Jane McCracken was born on 1869, the oldest daughter of Margaret McCracken (nee Phair) and Robert McCracken. The couple lived for a time in Green Island, Dunedin, where Bob worked as a bootmaker. It was here that Jane was born.
In 1877 the family decided to try farming at Inch Clutha, but they lost everything the following year when a disastrous flood swept through the area. The family moved to Stirling, where they lived for for several years before returned to Dunedin. While living in Regent St, Jane and her mother Margaret signed the same Sheet of the Petition.
Jane married Peter Clarke Gray in 1900, and the couple had five children: William Clarke (1901-1941, killed in Crete during the Second World War), Robert Balfour (1903-), Thomas (1905-), Margaret Brownlee (1908-), and Dora Katharine (1910-).