GRAY, THOMAS [SSNE 45]
Text source
Sir Thomas Gray served as lieutenant colonel in the Smålenske infantry regiment from August until November 1644, possibly as a refugee from the civil wars in Britain. He was then lieutenant colonel of his own squadron in November 1644 and from April until September 1645, which was a subsidiary of the Smålenske infantry regiment then commanded by Colonel John Taylor [SSNE 86]. He was with Bergenhus infantry regiment from September 1645, and from July 1646 until August 1647 he acted as its chief. The same year, September 1647, Gray approached Sehested with a request that his son be given an ensign's position with Colonel Brelche, though it is not known if he was successful. When a war tribunal was held on 13 December 1648 Thomas Gray was one of the 8 members of the court hearing the case against Benedict Cretz, who was subsequently sentenced to decapitation the next January. In 1649 he was in the Trondheim infantry regiment but probably left Norway with the Marquis of Montrose before taking up his post. He is best remembered in Norway as being the Scottish officer who turned up drunk one night to the home of the Norwegian Viceroy, Hannibal Sehested with a Lt. Colonel Cress. Sehested ordered the two men to return sober but they refused to leave. An encounter followed in which Gray "cursing fearsomely" verbally assaulted a Major Muhl, a messenger, leaving Sehested's house. A group of musketeers arrested Gray and Cress after Gray became involved in a brawl with Sehested and Cress taunted some other off duty officers. Sehested broke Gray's dagger during the incident and Gray and Cress were led away in irons. Muhl complained bitterly about the incident but Sehested seems to have treated the case extremely leniently. After the war, unlike most foreign officers, Gray was kept in service and promoted to become the commander of the Lifeguard company of the Bergenhus regiment, Sehested's bodyguard. He was also given a position overseeing improvements to Bergen's fortifications before assuming the position as temporary military governor of Bergen after the departure of Henrich Thott. Gray helped the Marquis Montrose with his plans for a Royalist invasion of Scotland and returned to fight with him. He was captured after the battle of Carbisdale and tried by the Scottish Estates. Gray was lucky and only suffered banishment from Scotland rather than execution
Statholderskabets Extraktprotokol af Supplicationer og Resolutioner 1642-1652 (2.vols, Cristiania, 1896-1901), II, p.18, September 1647; Bergens Historiske Forenings Skrifter, 12, 1906, pp.3-5; J. O. Wahl, Det Gamle Bergenhusiske Regiments Historie 1628-1720 (Christiania, 1901), pp.8-20; O. Ovenstad, Militærbiografier: Den Norske Hærs Officerer (Oslo, 1948), p.361; G. Lind, Danish Data Archive 1573; J.C.W. Hirsch and K. Hirsch, (eds.), 'Fortegnelse over Dansk og Norske officerer med flere fra 1648 til 1814', (12 vols. Copenhagen, compiled 1888-1907), IV, vol.2; A.F. Jensen, Kavaleriet, Norge 1200-1994, (Trandum, 1995), p.123.
English Civil War
Service record
- DENMARK-NORWAY, SMÅLENSKE INFANTRY REGIMENT, NORWAY
- Arrived 1644-08-01, as LT. COLONEL
- Departed 1644-11-01, as LT. COLONEL
- Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
- DENMARK-NORWAY, GRAY'S SQUADRON, SMÅLENSKE INFANTRY REGIMENT, NORWAY
- Arrived 1644-11-01, as LIEUTENANT COLONEL
- Departed 1645-09-14, as LIEUTENANT COLONEL
- Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
- DENMARK-NORWAY, BERGEN
- Arrived 1648-01-01, as LT. COLONEL
- Departed 1648-12-31, as LT. COLONEL
- Capacity COMMANDANT, purpose MILITARY
- DENMARK-NORWAY, TRONDHEIM
- Arrived 1649-01-01, as LT. COLONEL
- Departed 1650-01-01, as LT. COLONEL
- Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
- SCOTLAND, ROYALIST ARMY
- Arrived 1650-01-01, as COLONEL
- Departed 1650-05-31, as COLONEL
- Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY