Grays Court is a Grade I listed house [1] in York, England. The house is within the city walls near York Minster. Dating back in part to 1080 and commissioned by the first Norman Archbishop of York to provide the official residence for the Treasurers of York Minster, it is one of the oldest continuously occupied dwellings in the United Kingdom.
The house was surrendered to the Crown on 26 May 1547 and William Cliffe, the last of the medieval Treasurers, was made dean of Chester. The first post-Reformation owner was Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset. He was given the house in 1547 by Edward VI, the son of Henry VIII. [2]
The Sterne Room was built in mid 18th century for Jaques Sterne, Precentor and Canon Residentiary of the Minster and uncle of Laurence Sterne. The marble plaque on the fireplace is of Augusta, wife of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and mother of George III.
The house became "Gray's Court" when William and Faith Gray moved into the house in Minster Yard in 1788. Life at the house was recorded by Faith Gray who was a keen diarist but she also worked, with Catharine Cappe et al, to establish a school for poor girls. She helped transform the Grey (now Blue) Coat School and she started a Friendly Society. Faith died at Gray's Court on Boxing Day in 1826. [3]
The 300m stretch of the city walls which bounds Grays Court was donated to the City in 1878 by Edwin Gray (c 1847-1929), the Lord Mayor of York. His wife, Almyra Gray wrote a history of her family in this building Papers and diaries of a York family 1764–1839. The book includes details of the family. [4] Almyra died here in 1939. [5] Composer Alan Gray (1855-1935), was the brother of Edwin Gray and grew up in the house. [6]
Grays Court has been privately owned since 2005, and is now a hotel.
Laurence Sterne was an Anglo-Irish novelist and Anglican cleric who wrote the novels The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman and A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, published sermons and memoirs, and indulged in local politics. He grew up in a military family, travelling mainly in Ireland but briefly in England. An uncle paid for Sterne to attend Hipperholme Grammar School in the West Riding of Yorkshire, as Sterne's father was ordered to Jamaica, where he died of malaria some years later. He attended Jesus College, Cambridge on a sizarship, gaining bachelor's and master's degrees. While Vicar of Sutton-on-the-Forest, Yorkshire, he married Elizabeth Lumley in 1741. His ecclesiastical satire A Political Romance infuriated the church and was burnt. With his new talent for writing, he published early volumes of his best-known novel, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. Sterne travelled to France to find relief from persistent tuberculosis, documenting his travels in A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, published weeks before his death. His posthumous Journal to Eliza addresses Eliza Draper, for whom he had romantic feelings. Sterne died in 1768 and was buried in the yard of St George's, Hanover Square. His body was said to have been stolen after burial and sold to anatomists at Cambridge University, but was recognised and reinterred. His ostensible skull was found in the churchyard and transferred to Coxwold in 1969 by the Laurence Sterne Trust.
Walter de Gray was an English prelate and statesman who was Archbishop of York from 1215 to 1255 and Lord Chancellor from 1205 to 1214. His uncle was John de Gray, who was a bishop and royal servant to King John of England. After securing the office of chancellor, the younger Gray was a supporter of the king throughout his struggles and was present at the signing of Magna Carta in 1215. After two unsuccessful elections to a bishopric, he became Bishop of Worcester in 1214 but soon after moved to York. During the reign of John's son, King Henry III, Gray continued to serve the king while also being active in his archdiocese. He died in 1255 and was buried at York Minster, where his tomb still survives.
Sir John Maunsell, Provost of Beverley Minster, was a king's clerk and a judge. He served as chancellor to King Henry III and was England's first secretary of state.
Edward Hall was an English lawyer and historian, best known for his The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancastre and Yorke—commonly known as Hall's Chronicle—first published in 1548. He was also several times a member of the Parliament of England.
James Woodforde (1740–1803) was an English clergyman, mainly in Somerset and Norfolk, remembered as the author of The Diary of a Country Parson. This vivid account of parish life remained unpublished until the 20th century.
Alan Gray was an English organist and composer.
Nicholas Adolphus Sterne served three terms in the Texas House of Representatives and one term in the Texas State Senate. He immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1817, living in Louisiana for ten years. In 1826, he moved to Nacogdoches, Texas, where he operated a mercantile and smuggled weapons for the colonist who wished to rebel against Mexico. His position as a Freemason helped save him from a death sentence, and Sterne went on to finance the two companies of men known as the New Orleans Greys, to assist in fighting in the Texas Revolution.
There have been two baronetcies created for different branches of the Throckmorton family, 6th cousins, both descended from Sir John Throckmorton, Under-Treasurer of England temp. King Henry VI (1422–1461). Both titles, which were in the Baronetage of England, are now extinct. The Throckmortons, originally of Throckmorton near Pershore, Worcestershire, trace their history back to the 12th century. In 1409 Sir John de Throckmorton, Under-Treasurer of England, married Eleanor Spinney, daughter and heiress of Guy Spinney of Coughton, Warwickshire, where the senior branch of the family, which bore the junior baronetcy, became established. The Coughton estate included in 1968 a dower house named "Spiney House, Coughton", named after that family. The senior Throckmorton Baronetcy, of Tortworth in the County of Gloucester, was created in the Baronetage of England on 29 June 1611 for William Throckmorton, of Coss Court, Tortworth, Gloucestershire, sixth in descent from John Throckmorton, younger son of Sir John Throckmorton, Under-Treasurer of England. The third Baronet sat as Member of Parliament for Gloucestershire and Wotton Basset. The title became extinct on the death of the fourth Baronet in a duel in 1682.
Sir Richard Pepys was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1640 and was Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. He was a great-uncle of Samuel Pepys, the diarist.
The Blue Coat School in York, England, was founded in 1705 as a charity school for forty poor boys. There was a smaller school for girls known as the Grey Coat School, York.
The Treasurer's House in York, North Yorkshire, England, is a Grade I listed historic house owned by the National Trust, who also maintain its garden. It is located in Minster Yard, directly to the north of York Minster.
Edward North, 1st Baron North was an English peer and politician. He was the Clerk of the Parliaments 1531–1540 and Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire 1557–1564. A successful lawyer, he was created the first Baron North, giving him a seat in the House of Lords.
James Atkinson (1759–1839) was an English surgeon and bibliographer.
Catherine Cappe or Catherine Harrison was a British writer, diarist and philanthropist.
Samuel Smith was an English clergyman and academic administrator at the University of Oxford.
Almyra Vickers Gray or Almyra Gray JP was a British suffragist and social reformer. She was twice Lady Mayoress of York and an early woman Justice of the Peace in 1920.
Faith Gray born Faith Hopwood was a British diarist, school founder who, with Catharine Cappe, improved education in York for poor girls and at the Grey Coat School.
The Archbishop's Palace was the residence of the Archbishop of York during the later Middle Ages. It lay immediately north of York Minster, and its grounds are now known as Dean's Park.
Chapter House Street is a street in the city centre of York, England, connecting Ogleforth and Minster Yard.
Ann Ward was a British printer and business owner.