15 February 1730 A.D. Thomas Bray Passes—Anglican Rector & Founder of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK)
15 February 1730 A.D. Thomas Bray—Anglican Rector & Founder of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK)
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The Reverend Dr Thomas Bray (1658 – 15 February 1730) was an English clergyman,
who spent time in Maryland as an Anglican
representative.
Contents
Life
He was born in Marton,
near Chirbury, Shropshire, at a house today called Bray's Tenement
(now owned by the Nicholls family), on Marton Crest, in 1658.[1] He was educated at Oswestry School and Oxford University, where he earned a B.A.
degree with All Souls College and a M.A. with Hart Hall.
After leaving the university he was
appointed vicar of Over Whitacre, and Rector of St Giles Church' Sheldon in Warwickshire, where he wrote his Catechetical Lectures. Henry Compton, Bishop of London, appointed him in 1696 as his commissary to organise the Church of England in Maryland. Rev. Bray
sailed to that colony in 1699, and by his departure the following year had
established seventeen parish libraries, in part using four hundreds contributed
by Princess Anne of Denmark.[2] Dr. Bray took a great
interest in colonial missions, especially among the Native Americans, but left swiftly after securing the establishment of the Church of
England in the colony pursuant to an Act of the Assembly in 1700, because the
colony's Quakers were attempting to secure the law's veto in England.[3]
After returning to England, Bray founded
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (founded 1701), now known as USPG, 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 1698). Bray
envisioned a library for each parish in America:
To obtain books for these libraries,
requests are to be made to the learned authors now living, to give copies of
their books, and to others, especially merchants to the foreign plantations, to
give money, of all of which there shall be a full account published.[4]
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.[5] At the time of his death he
had succeeded in establishing 80 such libraries in England and Wales and 39 in
America.[1]
From 1706 until his death in February
1730 he was rector of St Botolph's, Aldgate, London, where he engaged in further philanthropic and literary pursuits.
A memorial plaque was erected in 1901 in the parish church at Chirbury.[1] He is also honoured with a feast day on the liturgical of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America on 15 February.
See also
References
^ Jump up to: a b c Dickins, Gordon (1987). An
Illustrated Literary Guide to Shropshire. Shropshire Libraries. pp. 9,
102. ISBN 0-903802-37-6.
Jump up ^ Helen West Ridgely, The Old Brick Churches of
Maryland (New York: Anson D.R. Randolph and Company, 1894) p. 43
Jump up ^ Ridgely at p. 48
Jump up ^ Steiner, Bernard (October 1896). "Rev.
Thomas Bray and His American Libraries". American
Historical Review 2 (1): 59–75. doi:10.2307/1833614.
Retrieved 20 March 2013.
Jump up ^ Steiner, Bernard. "Rev. Thomas Bray and
his American Libraries". The American Historical Review October
1896, pp 59–75.
Further reading
Houlette, W. D. (1934). Parish libraries
and the work of the Reverend Thomas Bray. Library Quarterly, 4588-609.
Laugher, C. T. (1973). Thomas Bray's grand
design; libraries of the Church of England in America, 1695–1785, by Charles T.
Laugher. Chicago, American Library Association, 1973.
William D. Houlette. Parish Libraries and
the Work of the Reverend Thomas Bray. The Library Quarterly, Vol. 4, No. 4
(Oct. 1934), pp. 588–609
Joseph Towne Wheeler, "Thomas Bray
and the Maryland Parochial Libraries," Maryland Historical Magazine
(1939): 246–65
Samuel Clyde McCulloch. Dr. Thomas Bray's
Trip to Maryland: A Study in Militant Anglican Humanitarianism. The William and
Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Jan. 1945), pp. 15–32
Samuel Clyde McCulloch. Dr. Thomas Bray's
Commissary Work in London, 1696–1699. The William and Mary Quarterly, Third
Series, Vol. 2, No. 4 (Oct. 1945), pp. 334–348
Charlotte Fletcher. The Reverend Thomas
Bray, M. Alexandre Vattemare, and Library Science. The Library Quarterly, Vol.
27, No. 2 (Apr. 1957), pp. 95–99
Verner W. Crane. Dr. Thomas Bray and the
Charitable Colony Project, 1730. The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series,
Vol. 19, No. 1 (Jan. 1962), pp. 49–63
David R. MacDonald The Transit of the
Anglican Mind to the Maryland Colony: Thomas Bray & the Bray Libraries of
Christ Church Durham Nanjemoy, Maryland 1696–1701 ISBN 978-1-929569-31-1 [1]
External links
Thomas Bray papers, Special Collections, University of Maryland
Libraries.
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