Gillray, James
From AngloScottish
| Dates | c.1748-88 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Location | London (Chelsea) | ||
| Vocation | Blacksmith | ||
| Place of Birth | Culter, Lanarkshire | ||
| Marriage | Jane Coleman | ||
| Issue | James | ||
| Place of birth | Source | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |
Biography found in the entry on his son, the famous satirist of the same name.
Enlisted in the cavalry and, as a trooper in the Queen's dragoons, lost an arm at the battle of Fontenoy (1745). He became in 1748 a pensioner at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea. Joined the Moravian Brethren (1749). As a strict Calvinist, James Gillray senior had much in common with the Moravians and for over forty years he acted as sexton of their burial-ground at Chelsea.
