John Bray
Events
Date of Birth: unknown.
Place of Birth: unknown.
Date of Death: before 1604.
Place of Death: unknown.
John wife had remarried and was a widow again by 1604. Gaddwin gives John’s will as dated 1589, but the abstract of the 1590 will given by Squires and Rowley-Morris (MC 19:57) does not make it obvious that this is the will of the John Bray of this page. In fact, it seems more likely to be the will of the father of Hugh, the father of John. I haven’t seen the original wills yet, so I am not sure what is going on. Gaddwin may be referring to a different will, or there may be a problem with the abstract.
Relationships
Father: Hugh Bray.
This relationship is given by Gaddwin. I am not sure what evidence he was using, but a Hugh Braye of the vill of Dudston appears in subsidy roll for the Hundred of Chirbury in 39 Eliz (1596/7) (MC 19:80) and a Hugh Bray of Dudston was rated for the poor of Chirbury Parish in 1604-5. (TSANHS, p. 291) A house, “now or late Hugh Braye in Durdeston” is mentioned in letters patent of Henry VIII (1545).
Mother: unknown.
Spouse: Elenor.
This relationship is given by Gaddwin. The 1623 will of Oliver Bray names his father John and mother Elen (MC 19:72). In her own 1628 will (MC 19:74), she is named Elianor Astley.
Children:
(Complete source citations for facts about the children on this page are currently outside of the scope of this project. The daughters, besides Katherine, were named Mary, Joan, and Jane. I am not sure who married whom.)
Oliver Bray
Katherine Bray married William Wooding.
A daughter married Ellis Norris.
A daughter married Thomas ap Hugh ap Maredudd.
A daughter marrie Edward Matthew.
Morris Bray
Francis Bray
Evidence
1596 Subsidy Roll for the Hundred of Chirbury:
Vill Name Rate Tax
Dudston Hugh Braye in terris xxs. iiijs.
Squires’ and Rowley-Morris’s abstracts of wills:
John ap Ieu’n Braye (1590) of Chiibury.
He mentions:
-his wife Ales (executor)
-his son Hughe (overseer);
-his daughter Anne;
-his daughter Jane;
-his daughter Maud;
-his daughter Margaret;
-Christopher son of Richard Bray (relationship unspecified)
-Elinor Powell (relationship unspecified) overseer.
Oliver Bray (1623) of “the farme in Dudston”, Chirbury.
He mentions:
-his natural father John Bray;
-his natural mother Elen Bray;
-his natural brother Morys Bray (sole executor);
-his youngest brother Francis Bray and his son John Bray and daughter Elinor;
-his natural sister Katherine, wife of William Woodinge and her natural sons, his nephews Oliver and Richard Woodinge;
-the daughters of his sister Ellice Bray of Tregynon[This is surely his sister’s husband.] Mary, Jane, Bridgett, and Margery;
-his nephews Thomas and Samuel the two eldest sons of Thomas ap Hugh ap Meredd, and Elinor and Mary, two of his daughters, and Elizabeth, another of his daughters. (Elizabeth has two sons.);
-his nephews Francis, Richard, and Hugh Thomas (presumably sons of Thomas ap Hugh?);
-William, son of Edward Matthewe, dec’d (his sister’s son);
-his kinsman and godson David Bray.
Oliver was to have the lease of his mother’s house for 25 years after his mother’s death from Francis Newton of Heighley. The John Newton of Heighley who was an overseer of Elinor’s will below was Francis’s son. Francis was sheriff of Montgomeryshire in 1596. I cannot find a blood relationship between this family and Elenor.
Elinor Astley (1628) of Chirbury.
She mentions:
-her daughter Mary’s children
-her daughter Joane and her children
-her daughter Katherine and her children
-her daughter Jane and her children
-her son Francis Braye and his children
-her son Morris Braye (executor)
-overseers: John Newton of Heighley and Richard Griffith of Cubdon.
Squires and Rowley-Morris note that Elenor was rated for Dudston township in 1604, and that “Helenor Astley, wydowe”, had a seat in a Dudston pew in Chirbury church in 1604.
References
Gaddwin, Anthony H. “Select Pedigree of the Bowen Family of Tyddyn (Llanidloes)” in Montgomeryshire Collections Vol. 74 (1986).
Phillips, William. “The History of Chirbury” (Flora A. MacLeod, ed.) in Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Natural History Society (3rd. series, v. 6; 1906).
Squires, H.L. and E. Rowley-Morris. “Early Montgomeryshire Wills at Hereford Registry” in Montgomeryshire Collections Vol. 19 (1886).