Author: Bray, Edward Atkyns
Biography:
BRAY, Edward Atkyns (1778-1857: ODNB)
He was the only son of Edward Bray, a King’s Bench attorney in Devon and manager of the estates of the Duke of Bedford, and his wife Mary Brandeth, widow of Arthur Turner. He was born at Tavistock, Devon, on 18 Dec. 1778 and baptised on 26 Dec.; the name Atkyns came from ancestors on his mother’s side. He was educated by clergymen—the Rev. Clack at Moretonhampstead, Exeter, and the Rev. Ellicombe at Alphington, Exeter. In her memoir of him, his wife tells of the boy Edward meeting an eminent physiognomist who declared that his destiny was to be a poet. His father, however, intended him for the law and his articles of clerkship with Edward Bray were signed on 17 Dec. 1795. He entered the Middle Temple in Jan. 1801 and was called to the bar in 1806. He briefly practiced law before being ordained and admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1811 as a “ten-year man”—that is a mature student who could study for a BD without first acquiring a BA. He matriculated in 1821 and gained his BD in 1822. Bray served as the vicar of Tavistock and perpetual curate of Brentor 1812-1857. He married Anna Eliza Kempe, widow of the artist Charles Alfred Stothard (1786-1821), by license in Tavistock on 30 Sept. 1822; they had no children. Already a published writer at the time of their marriage, she became a successful novelist and was a friend of Walter Scott and Robert Southey (qq.v.). Her Mountains and Lakes of Switzerland (1841) incorporated material from his travel journal; her novels also make use of verse by him. Bray injured his back in a fall in 1856 and he died of complications on 16 July 1857. He was buried at the Abbey Church in Tavistock on 23 July. His other publications are sermons, including Sermons from the Works of the Most Eminent Divines (1818). His will named his wife as executor and left directions for his Stothard drawings to go to the British Museum. Anna Eliza Bray published his Poetical Remains (1859) and A Selection from the Sermons (1860); her memoir of him is the chief source of biographical information. (ODNB 24 June 2023; ACAD 24 June 2023; CCEd 24 June 2023; findmypast.co.uk 24 June 2023; A. E. Bray, “Memoir,” in Poetical Remains, Social, Sacred, and Miscellaneous [1859]) SR