9,6 Lillian A. Hedley and John Gray

Lillian (Lil) A. Hedley was born July 6, 1879 (1901 Census for Greenock Twp.) She was the sixth child of John Henry Hedley and Margaret Florence Johnston.

Lil was just under eight years old when her mother Margaret Florence died of a heart attack in 1887 at age 38, leaving nine children, ages one to eighteen years old. Lil’s father, John Henry Hedley, married a young widow, Ann (Young) Alexander, the following year. The 1891 Census for Greenock Township, Bruce County, shows John and Ann and all nine children living on Concession 6, Lot 32 of Greenock Twp. Ten years later, when the family would have moved into their new home, completed in 1893, the 1901 Census for Greenock Township shows John and Ann and only four of their younger children, Martha Jane (Jen), Robert W. (Wes), Lillie (Lil) and Albert, the three elder children having already married. Margaret Florence (Maggie), age 18 was probably working outside the family. Fourteen-year-old Alice may have been living with her Aunt and Uncle, Elizabeth (Lizzie) and John Brown (1846-1927).

The 1901 Kincardine Town Census also showed Lilly Hedley, age 21; born July 16, 1872 in Ontario; Employment: girl servant; Location: Royal Hotel; Race: English; Nationality: Canadian; Religion: Church of England. Two years later Lillian, age 24, married 22-year-old John Gray, a stone mason, who was born in Nichol Township, Wellington Co., Ont. Sept. 26, 1881.

Marriage October 7, 1903, St. Matthew’s Anglican Church, Kingarf, Greenock Twp.

Lil and John Gray farmed on Concession 7 of Kincardine Twp. Lil died at age 48 on June 4, 1927. John died 14 years later in 1941 at age 61. John Gray's funeral service was held in Kincardine. The graves of Lil and John Gray are in Kincardine Cemetery. They had four children.

     (1) Margaret Bernice Gray, born in 1907, died in infancy.

    (2) Mary Elizabeth Gray, born in Kincardine Twp., trained as a nurse. She married William "Russel"
         Emerson, and the couple lived in Burlington. Mary and Russel Emerson both died tragically in a car
   accident north of Simcoe in Norfolk county in the summer of 1968. No children.

(3) Melvin Edwin Gray was born in Kincardine Township
            m1 Verna Blackwell, daughter of Sarah Sheane and Benjamin Blackwell
                    of Kincardine Twp.
            m2 Winnie Flatt    No children.