Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

Mr. Bradley has confined his practice
mainly to corporation and surrogate chan-
nels, and has built up a substantial cli-
entele in the district and in New York.
He is held in esteem for personal and
professional qualities, and his place in the
community is that of a responsible, pro-
gressive citizen. He is a vestryman of
Trinity Episcopal Church, and a member
of Temple Lodge, Free and Accepted
Masons, of Westport. His club is the
University of New York City.
Edward Burr Bradley married Elizabeth
Babbitt, of Brooklyn, New York, and
they are the parents of one son, Daniel
Burr, born March 7, 1918.
GRAY, Walter Thomas,
Business Man.
The name Gray is of local origin, that
is, following the name of a place in Bur-
gundy, France. In the department of
Haute-Saone, there is a town called Gray.
The name was originally Croy. A Norman
chief named Rolf, Rollo, or Raoul,
invaded France with his Norwegian fol-
lowers and established himself there in
the ninth century. A descendant, or at
all events a member of the same family,
became chamberlain to Robert, Duke of
Normandy, and received from him the
castle and honor of Croy, from which his
family assumed the name of De Croy,
which was afterwards changed to De
Gray, and at last to Gray without the
prefix.
Gray instead of Grey is the orthography
in use in this branch of the family, as it
is almost universally in the different
branches of the country. In England and
Ireland, however, in the titled families,
Grey still obtains, while in Scotland it
is Gray. However, this slight difference
makes but a narrow line of demarcation
between different branches of a family
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
395
all evidently descended from one parent
stock and of one origin.
The Grays unquestionably came over to
England with William the Conqueror in
1066, for among the names of those in-
scribed at Battle Abbey, after the decisive
battle of Hastings, as worthy to be remembered
for valiant services there ren-
dered, was John de Gray.
The Gray family in America is numerous,
widespread, and consists of many
diverse branches. They were among the
Pilgrims of New England, the Quakers of
Pennsylvania, and were also early settlers
of Virginia and other Southern States.
Within the first century—from 1620 to
1720—researches made warrant the estimate
that at least twenty different families
of Grays, or different branches of the
same family, had emigrated to this country
and made their homes in the New
World. As early as 1622, two brothers,
Thomas and John Gray, had become pro-
prietors of the island of Nantasket in
Boston Harbor, by purchase from the
Indians. At an early period there were
also Grays at Salem, Boston, Plymouth,
and Yarmouth, and in the provinces of
Connecticut and Maine.
The fact that the Gray family was
largely represented among the early settlers
of Fairfield county, Connecticut, was
soon ascertained, but it seemed probable
at first that they were among other pioneers
from the Colony of Plymouth and
Massachusetts Bay who had pushed on
toward the frontiers on the line of westward
emigration, and so helped to people
the sister Colony of Connecticut. And
this reasonable inference found ready confirmation
in the discovery that the Grays
of Beverly and Yarmouth had representa-
tives at an early day in Litchfield county,
and in the northern part of Fairfield, and
on the adjoining "Oblong." However,
further research dispelled that theory and