Clinch Gray, son of Thomas Gray, who was council to the Crown in 1765, served as a Virginia state legislator from 1779 to 1794 and as a Tennessee lawyer and legislator from 1795 to 1829. Accompanied by Fann Crease, Clinch Gray settled at this site in 1805. In 1811, he was appointed Surveyor General for the Mississippi Territory by the U.S. government, appointed tax collector for Wayne and Greene counties, and commissioned assessor of Wayne County. He married Margaret Evans. In 1812, he was commissioned assessor and appointed clerk of the court of Wayne County. In 1817, he was a member of the first constitutional convention at old Washington and signed the Constitution of the State of Mississippi on August 15th. In 1818, he was commissioned justice of the quorum for Wayne County and served on a committee to improve navigation of the Chickasawhay and Pascagoula rivers. He died of malaria fever on March 23, 1823.