Thomas Bray

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Thomas Bray (1656 - 15 February 1730) was an English clergyman born in Marton, Shropshire in 1656. He was educated at Oswestry School and All Souls College, Oxford University.

After leaving the university he was appointed vicar of Over Whitacre, and rector of Sheldon in Warwickshire, where he wrote his famous Catechetical Lectures. Henry Compton, Bishop of London, appointed him in 1696 as his commissary to organize the Church of England in Maryland, and he was in that colony in 1699-1700. He took a great interest in colonial missions, especially among the American Indians, and it is to his exertions that the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (founded 1701) owes its existence.

He also projected a successful scheme for establishing parish libraries in England and America, out of which grew the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (founded 1699). Bray envisioned a library for each parish in America, funded by booksellers and stocked with books donated by authors. These libraries were meant to encourage the spread of the Anglican church in Britain's colonies, and as such were primarily composed of theological works. It was a major endeavour, as at the time the only other public libraries in the American colonies were at a small number of universities. ^[1]

From 1706 until his death in February 1730 he was rector of St Botolph's, Aldgate, London, being unceasingly engaged in philanthropic and literary pursuits.

[edit] References

• A Memorial Representing the Present State of Religion, on the Continent of North-America, by Thomas Bray

1. ^ Steiner, Bernard. "Rev. Thomas Bray and his American Libraries". The American Historical Review October 1896, pp 59-75.

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.