Gray, Matilda C.

Born: 1834-XX-XX Warrenton, Virginia

Died: 1887-01-03 California

Alternate name: French, Hewes

Matilda C. Gray was the second wife of Franklin C. Gray. Born Matilda C. French, she married Franklin C. Gray in March 1853. Gray had divorced his first wife, Mary Anna Gray in 1851 after she sued for divorce on the grounds of adultery. In July 1853, Franklin stepped in front of a train in New York and was killed. In December 1856, Mary Anna retained Abraham Lincoln and William H. Herndon and filed a writ of error in the Illinois Supreme Court to reverse the divorce decree and acquire more alimony. The court later dismissed the suit after Mary Anna Gray failed to join the issue on the plea. Matilda remarried to David Hewes in June 1875 in Saratoga Springs, New York. Matilda had one child from her first marriage, Franklina (Florence) C. Gray, born in 1853.

Eben Putnam, ed., Lieutenant Joshua Hewes: A New England Pioneer and Some of his Descendants (New York: J. F. Tapley, 1913), 191; Washington, D.C., U.S., Marriage Records, 1810-1953, 23 March 1853 (Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2016); Gray v. Gray, Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=139084; Gray v. Gray et al., Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=139085; Alton Daily Morning Courier (IL), 25 July 1853, 2:5; New York, U.S., State Census, 1855 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2013); U.S. Census Office, Tenth Census of the United States (1880), Oakland, Alameda County, CA, 32.