BRAY, THOMAS (1656-1730), English divine, was born at Marton, Shropshire, in 1656, and educated at All Souls college, Oxford. Henry Compton, bishop of London, sent him in 1696 to organize the Anglican Church in Maryland, and he was in that colony in I699-17oo. He interested himself in missions among the American Indians, and was one of the founders of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. He also projected a successful scheme for establishing parish libraries in England and America, out of which grew the Society for Promoting Christian Knowl edge. From 1706 till his death in Feb. 173o he was rector of St. Botolph-Without (Aldgate, London). Of his writings the best known is his Catechetical Lectures (1696).