William Grayson’s year of birth changes depending on the source, generally listed as being either 1736, 1740, or 1742, which places him at anywhere from 34-40 at the time of his appointment which is a pretty wide margin. When I initially made my age statistics posts, I was not fully aware of this continued discrepancy. The most commonly cited birth year was 1736 and, since I was doing a quick calculation at the time and just threw together my age statistics, I didn’t dig deeper until a couple months before you sent in this ask. The conjecture for 1736 is based on a book published in the 1850s that speculated c1736 to be about the year of his birth based on what the author could gather from the contemporary stories provided by the people who knew him and their guestimates of his age at the time of their knowing him. Since no one that had known him and was still alive at the time actually knew his age or birth year and because it was never written down anywhere or even inscribed on his coffin or grave (he’d been buried in a vault and, thus, had no tombstone) [x], it was better than any other guess out there and people stuck to it despite resurfacing evidence that started suggesting otherwise. A more recent source by Joseph Horrell (published in 1984) has presented that new evidence suggests his birth year is closer to being c1742. What led to this was the surfacing of an account kept by his older brother and guardian, Benjamin, from William’s 16th-21st years that shifted the century-old conjecture forward. The account ends in 1763 when William was 21 years old. Walk back 21 years from 1763 and it’s clear that 1742 is William’s most probable birth year. The closing of the account by February 8th suggests that he was born either sometime in January or the first week of February. [x]
William Grayson was born to a well-established family in Prince William County Virginia. Some sources claim that his father was a Scottish immigrant, but records show that his branch of the family had been in the colonies for several generations. His Father, Col. Benjamin Grayson, married a widow, Susanna Monroe Tyler (Pres. James Monroe’s great aunt). The couple had four children before her death, three sons and a daughter: Benjamin Jr., Spence Monroe, William, and Susanna. His father remarried to another widow, Sarah Ball Ewell, but did not have any more children. Benjamin Grayson was a successful merchant who possessed a large estate and lived on a plantation called Belle Air. He also owned numerous other properties and buildings large and small with various purposes across Virginia. When Benjamin Sr. died in 1758, Benjamin Jr was the only one of the four children who wasn’t a minor. William, 16, inherited from their father’s will ~2,800 acres of land, 20+ slaves, a share of his father’s large estate, and ~$500 in cash. [x]
Because William was only a minor and was unmarried, it was required by the court that a guardian was appointed for his care that would keep an account of his expenses. The courts were to handle his inherited estate until he was 21 years of age and could take charge of it himself. Because he was over the age of 14 (the age of discretion), he was allowed to choose his own guardian and selected his older brother, Benjamin. Spence was also old enough to choose his own guardian (William Ellzey), while their sister, who was younger than 14, got appointed her oldest brother, Benjamin, to be her guardian as well. Benjamin did a poor job of keeping William’s accounts and the other siblings’ either were never submitted or didn’t survive time. Benjamin actually failed to show up to court so that the court could record Williams’ expense account on more than one occasion, leading to them chasing him down and forcing him to appear one year. He then subsequently failed to show up again the next but was forced into showing up for the final year. This was a signal of the irresponsibility that would soon bite Benjamin in the ass. [x]
It was arranged for William to attend the College of Philadelphia a few months after his father’s death, but he did not actually start attending there until the following year. In the meantime, he boarded with and was school by, probably, Charles Tyler who charged £10 to cover board, school, and clothing for a year. Benjamin pretty much let his younger brother request for and do whatever he wanted with his inherited money whenever he wanted to. Among the accounts that Benjamin was required to keep, it was recorded that William gambled £8 on horse races and in raffles, spent £36 on clothing, almost as much on horses and saddles, and £11 for a brand new sword. He left to attend the College of Philadelphia sporting his brand new sword in the latter half of 1759 but only stayed there for a single term (burning through £110 while he was there like the financially unaware 18 year old he was) before sailing to London in early 1760 and remaining there for 2 1/2 years. [x]
When it comes to his time in England... we don’t really know what it was that he actually did there. Tradition states that he received a law education in England, but there were debates among historians as to whether it was at Oxford, Edinburg, or Temple. Apparently, Grayson’s name does not appear in Oxford records [x] which rules out that option, leaving Edinburg or Temple. One historian is pretty certain that it was at Temple, in London [x], Lefkowitz names Middle Temple specifically [pg. 63] and then vaguely contradicts that statement later, but Horrell states that there are no traces of him having attended Temple, either, and it likely wasn’t Edinburg. Horrell argues that rather than pursue an education, William might have gone to England as a merchant like his brother and father. He, apparently, acquired a job in a countinghouse while he was in England, which supports the theory. Otherwise, we know nothing about what he was doing there in England. [x]
1762 marks the year when the Benjamin Grayson Jr. estate collapsed. Benjamin financial downfall occurred after taking massive financial risks while trying to build himself an estate to match their father’s. He was apparently volatile in nature as well, having been taken to court multiple times for trespassing, assault, and battery which cost him his station as a justice of the peace in Virginia. His creditors started demanding payment on all of their loans to him, his safety nets collapsed, his wife had to forfeit dower rights, and his creditors threatened to seize all of his property or he would have to face prison time. He, naturally, did not balance his little brother’s accounts any better than his own and it was kinda a cluster fuck (which William would discover soon enough).
Upon returning to America around his 21st birthday, William found that he was already in significant debt. He had to figure something out to make money and make money fast, and what a better career than law to make money in? After some quick thinking, he immediately started clerking at a law office and worked there for three years until he qualified to practice law himself in 1766 and thus managed to avoid ending his first year as an adult in debt. He was able to comfortably support himself and his spending habits moving forward with his law career. [x]. Grayson’s signing of the Leedstown Resolutions in protest of the Stamp Act on February 27th. 1766 was the first politically significant thing that he took part of as a new lawyer.
Once he was a lawyer and practicing in Dumfries (the county seat of Prince William County), Grayson soon became good friends with George Washington, whose Mount Vernon plantation was nearby. They played cards and went fox hunting together [x x] as well as did business together [Lefkowitz, pg 63]. Grayson also became good friends with fellow lawyer and future member of Washington’s staff, Robert Hanson Harrison. Grayson would eventually name two of his future sons after the two, Robert Harrison Hanson Grayson and George Washington Grayson.
Grayson was appointed as the deputy king’s attorney by the governor of Virginia in the late 1760s, but hoped to be elected to the House of Burgesses in 1772. Robert Hanson Harrison was in line to have a chance at being appointed to the office of deputy king’s attorney should Grayson have been elected to the House of Burgesses. These things, however, did not pan out so their positions remained as they were. [x]
Tensions began brewing between England and the colonies and Grayson was appointed Captain of the first militia organized in his county, The Prince William County Independent Company of Cadets, on November 11, 1774 [x]. It was a unit made up of about 40+ infantrymen [x]. Their motto was “Aut Liber, aut nullus” (“Either Freedom or nothing”) [x p. 68]. Grayson sent three men to request that George Washington take command of their company as their field officer, a request which Washington quickly granted to them and eventually to several other Independent companies as well [x]. On December 9, 1774, Grayson was appointed to the Prince William County Committee of Correspondence and Safety [x]. Pretty soon, he was also appointed Colonel of one of Virginia’s first Minutemen battalions [x].
During the Gunpowder Incident, Grayson and his Company joined with the other four Independent Companies under Washington’s command in requesting that Washington allow them to march to Williamsburg and demand the return of the gunpowder that had been taken on April 21st, 1775. [x x]. Washington evidently told them not to march and they reluctantly went back home while Patrick Henry and his men marched on to demand the return of the gunpowder themselves.
Grayson and his Minutemen were stationed in Hampton starting in December of 1775 to guard the area against the British, who’d attacked it and lost in late October [x x]. He was described as having “behaved admirably well at Hampton” and to have “taken great Pains to improve himself in the Military Science” [x] since his appointment to leadership in the year prior. Grayson applied twice to obtain a commission in the Continental Army after its formation (one of which was in April of 1776), but, despite recommendations from those who knew Grayson to both Washington and Jefferson to appeal to Congress in his favor, some “false and scandalous report” about him potentially ended up standing in his way of getting an appointment at the head of a regiment. He wrote an open letter to John Pinkney on August 28th, 1775 that was published in Pinkney’s Virginia Gazette on September 7. The letter asked whoever was saying these things about him at the Virginia Convention to privately come forward with their name and home address so that he could convince them that they were wrong about him [Scribner & Tarter, pg 50-51, and x]. I haven’t come across a response or an elaboration about the things leading up to or following this issue. I really wish I could find what was said about him and if anyone responded, but nothing has come up yet.
On July 22nd, 1775, Captain Andrew Snape Hamond of the British warship Roebuck with Governor Lord Dunmore following on the Dunmore came up the Potomac to restock on drinking water. On July 23rd they burned down the property of William Brent. A party of 60 militiamen under Captain John James camped out at the Brent property and drunkenly taunted the British while they worked, calling them cowards and challenging them to come ashore. Dunmore and Hamond decided to do just that, gathering together 108 men and rowing to shore while the militia slept off the alcohol. The militia fled as soon as the British started firing. Grayson swooped in with 30 of the men from his Independent Company and forced the British to retreat back to their ships and flee back out into the Chesapeake Bay. John Parke Custis wrote back to Washington about the event in early August. [x]
Potentially following that event, George Washington extended an offer to William Grayson to take a place on his staff as an aide-de-camp. Grayson was officially appointed on August 24th, 1776 [x], beginning letter work on the 25th. The staff at the time consisted of Robert Hanson Harrison (Military Secretary); Samuel Blachley Webb, Richard Cary, and George Baylor (aides-de-camp); Caleb Gibbs and George Lewis (Special Aides/Captain and Lieutenant of the Life Guard); Tench Tilghman (recently appointed Volunteer Aide); and Stephen Moylan (Quarter Master General granted continued aide-de-camp authority following his promotion and assisted at headquarters from time to time).
Grayson served on staff for about four and a half months, which was about the duration of the bulk of the New York and New Jersey campaign. During that time, Richard Cary traded out for John Fitzgerald in November. Grayson, being one of the fastest riders of the staff at the time, was often selected by Washington to make quick rides back to headquarters while they were out in the field in order to draft and send time-sensitive messages. In January of 1777, Washington granted Webb, Grayson, Moylan, and Baylor the opportunity to raise and command four of the sixteen additional regiments requested by Congress. Washington officially informed Grayson, who was out of camp, of his offer to him in a letter written on January 11th, though Grayson had already heard he was going to be offered the position from Harrison in the days before [x].
