John Cowper Gray was a U.S. Representative

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

 from Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

.

Born in Southampton County, Virginia

Southampton County, Virginia

As of the census of 2010, there were 18,570 people, 6,279 households, and 4,502 families residing in the county. The population density was 29 people per square mile . There were 7,058 housing units at an average density of 12 per square mile...

, Gray pursued an academic course.
He served as member of the State house of delegates 1804–1806 and 1821–1823.

Gray was elected as a Democratic-Republican

Democratic-Republican Party (United States)

The Democratic-Republican Party or Republican Party was an American political party founded in the early 1790s by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Political scientists use the former name, while historians prefer the latter one; contemporaries generally called the party the "Republicans", along...

to the Sixteenth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of James Johnson and served from August 28, 1820, to March 3, 1821.
He was an unsuccessful candidate in 1820 for reelection to the Seventeenth Congress.
He died May 18, 1823.

Source