Author: Ruth Gray
Published: 2006

A genealogical study covering the ancestry of Samuel Braley8 Gray (1881û1961) and Bessie Pendleton9 Benson (1882û1964) of Old Town and Bangor, ME, and their children Samuel Braley Gray, Jr., George Alexander Gray, 2nd, Eleanor Deane Gray, Ruth Gray, and Deane Benson Gray. Information on earlier generations of two hundred and ten families, mostly of Essex or Plymouth Counties, Massachusetts, is included. Mayflower ancestors are Alden, Brewster, Chilton, Doty, Edward Fuller, Hopkins, Howland, Mullins, Priest, Standish, Tilley, and Warren. Other forebears of interest include Salem witchcraft victim Mary (Towne) E(a)sty (plus Sarah [Proctor] Dodge, sister of accused ôwizardö John Proctor, and John Wilde, whose second wife was the executed Sarah [Averill] Wilde), Ms. Elizabeth Statton Thorndike of royal descent, and presidential forebears or town or colony leaders Henry Adams, Rev. Stephen Bachiler, Philip Delano, Rev. John Lothrop, and Philip Sherman. This work is drawn in part from materials found in two steamer trunks belonging to Stephen Deane Benson (1844û1928), who fought in the Civil War from 1861 to 1864; from a small, leather-covered trunk containing the authorÆs great-great-grandfatherÆs letters from the 1830s; from a family sampler by Eleanor Deane in 1813; and from family Bibles. Eleven photographs accompany the text. This valuable work profiles an important Maine family, most of whose immigrant ancestors settled originally in Massachusetts.