During the odyssey with Arthur Morgan inRed Dead Redemption 2, on Chapter 3, players will come across the two powerful families of the West: the Braithwaites and the Grays.Van der Linde and his mensaw an opportunity in this to play the long game and serve as a double agent, only for them to find out that what they’ve been looking for is never there, to begin with.
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The following list contains ten must-yet-little known facts about the Grays, from where Rockstar took real-life inspirations when they developed this family and the shady past of the Grays. Major spoilers ahead!
10Like the Braithwaites, the Grays Originated from the United Kingdom
The Gray family’s nemesis, the Braithwaites, were coming to the US from England, a part of the United Kingdom. The Grays, on the other hand, originated from Scotland. The Gray surname can be traced back to its origin, and it can easily be found in Scotland, Ireland, and England.
Before coming to the United States, their founder, Ross Gray, was a British loyalist who worked for the Duke of Cumberland during the Scottish 1745 uprising or also known as the Forty-five Rebellion.
9They Were Forced to Flee from Scotland Because Their Founder, Ross, Was a Snitch
What happened in Scotland was that their founder, Ross, was a British loyalist who informed the Kingdom about the Jacobite supporters in England during the 1745 uprising. In return for his service, the Duke of Cumberland granted him cash, cattle, land, and many other luxurious items.
Enraged at what he did, the Jacobites in Scotland began hunting every loyalist who turned their back against them, meaning that Ross had to flee for his life to the US.
8They Came to the US Before the Braithwaites
In 1755, 10 years after the uprising, Ross and his family came to the US in search of protection. If what Catherine Braithwaite said about the Braithwaites living at their manor for 120 years is true, it means that the Braithwaites came to the US sometime around 1779, roughly 24 years after the Grays.
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It is pretty surprising given the fact that, even if the Grays controlled the Scarlett Meadow’s authority, the Braithwaites prospered more than the Grays.
7Like Their Rivals, the Grays Benefited Off the Slavery Practice
Back in their glory days, the Grays had a slave plantation in Bayou Nwa, Lemoyne. Like the Braithwaites, the Grays made a massive profit off their slavery practice. However, after Union’s victory at the Civil War, slavery was totally abolished in the US, and it inflicted a sizeable financial loss on both sides.
It’s likely inspired by the real-life Jones-Liddell family feud. The two powerful slave-owning families in Lousiana were feuding from 1847 to 1870. Liddell had 115 slaves, while Jones owned around 101 slaves.
6Tavish Gray, Their Leader, Took His Own Life Later On
AfterfinishingRed Dead Redemption 2, players can still pay a visit to some of the old sites John and Arthur have passed through before. Tavish Gray, the oldest and the Gray family’s patriarch, took his own life later after Van der Linde gang’s bloody shoot-out against Sheriff Leigh Gray and his men.
Head over the Caliga Hall after finishing Gray’s missions in chapter two to find Tavish’s dead body at the porch in front of the building next to a letter from an Edinburgh University historian, Malcolm Moffat.
5Beau Gray & Penelope Braithwaite Weren’t the First Romeo-Juliet Story Between These Two Feudal Families
Forget about Penelope and Beau. Before them, there were Douglas Gray and Lucile Braithwaite, who fell in the forbidden love in 1806.
Lucile revealed the family’s gold location to Douglas, and the two agreed to steal from each other to fund anti-slavery, abolitionist groups. It’s ironic because both Grays and Braithwaites benefited from enslaving people.
4The Caliga Hall Manor Took a Direct Inspiration from Real-Life Shirley Plantation in Virginia
Many similarities, from its building to its surrounding dovecotes, can be spotted from the Caliga Hall to its real-life counterpart, the Shirley Plantation.
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In real life, it was built in 1613 by Thomas West as a place to grow tobacco, shipped to England and other colonies. The house held over seven generations and between 70 to 90 slaves were once placed there. Now, Shirley Plantation serves as Louisiana’s historical site, with many visitors and students visiting it from time to time.
3Turned Out, the Grays' Ancestor Wasn’t Who They Thought He Was
Remember when it’s mentioned that Tavish Gray took his own life next to a letter from a historian? Well, turned out, the Grays were never as heroic as they thought they were. The professor revealed that his ancestor, Ross, wasn’t an exiled Jacobite as they believed. Instead, he served as a cowardly spy for the Duke.
“Seems that the Gray family, who we had all those fights with all them years ago, weren’t quite the proud noble Southern patriots they pretended to be.”
2Were There Any Golds, Though?
The subject of gold between the Grays and the Braithwaites is a constant subject of Chapter 3, but was there any gold, though?
The answer is no, and unfortunately, unlike the Braithwaite Manor that you can still find a gold bar at, there isn’t anything to be seen at Gray’s Caliga Hall.
However, after the Braithwaite’s disappearance, the Grays remained as Lemoyne’s most robust family. As it’s seen on Epilogue, the Grays men can still be seen harvesting tobacco and working at their field later in the game, proving that they’re still around much longer than their rival.
Maybe next time, don’t poke the sleeping bear by kidnappinga kid raised by a notorious gang of outlaws, eh?
