Richard de Bray

When individual surnames originated in Medieval times, around 1000 A.D., for the purpose of more specific identification, there were four primary sources: a person's occupation, location, father's name, or personal characteristics. The surname BRAY appears to be locational in origin, and is believed to have come from the French (and before that, from early Celtic), meaning "one living near a hill or knoll."

The name originated in very early times and is found under different spellings in many countries in Europe. Dictionaries of surnames indicate probable spelling variations of Bray to be Braye, deBraye, deBray, deBry, Brey, O'Bray, Obray, Brae, Bree, Braie, Brais, and Brayer. In County Wicklow, Ireland, there is a fashionable summer resort called Bray, near Brayhead, which rises 793 feet above the sea. In the ancient records the name was Bree, taken from the Old Irish bri or brigh, a hill. This word is similar in the old Gaelic and Celtic languages; in Scotland, brae means hill. In England the name is found applied to parishes in counties Devon and Berks. Many towns and districts in France employ Bray or some form of the name, such as: Bray-sur-Somme, Bray-sur-Seine, Bre-Cotes-du-Nord, Bray-la-Campagne, Bray-Calvados, and Pays de Bray.

"The Norman People," by King, states that the name Bray derives from a place called Bray near Evreux, Normandy; and that Milo de Brai (1064) and his son of the same name (1096), a crusader, are in evidence as early members of the family in Normandy.

Serving the Plantagenet Kings (1066 - 1485):

On the roll of Battle Abbey, among the names of those who came over from Normandy, France and aided William the Conqueror in his conquest of England in the year 1066, was Sir William de Bray. Also there is record of a Sir Thomas de Bray, who lived at the same time and may have been a brother.

During the time of William the Conqueror (the Duke of Normandy who became King of England), one of the most influential men of the English Court was the Right Honorable Sir Gore Ouseley. On the Ouseley Coat of Arms, eight other family coats of arms are also included. These were the important families to whom the the government of the various castles and estates of England were entrusted. Among these families was the family of Bray. The Coats of Arms of all these families have been grouped together and is known as the Ouseley group.

The Ouseley Group includes the following families: Bray Gerard Gifford Conway Arderne Stafford Salisbury Holland

A description of the Ouseley Group can be found in the Newberry Library in Chicago with references to each and every one of these families. At that time they were supposed to be the most noted families of Great Britain.

In the Domesday Book of 1086, the first official record of the property holders living in England and the amount of land they held (which information was collected and recorded at the command of William the Conqueror 20 years after the conquest); various lands under the control of Baron Henry de Bray can be found. They were sublet to the various Lordships, who held the tenants as vassals, and all paid certain royalties to the Lords, Barons, and the King, for protection under the feudal system. William the Conqueror had ordered the Domesday survey to discover how much land he and his followers owned, and how the rest was divided. Even though he had gained control over the government at the time of the Conquest, the old English (Anglo-Saxon) landholders, Lords and Barons, etc. didn't support the new Norman or French king, and were not paying tribute to him, so he took this step to get the rest of the land under his control. After the Domesday survey was taken, the properties which were still in the hands of English landholders were granted on paper to William's followers, and then it was left up to them to band together and take these lands and estates, by force of arms if necessary. Since the Baron Henry de Bray (mentioned above) was almost certainly a Norman and a follower of the King (probably a son or brother of the Willaim de Bray who had aided in the conquest), he almost certainly retained control over the lands under his jurisdiction at this time. Later, after all of the land in England itself had been distributed out, others of the Bray name were granted lands and estates in Ireland for aiding the king and his successors in various battles, so some branches of the Brays moved to Ireland and became established there.

Other early records of this family in England include Richard de Braie, who held lands at Winchester as early as 1148, while Richard de Brais (who could have been the same person) possessed an estate at Cambridge and Bedfordshire in 1165. One branch of the Brays was seated in Devonshire in the thirteenth century, and from this branch the Lords Bray descended, as well as Sir Reginald Bray, the eminent architect, doctor, and Prime Minister to Henry VII.

An ancient manuscript, the estate books of Henry DeBray, is part of the records of the British Museum. The manuscript is of great value as a source of medieval and economic history. On the first page it states "In the year of 1322, the fifty-second year of Henry DeBray, he, with his own hand, writes this book." According to this record Henry was born in 1269. His grandfather, also named Henry, died in 1280, and his father John died in 1282. His mother Matilda died in 1308. Henry married in 1294 and the records show that his wife's name was Mabel, and that she was only fifteen years old at the time of the marriage. Henry's daughter Alice was born in 1296 and married in 1318. She had six children; three sons and three daughters. Henry DeBray gives an account of his grandfather's and father's quarrel with the Abbot of St. James, Northampton, who held six and a quarter virgates of the Harlestone estate. The quarrel was a typical one for those times. Grandfather Henry and his son John had "laid violent hands on a monk." (It seems that churchmen of the time often used their affiliation with the church for their own economic advantage and administrative control, and they used unethical practices, being exempt from civil laws. The deBrays decided to take justice into their own hands!) Henry and John DeBray had built a bank which was to the "inconvenience, prejudice, and injury" of the Abbey's tenements in the villages. The Abbot was not satisfied with the deBrays' exchanges of land. He claimed fifteen butts of land, in order to effect a compromise between Henry DeBray and the Abbey. This settlement occurred in 1252, and after it was made, the estate contains no further trouble between the Abbot and the family of Bray. The estate book of Henry DeBray covers a period from the middle of the twelfth century to 1340.

From another branch of the Bray family came John Bray (fl. 1377), a physician and botanist. He wrote a list of herbs in English, French, and Latin, entitled "Synonyma de Nominibus Herbarum." This collection is now in the Sloane Collection in the British Museum.

As mentioned above, the name of William, Sieur DeBray, is in the Roll of Battle Abbey among those who aided William the Conqueror in his conquest of England in 1066. His son and heir (who may have been a brother to the Henry DeBray mentioned in the Domesday Book) was Sir Robert DeBray, Ranger of Saucy Forest, Northamptonshire. He was succeeded by his son, Sir James DeBray, in the time of Richard I. Anselm DeBray, of Cambridgeshire, 1273, was the next in this line of descent, and was succeeded by his son, William DeBray, whose son, Thomas DeBray, of Bedfordshire, married a Braxby and left a son, William Bray, father of Edmond Bray. (After the Reformation there was considerable trouble between France and England. The DeBrays dropped the first part of their name, "de," as did many British Norman families, and from that time on were known as the family of Bray. This was probably done for religious and political reasons, as it was very unpopular to be known as a Frenchman during these stirring times.) Sir Richard Bray, son of Edmond Bray, gentleman and surgeon, of Worcester, England, was descended from this branch of the Bray family which had held lands in County Bedford in the thirteenth century, and had a pardon of outlawry entered in the Patent Rolls of 1463. He is said by some to have been of the privy council to Henry VI. This is probable, as he was buried in the north aisle of Worcester Cathedral. His wife, Margaret, and five children were commemorated with him on his monument. Richard Bray married (first) Margaret Sandes, daughter of John Sandes, of Furness Fell, County Lancaster, by whom he had an only son, Sir John Bray, whose only daughter and heiress, Margery, married Sir William Sandys, Baron Sandys of the Vine. Richard Bray married (second) Joan Troughton, by whom he had two sons.