Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gray, John (1807-1875)

by no contributor recorded

GRAY, JOHN (1807–1875), legal author and solicitor to the treasury, born at Aberdeen in 1807, was educated at Gordon's Hospital in that city. He entered the office of Messrs. White & Whitmore, solicitors, London, was called to the bar in 1838, and joined the Oxford circuit. Appointed queen's counsel in 1863, he became solicitor to the treasury in 1870, and during his tenure of the office conducted the celebrated prosecution of Arthur Orton, the claimant to the Tichborne title and estates, in 1873. Gray died on 22 Jan. 1875. He was author of ‘Gray's Country Attorney's Practice,’ 1836, and ‘The Country Solicitor's Practice,’ 1837, which were at the time considered valuable text-books; each passed through several editions. He was also the author of ‘Gray's Law of Costs,’ 1853.

[Information from G. F. Crowdy, esq.]