Elizabeth Caroline Gray

Scottish historian 1800–1887

Elizabeth Caroline Hamilton Gray (née Johnstone; 3 April 1800 – 21 February 1887) was a Scottish historian and travel author, born in Alva, Clackmannanshire,^[1] as the eldest daughter of James Raymond Johnstone and Mary Elizabeth Cholmeley.^[2] She was the granddaughter of the colonial businessman John Johnstone.^[3]^[4]

After marrying John Hamilton Gray, a priest and genealogist, in June 1829, Gray moved to Bolsover Castle in England, where she lived until shortly before her death.^[3]^[5]

Research

Gray became interested in the history of the Etruscans after visiting an exhibition of their artefacts in London organised by Domenico Campanari in 1837.^[6] She pursued the subject on a visit to Italy in 1837–1839, drawing on contacts in German and Italian archaeological circles. In 1840 she published Tour to the Sepulchres of Etruria, which served as a travelogue and an account of her archaeological research. She then wrote a general History of Etruria: the first two volumes in 1843–1844 and the third in 1868.^[3]

As a woman, Hamilton Gray faced criticism for engaging in historical research. In an 1844 review of her work, Samuel Ferguson^[7] remarked that "any deep or earnest investigation of matters connected with the social institution of a gentile nation is not properly within the female province." ^[8] This review was sometimes mistakenly attributed to the explorer George Dennis, who also wrote about the Etruscans.^[9]

Other than her research on Etruria, Gray wrote a work on the classical and early medieval church and empire, and two popular children's histories of Rome.^[3] She and her husband maintained a collection of antiquities acquired both from dealers in Italy and from her own excavations. It included an unusual red-and-black Etruscan amphora in an Italo-Geometric style, known as the "Hamilton Gray vase".^[10]

Elizabeth Caroline Gray died in London on 21 February 1887.^[11]

Works

Tour to the Sepulchres of Etruria. London: J. Hatchard and Son. 1840. (1843 ed.)
The History of Etruria. London: J. Hatchard and Son. 1843–68. (Vol. 1, 2, 3)
History of Rome for Young Persons. London: T. Hatchard. 1847. (1858 ed.)
Emperors of Rome from Augustus to Constantine: Being a Continuation of the History of Rome. London: T. Hatchard. 1850.
The Empire and the Church, from Constantine to Charlemagne. Oxford: J. Henry and J. Parker. 1857.

References

^ Italia antiqua. Storia dell'etruscologia tra archeologia e storia della cultura (in Italian). Orvieto and Rome: Quasar. 2006. p. 32. ISBN 8871402960.
^ "Church Registers - Old parish registers - Births and Baptisms". Scotland's People. National Records of Scotland and the Court of the Lord Lyon.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Elizabeth Caroline Gray". British Travel Writing. University of Wolverhampton. Archived from the original on 16 January 2017. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
^ Burke, John (1835). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland. Vol. 2. London: R. Bentley. p. 302.
^ Williams, Dyfri (2009). "The Hamilton Gray Vase". In Swaddling, Judith; Perkins, Philip (eds.). Etruscan by Definition: Papers in Honour of Sybille Haynes. London: British Museum Press. pp. 10–20: 10. ISBN 978-0861591732.
^ de Grummond, Nancy Thomson, ed. (1996). "Campanari Family". Encyclopedia of the History of Classical Archaeology. London and New York: Routledge. p. 225. ISBN 978-1884964800.
^ The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals 1824-1900. Walter Edwards Houghton (ed.). Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987. Volume IV, p. 261
^ [Ferguson, Samuel]. Mrs Hamilton Gray’s works on Etruria, The Dublin University Magazine, vol. 24, July-December, 1844, p. 527-543.
^ Rasmussen, Tom. George Dennis: In and out of Etruria. Swaddling, Judith (ed.). An Etruscan Affair: The impact of early Etruscan discoveries on European culture. London: Oxbow Books, 2018, p. 4-21.
^ Williams 2009, p. 13.
^ Boase, Frederic (1892). "Gray, Rev. John Hamilton". Modern English Biography. Vol. 1 – via Project Gutenberg.