By 1754 he had been ordained as a priest, and he served as curate in at least eighteen different parishes,[1] including at Newick in Sussex, at Tywyn in Merionethshire, at Llanberis and Llanllechid in Carnarvonshire, and at Llanfair Talhaiarn in Denbighshire.
At one time he received small annuities from Sir Watkin Williams Wynn and Dr John Warren, when bishop of St David's, to enable him to pursue his research.
His first publication was entitled Some Specimens of the Poetry of the Antient Welsh Bards, translated into English; with explanatory notes on the historical passages, and a short account of men and places mentioned by the Bards; in order to give the curious some idea of the tastes and sentiments of our Ancestors, and their manner of writing.
This work gained for its author a high reputation as an antiquary and a critic, and furnished Gray with matter for some of his most beautiful poetry.
In one notice of him it is stated that having passed a great part of his life in the cultivation of Welsh literature, "without being able to procure the smallest promotion in the church, his fortitude deserted him, and, to chase away his vexations, he fell into a habit of drinking, that at times produced symptoms of derangement."
The suddenness of his death gave rise to entirely false reports that he had committed suicide, or died of starvation on a mountain.