BRAY FAMILIES
Where did we come from? Where did the family name BRAY originate? The claimed
origin and meaning varies a little depending on which authority you consult.
The Oxford Dictionary of Surnames gives it as;
Bray: English: Habitational name, (ie named after a place), from places in Berkshire and
This book also states that hereditary family names first began to be used from
about the 11th century when it became necessary for various reasons to be able
to clearly identify family groups. Prior to this, many people would be known by
their personal name and a descriptive second name, but often this was not taken
by the children who would have different names. Family names slowly became
adopted by the nobility and then others, until about the 13th to 14th centuries
when family names had become relatively stable and well established as we know
them and everybody had one. However spelling has never been constant and many
variants of names arose.
It is sometimes claimed that Bray is a Cornish name and it is still common in
that county and Devon today. O.J. Padel, who is a
Cornish place name expert, and other authorities, confirm that Bray (or Brea
which is pronounced the same) is the Cornish word for hill. Indeed many Brays
in Australia will be able to trace their lineage back to Cornwall or Devon,
particularly if yours are from Victoria or South Australia, as quite a large
number of Cornish families (including many Brays) migrated to Australia to work
in the mines. However, it appears that there are at least three separate and quite
distinct origins for our name, (you cannot get much more opposite than
"hill" and "marsh") and the name may even have arisen
independently in several locations. So unlike some families, we will never be
able to identify a single place of origin that we can definitely say is
"ours" and certainly can never claim a single person as the
"Father of the Brays". DNA studies carried out by Dr King and Prof Jobling together with statistical analysis carried out by
Prof R Plant and Dr J Plant have clearly shown that our name has descended from
multiple progenitors.
Dr George Redmonds, (a family name expert), in his
book, also gives the same origins for the name, (Cornish and French), then
discussed the localised group from West Yorkshire centred on Holmfirth and Huddersfield, (see map below). The earliest record there is
of an Adam Bray of Cartworth, part of Holmfirth in
1307. This group must have migrated to the area and probably were one of the
Norman Brays because there are no places in the district called Bray where the
name could have arisen. Due to the localised nature of this group I suspect
(but naturally cannot prove) that these Brays would have originated from one
family group who settled in this area. Due to the spread of other places where
small numbers of very early Brays are found, (other than in Cornwall and Devon
that is), I feel that these families would be the descendents of the "Men
from Bray" who marched with William the Conqueror and this would explain
the "old French" origin of the name. William and his army invaded
England in 1066 from Normandy in France, dispossessing all of the English
nobility from their lands. For well over a century, the court language was
French and there was a constant flow of migrations from Normandy to England as
the Normans progressively established their power and control over the country.
The English
census taken every 10 years from 1841 shows 1685 Brays in Cornwall and 820 in
Yorkshire, however the Bray population in Cornwall did not grow over the years
and in fact slowly declined possibly due to migration as mines closed, yet the
population in Yorkshire continued to grow. By the 1891 census, Yorkshire had
become the dominant place of origin as the numbers were reversed, the number of
Brays in Yorkshire was 1543 (again centred in Huddersfield
and surrounding districts) and there were 1308 in Cornwall, in 1911 the numbers
had become Yorkshire 1843 and Cornwall 1385.
THE CORNISH BRAYS
There are
four small habitations in Cornwall called Bray, (or Brea which is the same
name), which were well established by the medieval period when family names
were becoming common, these are difficult to find on modern maps. All four of
these are beside prominent hills, two of which are called Carn Brea. These
locations may have been used as surnames by individuals in early times and some
could have, and probably did, result in hereditary family names. A study of
Cornish baptismal records from the beginning of registers up to 1800 show a
large number of Brays in the parish of Gwennap and surrounding villages, some
36% of all Brays in Cornwall, and thus we can say with confidence that this
area is definitely one of the sources for our name. This is located very near
the towns of Camborne and Redruth. There is a large hill called Carn Brea (with
a castle on the top) beside Camborne and there are small hamlets called Carn
Brea Village, Brea and Higher Brea beside this hill. This was known as the
richest copper and tin mining area in Cornwall stretching back to ancient
times. The Gwennap church is quite large and dates back to the 12th century which
is around the time family names were being adopted. There is also a place in
North Devon called High Bray with a River Bray running through the area, this
was well established by this period and is mentioned in the Domesday
Book of 1086. The Lord of this place is referred to in the Book as Alnoth of Brai, (Alnod) and this
location could have also been used as a family name. One of the most well known
Cornish Brays was an ex miner and a charismatic preacher, William (known as
Billy) Bray (1794-1868) who established a number of Methodist chapels and thus
William became one of the most popular Bray first names in the 1800s.
THE NORMAN BRAYS
The Roll of Battle Abbey, (which is an ancient list,
said to be compiled at the time, of those who invaded England from Normandy in
1066), states that men from the region of Bray marched with William the
Conqueror, there are several versions of the Roll, all of which mention the
name Bray and one actually refers to a William of Bray. However, there would
have been some minor gentry from the area and all those who took part in the
campaign would have been very well rewarded by William. Virtually all of the
English nobility were Norman by the end of the 11th century and
remained so for well over a century as they intermarried amongst themselves.
There are a number of Sir Brays located in various places during the medieval
period and their genealogy is by no means certain; all of these would have
Norman ancestry. The village of Bray in Berkshire is listed in the Domesday Book with the Lord given as King William as part
of his personal holdings, this would make it virtually certain that this is a
Norman place name.
Bray in France is a small village surrounded by farms
near Evreux about half way between Paris and Le Havre in Normandy. However,
there are some other places in
Bray is a
surname still in current use in this area of France and can be found frequently
on the Normandy/Picardy border in Pays de Bray.
The early Bray Coat of Arms is described as;
Argent (a background of silver), a chevron between three eagles legs sable
(black), erased a la cuise (cut off at the thigh),
their talons gules (red).
A
dictionary of British names gives the first references to Bray as an Alnod de Braio in 1084 in Devon,
(see the reference above for the Devon Brays),a Richard de Brai in 1135 in Eynsham in Oxfordshire, then a Ralph de Bray 1225 in Devon
followed by a Daniel de Bray in 1297.
The most
famous of the early Brays in this noble line of decent was Sir Reginald Bray,
Knight of the Garter who died 5 August 1503 and is buried in the Bray Chapel in
Windsor Castle. He was the second son of Sir Richard Bray of Worcester, one of
the Privy Council to Henry VI. Reginald was serving with Lord Stanley in Henry
Tudors army during the War of the Roses against King Richard III. During the
battle of
A knight on
the losing side at the Battle of Bosworth Field was a John de la Zouche, Lord of the Manor of Eitone
(Eaton). His lands were confiscated and in 1490, the Manor of Eaton was granted
to Sir Reginald Bray, the district then becoming known as Eaton Bray. (By
co-incidence this is the family name my wife adopted in the hyphenated form
when we married, her previous name being Eaton.) As Reginald died without
children, his estate passed to his nephew Sir Edmund Bray who in 1530 became
the first Baron Bray(e). The male line has died out
and three times the title has passed on to a daughter, because of this, the
family name first changed to Verney and then to Verney-Cave through marriages. The family home also became
Stanford Hall in Lutterworth, Leicestershire in the
late 1700s, again through marriage, (see their website http://www.stanfordhall.co.uk/ for
details about the house). The manor house of Eaton Bray, (Eitone
as it was then), was commenced in 1221 and was demolished around 1794 and only
traces of it remain today. The current holder of the title is Lady Penelope,
the 8th Baroness Braye who passed the Hall
over to her nephew in 2003.
THE IRISH BRAYS
It has been
suggested that some Irish Brays may have derived their surname from the O'Breaghdha
family of Munster who appeared in the writings of Giolla na Naomh O'Heerin (an
Irish historian and bard who died in 1420). According to "Annals of the
Four Masters" (1442) O'Heerin also wrote that O'Broith, or O'Bree, was
chief of the Magh Seadna. Contemporary historian Michael O'Laughlin (The Book
of Irish Families Great and Small) equates the surnames O'Bree and O'Breaghdha
with Bray. There is a town called Bray (Bri in Gaelic) on the coast just south
of Dublin and there are differing claims as to the origin of this name but
there is a very promenent hill called Bray Head on the sea side there and this
may well be the origin of the name in this area.
BRAY ORIGINS
So then,
apparently we are named after a place. Where might that have been? There are
several places named BRAY in Europe, as discussed there are five small
settlements in Cornwall and Devon, the town of Bray in England is in Berkshire
on the Thames River near Windsor, Bray in Ireland is on the coast just south of
Dublin in county Wicklow and there is a district named Pays de Bray near Rouen
and a village of Bray near Paris among others in France. All of these could
have given rise to the hereditary name of Bray and some probably did. The one
near Camborne in Cornwall can be considered as a definite place of origin.
See www.berkshirehistory.com/villages/bray
for information on the English town.
See www.braytowncouncil.ie
for the Irish Bray.
See the Wikipedia Bray link page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bray_%28disambiguation%29
for links to information on the French villages. This page also provides
links to the Irish and English places.
So, if your Ancestors came from Cornwall, Devon or Ireland where the word has a
similar meaning, your name comes from bré meaning
hill (pronounced as bray as in they and anglicised to Bray), you can
claim descent from the ancient Cornish People. The oldest Bray family in
If your Ancestors came from places other than Cornwall, Devon or Ireland or
perhaps they even came from France, you now know that your name comes from the
Old French word for Marsh and you can claim Norman (French) ancestry.
Today the name is spread throughout Britain but still more common in the
southern counties (see map below). The name is also relatively common in
The Site UCL CASA Surname Profiler shows the distribution of Family names in
1881 and 1998, go to www.spatial-literacy.org/UCLnames/default.aspx
to check out the site. However the 1881 BRAY name distribution is shown
below. This clearly shows that the name was very prevalent in
