A Long Time Ago/06 Bray

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Bray

This page is part of A Long Time Ago: A History of the Atkins-Paynter and Allied Families, the chunked book edition on the Wally Atkins Family Wiki.

  • Book section: Bray
  • Page range in the book: 54-55
  • Chunk order: 6 of 36

This section has been lightly cleaned and reconstructed from the working transcript seam where the Bray material survives most clearly. It preserves the strongest readable Bray material relevant to the Lawson and later Atkins line.

Source note

  • Book: A Long Time Ago: A History of the Atkins-Paynter and Allied Families
  • Transcript source used: Bray material surviving in `007-thorowgood.md`
  • Editorial note: the nominal Bray transcript file is contaminated by Langley spillover, so this page uses the clearer Bray segment preserved at the next chapter seam instead of pretending the mislabeled file is trustworthy

Cleaned import

The Bray branch matters in this book because it feeds directly into the Lawson line and therefore into the later Atkins family story.

Ancient Bray background

The chapter describes the Bray family as being of very ancient English origin. It notes that the name Seur de Braie appears in the roll of Battle Abbey, and that early members of the family served as sheriffs in English counties such as Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire.

The book says that while the line of descent is difficult and evasive to follow in full, the arms used by the Brays of Virginia were the same as those used by the early English Bray line.

Edward Bray

The first clearly identified lineal ancestor in the chapter is Edward Bray (or Brae), whose will was dated in 1612 and probated in 1613. He was of Shortmead in the parish of Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, and held lands in Stratton Holme and Holmside. He married Elizabeth Astwood.

Their children included William, Mary, Elizabeth, Mark, and Edward.

A later Edward Bray, whose will was dated October 2, 1655 and probated May 13, 1656, was also of Biggleswade. The book says that he and his wife Katherine had children including Edward, John, Jane, Ruth Plomer, and Robert.

The Lawson connection

The most important point for the later family story is that Colonel Robert Bray had a daughter, Ann, who married Captain Thomas Lawson. Through that marriage, the Bray branch enters the Lawson line that later leads downward toward Dosha Lawson and Paulina Sue Lawson.

The chapter also says that another Colonel Robert Bray married Ann, widow of Captain Thomas Keeling. This Ann was the daughter of Captain Adam Thorowgood and Sarah Offley. That means the Bray branch crossed into the same Lawson-Thorowgood-Offley world already seen elsewhere in the book.

The chapter adds that this second Colonel Robert Bray rendered conspicuous service in Bacon's Rebellion and died in June 1681 in Lower Norfolk County, Virginia.

Why Bray matters

The Bray chapter matters because it is one of the smaller but essential crossover chapters. It shows how another old English and Virginia line enters the family web and supports the Lawson branch from which the later Atkins line eventually descends.

Context notes

  • Bray works best when read together with A Long Time Ago/05 Lawson, A Long Time Ago/08 Thorowgood, and A Long Time Ago/09 Offley.
  • Its greatest importance is not as a long independent narrative, but as a crossover line that strengthens the Lawson-side structure.
  • The local transcript situation for Bray is messy, so this page should be expanded if a cleaner Bray chapter extraction is isolated later.

Related pages

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