Bray, William ___ 1736-1832 ___ British ___ antiquary

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Bray was born at Shere, the youngest of the three sons who survived their father. He was educated at Rugby, and was then articled to a lawyer in Guildford. In 1761, he was appointed a Clerk of the Board of Green Cloth, at St James's, through the patronage of Sir John Evelyn. When both brothers had died without children, Bray inherited the manors of Shere and Gumshall in Surrey. In 1777, he published a 'Tour in Derbyshire and Yorkshire'. He joined the Society of Antiquaries, and became its treasurer, and, on the death of the Rev Manning in 1801, he took over his work on compiling a history of Surrey, a work published in three volumes over the next 15 or so years. He also transcribed John Evelyn's Journal, and edited his memoirs. Bray's own diaries were published privately and by the Surrey Archaeological Collections.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio
The Diary Review - Base ball and cricket records

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1756-1800 ___ social travel health archaeology

WEB TEXT LINKS
etext
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ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
Surrey History Centre

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Surrey Archaeological Collections
 

May 2005, September 2008, March 2013
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.