Robert Gray, born near Glasgow circa 1747, moved to Virginia in 1771 where he was employed in the tobacco trade. During the War of Independence he served as a captain in Col. Edmund Fanning's King's American Regiment. Following the cessation of the war he moved to Shelburne, Nova Scotia, from whence he was summoned by Fanning upon the latter's being appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Prince Edward Island. He became Fanning's personal secretary as well as being appointed to the Council, serving as provincial treasurer and assistant judge of the Supreme Court and holding several minor offices. Circa 1793 he married Mary Burns with whom he had six children, one of whom was John Hamilton Gray. He died in 1828 following a lengthy illness.