Judge Peter W. Gray papers

Collection

Identifier: MS 0417

Staff Only

Finding aid note: Stored offsite at the Library Service Center and require 24-hour notice for retrieval. Please contact the Woodson Research Center at 713-348-2586 or woodson@rice.edu for more information.

Scope and Contents

The Judge Peter W. Gray papers include extensive handwritten documents on several of Gray’s early Texas district court cases, lectures, speeches, and official documents concerning the creation and organization of the Texas Historical Society. Court cases relate to murder, slavery, counterfeiting, the legal nature of circumstantial evidence and self defense; the notes related to these cases are generally Judge Gray’s direction to juries. The speeches include a speech given by Gray at the Democratic Convention in Austin in 1852 for the nomination of Sam Houston for the presidency.

Dates

Creation: 1841-1870

Creator

Gray, Peter W. (Person)

Access Restriction

This material is open for research.

Conditions Governing Access

Stored offsite at the Library Service Center and require 24-hour notice for retrieval. Please contact the Woodson Research Center at 713-348-2586 or woodson@rice.edu for more information.

Use Restrictions

Permission to publish materials from this material must be obtained from the Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University.

Biographical / Historical

Peter W. Gray was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia in 1819 and moved to Texas in 1838. Gray worked in his father’s law office in Houston, Texas before he became a captain in the Army of the Republic of Texas. In 1841, Gray was appointed District Attorney of the Houston district by Sam Houston. He ran for city secretary in 1840 but was elected alderman in 1841 and became a member of the board of health. In 1846, Gray was elected to the first Texas States Legislature where he authored the Practice Act which is the first piece of legislation regulating the court system of the State of Texas. In 1848, Gray founded the Houston Lyceum which eventually became the Houston Public Library. Henderson Yoakum’s "History of Texas" was published with the financial support of Gray. After being elected to the State Legislature in 1854, Gray served as judge of the Houston district. Gray was a states rights Democrat and fully supported succession. He also served as a delegate to the states Succession Convention. During the Confederacy, Gray served as a representative of the Houston District in the Congress of the Confederacy. After serving in many important positions in the Confederacy, peace brought Gray back to Houston where he practiced law privately and built his firm into one of the largest in the nation. In 1874, Gray was appointed associate justice of the Texas Supreme Court and served there until he became fatally ill with tuberculosis. Gray died later that year.