Tombstone Tuesday ~ Father and Son, buried at Epsom, New Hampshire

This tombstone was photographed at the McClary – Epsom Center Cemetery on Center Hill Road in Epsom, New Hampshire.

CAPT. JAMES GRAY

An officer of the

American Revolution

died Jan. 10, 1822

AE. 72

----0----

THEODORE PARSONS

Son of James &

Susanna Gray

died at sea

Sept. 20, 1796

AE. 15

According to the Epsom Historical Society website, James Gray, born 8 October 1749 in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and died 10 January 1822 in Epsom; married first to Jane Wallace on 20 July 1769 in Epsom;  married second to Susanna Parsons on 20 March 1777 in Newbury, Massachusetts.  Susanna was born on 28 April 1753 in Newbury and died 8 March 1826 in Epsom.  She was the daughter of Rev. Moses Parson and Susanna Davis, and a sister to Judge Theophilus Parsons. 

James Gray was appointed as Sergeant Major of Colonel John Stark’s Regiment at Cambridge, and served in Medford at the Battle of Bunker Hill, and later at Ticonderoga.  He was made the coroner for Rockingham County in 1784. 

Children with Jane Wallace:
1.     John Gray, d. young 1784 (see below)
2.     James Gray died about the same time as his mother

Children with Susanna Parsons:
3.     Moses Parsons Gray, was a sailor, and then taught school in Epsom

     4.     Theodore Parsons Gray, d. at sea 20 April 1796 “fell from a loft to the main deck”

     5.     Catherine L. Gray m. Dr. John Proctor 1826 in Deerfield

     6.     Lucretia Billings Gray m. William Brown 1821 in Epsom

     7.     James Higgins Gray, also lost at sea on 5 April 1812

     8.     Judith Parsons Gray m. John Rand 1818

     9.     Maria T. Gray, d. young 1811

     10.     Susan P. Gray, d. young 1815

This news clipping was also at the Epsom Historical Society website:

New Hampshire Gazette,  17 December 1784

“Portsmouth, December 17. On Monday last, the son of Major James Gray, of Epsom, about 16 years old, in attempting to lead a very unruly horse of his father’s to water, made the end of the halter fast about his wrist, the horse in prancing hove him down and ran away with him, dragged him over a four broad fence and through the field, until the halter broke. The family supposed the young man had gone to spend the evening with his relations, were unconcerned about him until the next morning, when to their great surprise, they found blood on the fence where the horse had dragged the young man over, then, following the blood, after sometime found him at a considerable distance alive, but perfectly helpless and senseless; his life is despaired of, as it is supposed that most of his bones were broken.”

  

Epsom Historical Society website:   www.epsomhistory.com

--------------------------------

Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Tombstone Tuesday ~ Father and Son, buried at Epsom, New Hampshire", Nutfield Genealogy, posted May 29, 2018, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/05/tombstone-tuesday-father-and-son-buried.html: accessed [access date]).