Lord John Grey

Outlander series

Grey first appears in the second Outlander novel Dragonfly in Amber (1992) as a 16-year-old English soldier who chances upon Jamie and Claire Fraser on the eve of the Battle of Prestonpans. Recognizing Jamie as a wanted rebel and presuming Claire to be his prisoner, Grey attempts to save her. Using the threat of harm to Claire, Jamie tricks Grey into revealing information about the nearby British forces, and spares the boy's life.

In Voyager (1994), a mortally injured Jamie is saved from execution as a traitor after the Battle of Culloden in 1746 by Harold Grey, Earl of Melton, as repayment for sparing the younger Grey. Jamie is sent home to Lallybroch to die, but recovers, and goes into hiding. Years later in 1753 he allows himself to be caught, and is placed in Ardsmuir Prison. An adult Lord John Grey is named the new governor of the prison in 1755, and the two form an awkward friendship, which is complicated by Grey's unrequited attraction to Jamie. Grey eventually paroles Jamie at Helwater, the country estate of the Dunsany family, in 1756. Jamie secretly fathers a son with Geneva Dunsany named William, who is raised as the son of Geneva's husband, Lord Ellesmere, after Geneva and Ellesmere's deaths. Jamie decides to leave Helwater in 1764 as the boy's resemblance to him becomes increasingly apparent, and Grey becomes William's stepfather by marrying the boy's aunt and guardian, Isobel Dunsany. A grateful Jamie offers himself to Grey, who declines, but Jamie kisses him. Years later, Grey and Jamie are reunited in Jamaica, where Grey is serving as governor.

The character makes subsequent appearances in Drums of Autumn (1997), A Breath of Snow and Ashes (2005), An Echo in the Bone (2009), and Written in My Own Heart's Blood (2014), as well as in The Fiery Cross (2001) by way of a series of letters to Jamie and his family.

Television adaptation

Outlander, a television adaptation of Gabaldon's series, premiered on Starz in August 2014, with each season based on a novel in the sequence. The introduction of Grey in the series was confirmed by Executive Producer Ronald D. Moore in March 2015.

The casting of Oscar Kennedy in the role was announced on Twitter in November 2015. Kennedy portrays a young Grey in the 2016 season two episode "Je Suis Prest", adapting the character's appearance in Dragonfly in Amber.

In August 2016, Starz announced that David Berry had been cast as the adult Grey for season three of the series, which adapts Voyager. A photo of Berry as Grey was released in July 2017, prior to the season's debut in September 2017. He debuted in the 2017 episode "All Debts Paid", and made appearances through season five. In May 2020, Berry made a post on Twitter that many took to mean that he would not be returning to Outlander after the fifth season finale. However, it was only the character who did not return for the sixth season, and Berry did reprise the role in season seven.

In "Je Suis Prest", young John William Grey, second son of Viscount Melton, encounters Highland warrior Jamie Fraser and his wife Claire in Scotland near where his British regiment is camped. In the mistaken belief that Claire is an English prisoner of the Highlanders, Grey tries to "save" her; Jamie subdues him but spares his life. Information gleaned by Jamie from the encounter helps the Jacobites defeat the British forces at the Battle of Prestonpans.

Unlike in the novel, it is Claire who initiates the ruse of Jamie threatening her to coerce Grey. Pri Figueiredo of Moviepilot called the change "a wasted opportunity to show viewers that Jamie Fraser is more than a bulky and sensual sex toy for Claire", but Terri Schwartz of IGN wrote that "Lord John William Grey's first appearance did not disappoint, and it did a great job establishing who he is as a character without overplaying his future importance."

As in Voyager, the season three episode "All Debts Paid" finds an adult Grey as the new governor of Ardsmuir Prison, where Jamie has been incarcerated. Years later, Grey arranges for Jamie's parole at the country estate Helwater. He eventually becomes the stepfather of Jamie's illegitimate son Willie, who is being raised as an earl, in "Of Lost Things". Later in "The Bakra', Grey and Jamie are reunited in Jamaica, where Grey is governor and Jamie is seeking his missing nephew, Young Ian. Jamie is arrested in "Eye of the Storm", but Grey is able to release him due to a lack of evidence of Jamie's alleged crimes.

Lord John series

Most notably, Grey is also featured in his own Lord John series of historical mystery novels and shorter works that all take place between 1756 and 1761, during the events of Voyager. When Gabaldon was invited to write a short story for the 1998 British anthology Past Poisons: An Ellis Peters Memorial Anthology of Historical Crime, she was interested in the challenge of writing a shorter work but hesitant to use any of the main characters from the Outlander series for fear of creating "a stumbling block in the growth of the next novel." The Lord Grey character came to mind.

"Lord John Grey is an important character in the Outlander series, but he isn't onstage all the time. And when he isn't...well, plainly he's off leading his life and having adventures elsewhere, and I could write about any of those adventures without causing complications for future novels. Beyond that obvious advantage, Lord John is a fascinating character. He's what I call a 'mushroom'—one of those unplanned people who pops up out of nowhere and walks off with any scene he's in—and he talks to me easily (and wittily). He's also a gay man, in a time when to be homosexual was a capital offense, and Lord John has more than most to lose by discovery. He belongs to a noble family, he's an officer in His Majesty's Army, and loves both his family and his regiment; to have his private life discovered would damage—if not destroy—both. Consequently, he lives constantly with conflict, which makes him both deeply entertaining and easy to write about."

That first Lord John story became Lord John and the Hellfire Club (1998); it was well-received and Gabaldon decided that she would write more Grey-centric tales in her spare time. Her next attempt was a larger manuscript that secured the author a deal for three full Grey novels: Lord John and the Private Matter (2003), Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade (2007) and The Scottish Prisoner (2011). Gabaldon would also write five additional Lord John novellas between 2003 and 2011. The Lord John spin-off series currently consists of six novellas and three novels. Though they and the main Outlander books can be understood independently of each other, according to Gabaldon there are events in each that will be more thoroughly understood having read both series. They can be generally categorized as historical mysteries, and the three novels are shorter and focus on fewer plot threads than the main Outlander books.

Lord John and the Hellfire Club (1998), a novella. Originally published in the 1998 British anthology Past Poisons: An Ellis Peters Memorial Anthology of Historical Crime (edited by Maxim Jakubowski), as well as by Bantam Dell as Lord John and the Hell-Fire Club in a "Complimentary Collector's Special Edition" the same year. It was later included in the Lord John and the Hand of Devils collection (2007).

Character overview

Lord John Grey himself has been called one of Gabaldon's "most complex and interesting" Outlander characters. Publishers Weekly notes Grey to be "a competent and likable sleuth" and a " soldier-hero with secrets of his own." Comfortable with his sexuality but necessarily "discreet", Grey navigates mystery and intrigue "with characteristic élan, intelligence, and fortitude, assisted by jeweled goblets of wine and meaningful glances from fetching men." Robert Silverberg wrote of the character, "A gay man in a time when that particular predilection could get one hanged, Lord John is a man accustomed to keeping secrets. He's also a man of honor and deep affections — whether returned or not." Grey is described as being about five feet six inches, slight and good-looking, with fine-boned features. He has long, blond hair and "large, beautiful" blue eyes.

Background

Born around June 1729, John William Grey is the second child of the Duke and Duchess of Pardloe, Gerard and Benedicta Grey. His brother Harold, called "Hal", is nine years older. John also has two other siblings—Paul and Edgar DeVane—half brothers from his mother's earlier marriage to Captain DeVane. When John is 12, the Duke dies in an apparent gun-inflicted suicide just as accusations surface that he may be a Jacobite. Subsequently, Harold takes the Duke's second title, Earl of Melton, to distance the family from the scandal. John continues to be called Lord John Grey, as is befitting a duke's younger son.

John's godfather had immediately enrolled him into the Beefsteak Club after his birth. He had been taught the use of a blade starting from age three, and when John was seven, his godfather had begun taking him to the Beefsteak Club every Wednesday for lunch.

Chronology

In 1745, when Grey is sixteen, he informally joins the 46th Regiment, which Hal had raised to restore the family's reputation. Grey mainly serves as a forager and a scout during this time. During the events of Dragonfly in Amber (1992), he comes across Highland warrior Jamie Fraser and his wife Claire in Scotland while exploring the hills surrounding the English campsite. In the mistaken belief that Claire is an English prisoner of the Scots, Grey tries to "save" her; Jamie breaks his arm but spares his life. Information gleaned by Jamie from the encounter leads to the Highlanders defeating the English forces at the Battle of Prestonpans in 1745.

As related later in Voyager (1993), to most of Grey's own regiment he subsequently "had been a pariah and an object of scorn." Around this time, Grey is raped by an unknown fellow soldier, but keeps silent. Grey's first lover is Hector, a twenty-year-old lieutenant in his regiment. Grey is still with the 46th Regiment at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, but is prevented from fighting by his brother Lord Melton. Hector dies in the battle. The English are victorious and the Scottish forces are slaughtered; Lord Melton spares Jamie's life in gratitude for his sparing Grey's, and allows him to flee persecution as a Jacobite rebel.

Around 1747, Grey's cousin Olivia Pearsall is orphaned, and becomes Hal's ward. She moves in with Benedicta and lives there until marriage, and Olivia and Grey become very close. At eighteen, Grey enters into a relationship with George Everett, who takes him to the Lavender House—a discreet club in London that caters to homosexual men. In 1755, a scandal involving Everett causes Grey—now a major—to be reassigned to Ardsmuir Prison in Scotland, where he serves as Governor for a year and a half. At Ardamuir, Grey is reunited with Jamie. After Culloden, Jamie had lived in hiding for seven years, but had finally turned himself in to the English so that the starving people at his estate of Lallybroch could collect the reward on his head. Grey and Jamie begin having weekly dinners, playing chess and exchanging information related to the prisoners. Grey falls in love with Jamie, who rejects his advances. Still, Grey cannot dismiss his feelings. In 1756, after the prison is successfully rebuilt into a fortress, Grey arranges for Jamie to be paroled to Helwater, under the eye of family friend Lord Dunsany, instead of being transported to the American colonies for seven years of indentured servitude.

In 1757 during the events of Lord John and the Private Matter (2003), Grey begins investigating Olivia's fiancé, Joseph Trevelyan, whom Grey suspects to have syphilis. During the course of his investigation, Grey visits the Lavender House and has a one-night stand with a young man there. Grey also meets and is joined in his adventure by the handsome Hanoverian Captain Stephan von Namtzen, Landgrave of Erdberg, and takes young Tom Byrd into his employ as his valet. In addition to puzzling out the Trevelyan mystery, Grey helps solve the murder of a fellow soldier who had been suspected of espionage.

Reception

In August 2016, Joanna Robinson of Vanity Fair called Grey "a character so popular, Gabaldon eventually spun him off into his own novels". Grey has been called "one of the most complex and interesting" of the hundreds of characters in Gabaldon's Outlander novels. Publishers Weekly described him as "a competent and likable sleuth" in 2003. In 2015, Fandomania named him among their "Top 10 Crushworthy LGBT Characters in Sci-Fi/Fantasy". TooFab.com called Grey a "fan favorite", noting that followers of both the book and TV series are eager for a spin-off featuring the character.