St George's Cathedral, Cape Town

Robert and Sophy Gray

Robert Gray, the first Anglican Bishop of Cape Town, was born on 3 October 1809 in Bishopswearmouth, near Durham in England. He was the son of Robert Gray, Bishop of Bristol, who ordained him deacon in Wells Cathedral on 11 January 1834. His first parish was at Whitworth. In 1845 he became the vicar of Stockton-on-Tees. As a priest he was interested in mission, and he was the local secretary for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.

Sophy or Sophia Gray was born on 5 January 1814 at Easington in Yorkshire, the fifth daughter of county squire Richard Wharton Myddleton of Durham. Robert and Sophy were married on 6 September 1836. On 29 June 1847 Robert was ordained and consecrated as the first Bishop of Cape Town in Westminster Abbey, along with three bishops for Australia.

Robert and Sophy arrived in Cape Town on 20 February 1848. With their arrival the Diocese of Cape Town was established and St George's Church became St George's Cathedral. The boundaries of the diocese were as yet undefined, The new Bishop preached his first sermon in St George's Cathedral on the Sunday after his arrival – Sunday, 27 February 1848.

Bishop Gray was to establish a new colonial diocese, increase the number of clergy and establish new churches and schools. There were only ten Anglican churches in South Africa when the Grays arrived. At the time of his death 25 years later, this number had risen to 63.

Having grown accustomed to the high standard of living enjoyed by bishops, including an episcopal palace, the Grays emigrated to the Cape with a retinue of servants, furniture and even an episcopal carriage. Soon after arriving, Robert set out on a journey to explore his diocese. In 1849 he visited St Helena, and in 1850 he set out on another tour of the mainland, reaching as far as Pietermaritzburg. This journey convinced him that division of the diocese was necessary. He returned to England to arrange for this, and in 1853, just five years after he first arrived in Cape Town, he presided over the first expansion of the Anglican Church in South Africa. He resigned his diocese, and received fresh Letters Patent for a smaller Anglican Diocese of Cape Town, while two new bishops were consecrated: John William Colenso as Bishop of Natal and John Armstrong as Bishop of Grahamstown. This new chapter in the life of the young church is an important and colourful one in Anglican history, a time of conflict and controversy, tempers and turmoil, which in fact led to the convening of the first Lambeth Conference.

On arriving in Cape Town, the couple settled on the farm Boschheuvel, originally named Wijnberg and later renamed Bishopscourt, the original owner having been Jan van Riebeeck, first Dutch Governor of the Cape. The farm lies on the slopes of Table Mountain, well-watered and with dense woodland. Here Sophy, using the old slave quarters, started a school for her five children and those of the community. Despite disliking social engagements, she kept open house to a constant stream of church officials and dignitaries, as well as managing Robert's diocese, that included the Cape, the Orange Free State, Natal and the islands of Tristan da Cunha and St Helena.

E. Hermitage Day, in Robert Gray: First Bishop of Cape Town, published in 1932, wrote about Sophy Gray that she was "the constant companion of [Robert Gray's] travels, the untiring amanuensis and accountant, the skilful designer of churches, the brightness and stay of his home life at Bishopscourt." In fact she was nothing less than diocesan administrator, architect and artist in her own right, and the founder of the Diocesan College, or Bishops, as it is commonly known, in Rondebosch, Cape Town, in 1849.

Sophy Gray had brought along architectural plans of churches that could be adapted to the design of churches and schools for the new Anglican parishes that were to be established throughout South Africa. Even so, Sophy and Robert Gray felt that church design should not stick slavishly to the Early English Period, but should show some diversity.

Sophy not only filled the role of architect, but kept records of the synods, their meetings and official ceremonies. She also kept records of correspondence and church chronicles. Being a competent horsewoman, she joined her husband on all but two of his extended trips. Her artistic skills were shown by the numerous water-colours and sketches she did, frequently used to illustrate her husband's journals. In all, the bishop would hardly have managed without her able assistance and knowledge. The stained glass window in the north transept of our Cathedral is a recognition of her significant contribution. (Although she is depicted wearing a green riding habit and riding bonnet, we know from her writings that she usually wore a felt hat and a plain riding dress, beneath which were close-fitting riding breeches of chamois for comfort!)

Sophy Gray died at Bishopscourt in Cape Town on 27 April 1871, and is buried in the graveyard of St Saviour's in Claremont. The Most Reverend Robert Gray, Doctor of Divinity, Honorary Canon of Durham, First Bishop of Cape Town, and Metropolitan of the Province of the United Church of England and Ireland in South Africa, including St Helena, died at Bishopscourt at six o'clock on Sunday morning, 1 September 1872, in his sixty-third year and the twenty-sixth of his episcopate. He is buried alongside his wife.

Capetonian Desmond Martin's doctoral thesis dealt with the churches established by the Grays. Of more than 50 churches built in South Africa during Robert Gray's bishopric, at least 40 were designed by Sophy. In 2005 Martin published a book titled The Bishop's Churches, illustrated with his water-colours and line drawings of her 40 churches, including St Paul's, Rondebosch, St Saviour's, Claremont, St Peter's, Plettenberg Bay, St James, Graaff-Reinet, and St Jude's, Oudtshoorn.

Robert and Sophy Gray were people of their time and generation, products and agents of an imperial world, involved in a colonial project. In the midst of what they were about, they were, beyond the shadow of doubt, inflamed by the Gospel, and that empowering passion remains their lasting gift to the Church they helped to found. Assumptions and prejudices come and go, but the compelling truth of God incarnate in Jesus Christ remains – to judge and redeem those assumptions and prejudices, and to shape our experience of God's love.

Researched and complied by the Canon Precentor

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