458 B I0 GRAPH I C AL S K E T C II E S.
commenced his studies in Latin and Greek ; but at the end of two years, this
gentleman having been appointed a minor canon in the Cathedral of Durham,
his pupil returned for a year to Alnwick; and afterwards passed a year and a
half at Newcastle, under the tuition of the Rev. William Turner-a gentleman
of literary reputatibn. Little events in youth [often have powerful and
permanent influence over the future character and destinations of life. During
Mr. Grey’s residence at Newcastle he attended a course of lectures on Natural
Philosophy, by the late ingenious Dr. Moyes (of whom a portrait and memoir
have already appeared in vol. I.), who, though blind from infancy, made great
attainments in literature and science. Mr. Grey wrote an account of these
lectures, which was so satisfactory to his instructor, that Dr. Moyes was induced
strongly to recommend the pursuit of a learned profession for his youthful
friend.
Mr. Grey felt and expressed a decided choice of the ministry of the gospel ;
and having a preference for the forms of the Church of Scotland, his mother
removed with him, in the close of the year 1793, to Edinburgh; where, during
the seven or eight succeeding years, he attended the various classes in literature,
philosophy, and theology, in the University, required in a candidate for
the ministry ; besides other classes, literary and medical, not included in the
prescribed academical course. He was licensed as a probationer by the Presbytery
of Edinburgh in November 1800. Very soon after, through the interest
of the Rev. Dr. Davidson of Edinburgh with the late Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton
Nisbet of Dirleton, he was presented to the parish of Stenton, in the Presbytery
of Dunbar, where he was ordained in September 1801. Though repeatedly
invited elsewhere, he remained in this rural charge, much esteemed and loved,
till November 1813, when he was translated to the Chapel of Ease of St.
Cuthbert’s ; and at once took his station in Edinburgh among the most distinguished
and accomplished preachers and ministers of the Church. Innumerable
and invaluable were the subsequent testimonies to the excellence and success
of his faithful and popular ministrations. His tried and enduring fidelity and
eminence at St. Cuthbert’s marked him out for preferment to be one of the
ministers of the city; and, in 1820, after a keen contest in the Town-Council
(Provost rtlanderson espousing the cause of Dr. Eryce of Aberdour), he was
appointed to succeed the late Rev. David Dickson, as minister of the New
Xorth Church, to which he was inducted on the 11th January 1821. He was
introduced to this charge by Dr. David Dickson of St. Cuthbert’s, son of the
gentleman whom he was called to succeed. Not long after, the new church of
St. Mary’s having been erected, Mr. Grey’s continued pre-eminence induced the
Magistrates and Council to present him as the fittest person for this new and
important charge; and he was translated to St. Mary’s on the 13th of January
1825, and introduced to his congregation, on the following Sunday, by Dr.
Robert Gordon, then of the High Church, who had succeeded Mr. Grey in the
Chapel of St. Cuthbert’s ; and again, was appointed his successor as minister
of the New North Church. Here Mr. Grey remained admired, for the sustained