Richard Grey (priest)

Richard Grey D.D. (6 April 1696 – 28 February 1771) was an English churchman and author, archdeacon of Bedford from 1757. He is now remembered for his Memoria Technica, a work on a memory system.

He was born in Newcastle, the son of John Grey. and studied at Oxford. He matriculated at Lincoln College, Oxford, 20 June 1712, and graduated B.A. in 1716 and M.A. 16 January 1719. He was ordained in 1719, and became chaplain and secretary to Nathaniel Crew, bishop of Durham. Crew had him presented in the following year to the rectory of Hinton, Northamptonshire. Through the same influence Grey obtained the little rectory of Steane Chapel, and in 1725 the additional living of Kimcote, near Lutterworth, Leicestershire. He was also appointed a prebendary of St. Paul's Cathedral, London, and official and commissary of the archdeaconry of Leicester. He proceeded D.D. in 1731, and was archdeacon of Bedford from 1757 for the rest of his life.

He was a friend of Philip Doddridge, was well known to Samuel Johnson, who admired his learning, and was intimate with John Moore. He died 28 February 1771, and was buried at Hinton, where he had been rector for fifty years.

In 1730 appeared his 'Memoria Technica; or a new Method of Artificial Memory.' Grey's system consisted in changing the last syllable of names into letters which represented figures according to an arbitrary table, and in stringing together the new formations in lines with a hexameter beat. It uses therefore uses strings of letters to remember numbers. Example: az = 10, tel = 325, teib = 381. The 'Memoria Technica' was applied to the dates and figures of chronology, geography, measures of weight and length, astronomy, and so on, and though uncouth and complicated met with great favour. The book went through several editions in the author's lifetime, and continued to be reprinted with modifications till 1861. On Grey's system were founded Solomon Lowe's 'Mnemonics,' and several aids to memory connected with other names.

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