Gray,Benjamin

Birth: 1740 in Ledyard, CT
Death: 1814 in Ledyard, CT
Nationality

American

Occupation

builder

Residence(s)
  • Ledyard, CT (from 1740 to 1814)
Events

Building Occom's House

Marital status

married; he had at least one son, Philip 3rd (1775-1838).

Biography

Benjamin Gray was a builder in southern Connecticut who contributed to the construction of Occom's house in Mohegan. He appears in the historical record as building a sawmill in Ledyard, CT (then known as North Groton) with his neighbor Joseph Lee (1732-1820), on Lee's Brook. Both the Gray and Lee families lived in the area for generations in the 1700s and into the 1840s. Gray lived a few miles from the mill in a house he built around 1760, which still stands today near Spicer Hill Road, formerly known as Gray's Hill. His son Philip Gray 3rd (1775-1838), also a carpenter and builder, justice of the peace and member of the Connecticut General Assembly, bought the mill from his cousin Stephen Gray, who owned it for a short period in 1804, and rebuilt the mill on Lee's Brook. Benjamin Gray was one of the witnesses attending the lease agreement. Traces of the sawmill pond are visible today, a few hundred yard upstream from Sawmill Park. Benjamin Gray also served in the Revolutionary War.

Sources

Ledyard Up-down Sawmill. http://www.ledyardsawmill.org/history/avery-browns-sawmill.