Gilbert Gray

Who is Gilbert Gray?

Gilbert Gray, was the second principal of Marischal College, Aberdeen.

Gray was appointed to that post in 1598. He was a pupil of Robert Rollock, the first principal of the university of Edinburgh, whose virtues and learning he extolled in a curious Latin oration which he delivered in 1611, entitled ‘Oratio de Illustribus Scotiæ Scriptoribus.’ Several of the authors eulogised in it are fictitious. Gray accepted literally ‘the fabulous stories of Fergus the First having written on the subject of law 300 years B.C.; Dornadilla a century after composing rules for sportsmen; Reutha, the 7th king of Scotland, being a great promoter of schools and education; and King Josina, a century and a half before the Christian era, writing on botany and the practice of medicine.’ Gray died in 1614.