How is Amaranthus Grey related to Lord John Grey in Outlander?

As you will have noticed, there is another Grey coming into the Outlander story. Carla Woodcock will play Amaranthus Grey.

Amaranthus shows up in Written in My Own Hearts Blood at first. It’s toward the end, though, and we don’t get to really know her until Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone. It’s clear that she is up to something and will be a part of Book 10. The question fans have is what she is up to.

With the surname Grey, you’ll want to know how she’s related to the Grey family. That’s especially if you’re a show-first fan. You just want to get ready for some of the characters who will show up. We’ll start with some spoiler-lite explanations and then go into more of the spoilers later on.

Amaranthus marries into the Grey family in Outlander

Amaranthus Grey is not a Grey by birth. She is related to Lord John Grey through marriage, becoming a niece-in-law. Her maiden name is Cowden.

She becomes a daughter-in-law to Hal Grey, John’s older brother. This is through Hal’s eldest son, Benjamin Grey. We haven’t met Ben in the TV series yet, but he is mentioned in the Lord John Grey novels, and he comes up in the eight and ninth books of the main series.

Get ready for the spoilers!

Amaranthus Grey is clearly up to something

Everyone takes Amaranthus’s word for being married to Ben. John and Dottie, his niece, go in search for Amaranthus after hearing rumors that Ben has died as a prisoner of war and he left behind a widow and a son. Sure enough, John finds Amaranthus in Savannah with a boy, called Trevor Grey.

Nobody seems to ask for proof. I know that this would be harder to come back in this time, but there are minimal details about Amaranthus’s life with Ben. On top of that, she doesn’t exactly act like a widow would. She immediately seems to move her interests onto William Ransom. Is she looking for money and a title?

We do eventually find out that Ben isn’t dead. He switched sides to the Rebels, and Amaranthus knew this all along. When she finds out that Ben changes his name and marries someone else, it’s like she can continue pretending to be a widow. It also means that she is available to marry someone else, and she clearly has her eyes set on William. He also has his eyes set on her. Could Amaranthus end up becoming a stepdaughter-in-law to Lord John Grey and a daughter-in-law to Jamie Fraser?