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Mary Otis Gray (Mrs. John Gray)
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[ This description is from the project: The Tradition of Anglo-American Mourning Jewelry: 17th to 19th Centuries ]
This portrait by John Singleton Copley depicts Mary Otis Gray in 1763, the year of her death. Mary was born in 1730 to James and Mary Allyne Otis of Barnstable, Mass. Her siblings James Otis, Jr. and Mercy Otis Warren were prominent figures before, during, and after the American Revolution. In 1761 Mary Otis married John Gray, Boston collector of customs before the Revolution and owner of the ropewalks.
The mourning jewelry exhibition features the mourning ring of Mary (Otis) Gray and that of her son, John Gray, who predeceased his mother by only a few months.