Background
Thomas Bray was born at Marton, Shropshire, United Kingdom in 1656.
Thomas Bray was born at Marton, Shropshire, United Kingdom in 1656.
Thomas Bray was educated at Oswestry School and Oxford University, where he earned a B. A. degree with All Souls College in 1678 and a M. A. with Hart Hall in 1693. He also completed the work for B. D. and D. D. degrees at Oxford (Magdalen, 17 Dec. 1696) at the request of Maryland's governor, but was unable to pay the required fees.
After leaving the university, Thomas Bray was appointed vicar of Over-Whitacre, and rector of Sheldon in Warwickshire, where he wrote his famous Catechetical Lectures.
Meanwhile, he became involved in a scheme for the establishment of parochial libraries abroad and in England, since he discovered that many clergymen could not afford libraries of their own.
On Dec. 16, 1699, though the act had not yet been passed, Bray proceeded to Maryland, arriving the following March.
However, he soon returned to England, where it was decided he could be more useful in helping to pass the act that had been twice rejected.
The act was finally approved by the king in 1702.
In June 1701 Bray founded the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.
In 1706 he was appointed rector of St. Botolph's in London.
Bray wrote extensively in support of his various projects.
His last publication was a memoir of John Rawlet of Newcastle, another friend of John Kettlewell.