ABSTRACT
Jonathan Gray, alderman of York, solicitor, and amateur musician, was a figure of great local and some national importance in musical history, although he has never yet secured an entry in Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians. William Gray, father of Jonathan, was the son of a Hull customs officer, and became a successful attorney-at-law at York. Robinson and William Gray married sisters, respectively Frances and Faith, daughters of Jonathan Hopwood. Politically, Gray was an active supporter of Pitt and Wilberforce: at the parliamentary election or 1808, the first contested election in Yorkshire for 65 years, he strongly supported Wilberforce, though as under-sheriff he had to superintend the poll. This chapter proposes to discuss in some detail his influence in the realm of church music, while giving brief attention to his other activities. There is no doubt of Gray’s lifelong attachment to the Church of England and to the Evangelical party within that Church.
