to their personal chores. Some soldiers would have side jobs: hair cutting, shoe repair, musket repair, servants to officers, cooking and baking, etc. At 4:45 the bugle would call for 15 minutes to supper. Supper at 5 pm, then more free time until 8 pm roll call. 8:30 back to barracks. 9pm the drum corp would perform tattoo just before lights out.

In the year 1807, the year before James enlisted and went to Fort Charlotte, 150 soldiers at Fort Charlotte died of tropical diseases; yellow fever, dengue fever and malaria were endemic. The fort held 600 soldiers so this was a huge loss.

You can’t currently visit the enlisted men’s barracks at Fort Charlotte as it is used as the women’s prison today, but from the aerial photo below it is the long building to the right and in 1808 – 1815 the barracks had a door at one end and a small window high up on the far end wall, so it was dark, and dank and likely mosquito infested, not too mention stinky from the bodies of 500 – 600 men who didn’t bathe.  The floors were not washed but only swept out as washing the floors would only lead to more humidity and moss and mold growth.  

The parade ground is up the hill from the barracks and the gun emplacements have the cannons facing inland, as the threat at the time the fort was initially built was from the land side not the sea. The higher section of building on the land side of the gun emplacements holds the officers quarters which were a little brighter than the infantry barracks. Of the buildings to the right of the parade ground, there is a laundry, a bakery and an armory.

Fort Charlotte, Kingstown, Saint Vincent 2020

“The regiment arrived at Quebec on the 20th of June, 1814, at Montreal on the 29th of the same month, and up the St Lawrence to Kingston on the 8th of July, whence, after a stay of three months, it commenced its march for Upper Canada on the 13th of October. On its arrival at Fort George, the 90th at once crossed over to Fort Niagara, in the United States territory, which it occupied until the 22nd of May, 1815 hostilities having ceased, the fort was given up, and the regiment returned to Fort George, from which it marched on the 1st of June, march back to Kingston, sail on to Montreal and to Quebec to sail on its way to England. After an uneventful voyage, Spithead was reached on the 3rd of August” 1815
reference: https://archive.org/stream/recordsof90threg00delarich/recordsof90threg00delarich_djvu.txt

For his service James Gray was given a grant for land in Upper Canada on the Don River, East York and his brothers followed him to Canada. James, age 26, was the first to arrive, in 1817, with younger brother William, age 15. Alexander arrived in 1818, age 14. John arrived in 1819, age 20. George arrived in 1825 with his wife Mary MacMillan Gray and infant son Thomas, and mother Janet Salmond Gray. James eventually settled at Lot 9, Conc 3, west side Don Mills Road, second farm south of York Mills Road

My husband and I moved to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and I once I had more time to devote to looking into the family history, I was quite surprised to discover that James Gray’s service was primarily at Fort Charlotte, Kingstown, on the island of Saint Vincent. I’d been to Fort Charlotte, but this meant I had to go again and look at the Fort with a different perspective.