Bray, Thomas, Dd

Bray, Thomas, D.D., was born in Shropshire 1656, and was educated at Oxford. In 1690 he was appointed to the livings of Over-Whitacre and Sheldon. Here he composed his Catechetical Lectures, a work which so pleased Bishop Compton that he selected the writer to act as his commissary to settle the Church affairs of Maryland. He arrived in America March 12th, 1700, and for two years devoted himself to the labors assigned to him, in the face of the most harassing opposition. He then returned to England, became incumbent of St. Botolph's, Aldgate, and died Feb. 15th, 1730, aged seventy-three. In 1707 he published Bibliotheca Parochialis (1 vol. 8vo), and in 1712 one vol. of his Martyrology, or Papal Usurpation (fol.), designing to follow it up by another, which he left unfinished. In 1726 appeared his Directorium Missionarium and his Primordia Bibliothecaria. One of his chief objects in Maryland had been to establish parochial libraries in each parish for the use of the clergyman, a plan which was afterward extended to England and Wales; and a society still exists under the title of the " Associates of Dr. Bray." The Report of the Bray Associates for 1847 contains a memoir of Dr. Bray.-New Genesis Biog. Dict. v, 26; Sprague, Ann. v, 17; Landon, Eccl. Dict. ii, 387.