Background
Thomas Bray was born around 1656 at Marton, Shropshire, England.
Thomas Bray was born around 1656 at Marton, Shropshire, England.
Thomas Bray graduated from All Souls College, Oxford, in 1678.
After graduation from the All Souls College, Oxford, Thomas Bray became a country rector and author of popular catechetical lectures. In 1696 he was chosen by Henry Compton, Bishop of London, to serve as his commissary in Maryland. Largely by Bray's zeal was effected the establishment of the Church of England in that colony, where the Revolution and royal government had recently strengthened the hands of the Anglican minority.
Between 1696 and 1699 he unsuccessfully solicited royal assent to the provincial church act of 1692 reënacted in 1696.
He then went over to Maryland to secure the passage of a revised measure. Meanwhile he had recruited missionaries for Maryland and other colonies, and had inaugurated his notable scheme for furnishing the colonial clergy--later also the English parochial clergy--with libraries, chiefly of religious books.
By 1699 he had formed some thirty such collections, sixteen in Maryland; several became also lending libraries for the laity as well as the clergy. To support these activities, with episcopal aid Bray organized a voluntary society, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (1699).
Moreover, in 1701 he actively promoted the chartering of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, whose missionary enterprises were so important in colonial history. Bray resided in Maryland only from March 1700 to the following summer.
He procured a new church act, conducted a general visitation, undertook the discipline of the baser clergy, and planned the extension of Anglicanism in Pennsylvania and other colonies. Returning to England he met powerful Quaker opposition to the establishment.
His pamphlets in the cause were assailed by Joseph Wyeth; the Board of Trade, moreover, rejected the Act of 1700. But though the Quakers, Bray asserted, spent large sums to defeat him, he won royal approval for the Revised Act of 1702, based upon his suggestions. Previously Bray had resigned his office, but not his interest in Maryland and in the colonies generally.
In 1706 he became rector of St. Botolph's Without, Aldgate.
In part these organizations represented merely the resurgence of the old negative Puritan morality; in other respects they gave evidence of a new social earnestness, not without its effect on the colonies. Two of Bray's societies, merged under his will, furnished the institutional basis for the Georgia Trust. One was the Trustees of Parochial Libraries (1710 - 30), the other the Associates of Dr. Bray, a trust created in 1723 to assist him in administering the D'Allone legacy for converting negroes and Indians. In his Missionalia (1727) Bray ridiculed Berkeley's Bermuda college scheme, and presented a rival project for artisan-missions on the American frontiers. The same year he interested himself in the lot of the poor prisoners in London, anticipating Oglethorpe's prison investigations.
In 1734 his parishioner, Thomas Coram, wrote that in 1729 Bray had said he hoped before he died to find a way to settle English unemployed and foreign Protestants in America, but regarded Coram's projected colony between Maine and Nova Scotia as too far north. There is evidence that Bray suggested to Oglethorpe, or discussed with him, the debtor-colony scheme. In 1730 his Associates were enlarged to embrace this third charity, and petitioned for the charter of Georgia.
Thomas Bray died on February 15, 1730 and was buried two days later in the churchyard at St. Botolph's.
Thomas Bray's great contribution into American colonies by 1699 he was able to form around thirty library collections of colonial clergy, sixteen in Maryland; several became also lending libraries for the laity as well as the clergy. He recruited missionaries for Maryland and other colonies and established colonial libraries. Originally designed to be used by Anglican clergy, these libraries expanded in scope and patronage, and by 1699 there were 30 in the colonies. After that the establishment of a voluntary society the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (1699) came alone, which Bray organized in order to support these activities. Already distinguished for his "ecclesiastical imperialism, " in his city parish he became the aggressive leader of the religious-philanthropic movement of the pre-Wesleyan era: the founder or an active member of numerous societies, for suppressing vice, founding libraries, charity schools, and hospitals, relieving proselytes, etc.
In his religious affiliation Thomas Bray was an Anglican.
Bray was distinguished for his "ecclesiastical imperialism, " in his city parish he became the aggressive leader of the religious-philanthropic movement of the pre-Wesleyan era.
Bray was a member of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
Quotes from others about the person
"He was a Great Small man, " declared Coram, "and had done Great good things in his life Time. "
No record of him being married or having a family.
