Gray's Almshouses, Taunton

Robert Gray was born in Taunton in 1570 and made his fortune in the City of London, where he became a Citizen and a member of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors. He owned a shop in Bread Street in the city, from which he traded in cloths purchased by him at provincial fairs which he then finished and dyed. His business was successful and in 1635 his great wealth enabled him to build almshouses in his town of birth, on East Street, next to the house in which he had been born. The initial building which Gray built in the parish of St Mary Magdalene in Taunton contained apartments for ten poor women, with a chapel, schoolroom, and a room for a reader, who acted as chaplain and…

Gray's almshouses are the largest in Taunton, being 130 ft in length, as stated in Joshua Toulmin's 1822 history of Taunton. being a differenced version of the arms of the prominent and ancient Anglo-Norman noble House of Grey, branches of which held many peerage and other titles in England, including Baron Grey de Wilton (1295), Baron Ferrers of Groby (1299), Baron Grey of Codnor (1299,1397), Baron Grey de Ruthyn (1324), Earl of Tankerville (1419, 1695), Earl of Huntingdon (1471), Marquess of Dorset (1475), Baron Grey of Powis (1482), Duke of Suffolk (1551), Baronet Grey of Chillingham (1619); Baron Grey of Werke (1623/4), Earl of Stamford (1628). There are nine chimney stacks, each with…