Robert Gray (bishop of Bristol)
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The Right Reverend Robert Gray |
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| Bishop of Bristol | |
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| Church | Church of England |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 3 November 1762 |
| Died | 28 September 1834 (aged 71) |
| Children | Robert Gray |
| Alma mater | St Mary Hall, Oxford |
Robert Gray (1762–1834) was an English Bishop of Bristol.
Born 11 March 1762, he was the son of Robert Gray, a London silversmith. Having entered St Mary Hall, Oxford, he graduated B.A. 1784, M. A, 1787, B.D. 1799, and D.D. 1802. Soon after 1790 he was presented to the vicarage of Faringdon, Berkshire.
In 1796 he was appointed Bampton lecturer, and his discourses were published the same year, under the title of Sermons on the Principles upon which the Reformation of the Church of England was established. Through the favour of Shute Barrington, Bishop of Durham, he was promoted, in 1800, to the rectory of Crayke, Yorkshire, and resigned Faringdon; in 1804 he was collated by Barrington to the seventh stall in Durham Cathedral, and again, in 1805, to the rectory of Bishopswearmouth, and resigned Crayke. He held this living, in which he had succeeded William Paley, until his elevation, in 1827, to the bishopric of Bristol.
In 1815, when he was Vicar of Bishopwearmouth, Robert Gray played an important part in one of the most important moments in the industrialisation of the World. After witnessing many mining accidents, it was Gray that wrote to Humphry Davy asking for his help with the problem of providing light safely in the local underground collieries. As a result, Davy visited the Northeast of England in August 1815 and discussed the problem with Colliery owners and mining expert John Buddle. Davy took samples of the gas to his London laboratory and designed his famous "miners lamp". Buddle was one of the first people to test the lamp. Stating in a report from the Select Committee on Accidents in Mines on the 4 September 1835 "I first tried the lamp in an explosive mixture on the surface; and then took it to the mine; it is impossible for me to express my feelings at the time when I first suspended the lamp in the mine and saw it red hot. I said to those around me: "We have at last subdued this monster [fire-damp]." Thus is recorded one of the most significant moments in the industrialization of the world. Davy did not patent his lamp effectively giving it to the Nation and the miners of the world.
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