William Bray (1736 to 1832) of Shere is Surrey’s outstanding historian, who brought Manning and Bray’s ‘History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey’ to publication between 1804 and 1814. He drew on evidence retained by the county families he served as an attorney at law, on testimony and documents accumulated by his fellow gentleman antiquarians, and on libraries and the state archives then held at the Tower of London, to record Surrey from Domesday to his present day.
Bray was both a zealous antiquarian and an industrious man of business. While his principal interest was to explore the past, he also recorded the innovations and events of his own age for future reference. He was a diarist throughout his adult life, his entries ranging from detailed descriptions of days as an articled clerk in 1750s Guildford, to later, more functional notes about appointments, money and the weather. A game of baseball in 1755 casually recorded by the young man is today the earliest known manuscript reference to the game. Bray’s deliberate accumulation and preservation of contemporary evidence spans a long time. We have Bray to thank for an enormous collection of sale particulars of Surrey properties, from the mid-18th century to the early decades of the 19th century, now often the sole survivors of their print runs.
'Doubt not an invasion': Innovation and a Call to Arms
In 1794, when the country was at war with Revolutionary France, Bray took a newspaper cutting illustrating ‘the telegraphe’. A mechanism is shown in which 280 signs could be used to convey messages by what we would later call an end to end encryption system: only the sender and the recipient could encode and decode, each using a book of code settings which could be changed at mutually agreed times, while the intermediate operators of the telegraphs spaced every four leagues (12 miles) merely reproduced the configurations of the great and small jacks they observed through their telescopes.
In 1803, Bray kept a stirring recruitment poster, warning 'the Brave Men of Surrey' to 'doubt not an invasion' from Napoleon's France, and urging them to join volunteer corps.
Other spheres
For the gentleman aspiring to new knowledge, a globe of the moon was offered to subscribers in the late 1790s. The late 18th century was a great time for astronomical discovery, further to advances in telescope technology and the discovery of the planet Uranus (1781). Bray kept a handwritten prospectus, labelled ‘Guildford’, to record that the project was that of John Russell, eminent artist of the Guildford printer family. Russell’s exquisite depiction of the moon, including variations to its visible surface caused by ‘libration’ (an effect of its elliptical orbit and tilt on its axis), was telescopic observation accurate to a very high degree, and Russell advertised its lasting scientific value: ‘nor is it possible to say how precious in future times a work of this nature may become’ (the dark side of the moon then remained undocumented however).
Philanthropy at home
In April 1816, post-war hard times (it was to be the ‘Year without a Summer’), Bray preserved proposals for a ‘Provident Society or secure bank’ in Guildford. The bank would be guaranteed by local worthies, for the savings of the ‘prudent and industrious Poor’, offering a desirable 4% interest rate, and even advancing the concept of data protection: ‘no person will be permitted to inspect the Account Books to ascertain the Amount of the Deposits of any individual without his Consent’.
'Something to show that we have lived'
Bray’s modern records include evidence for the Surrey Militia, local societies, local industry and transport, including canal undertakings, the Surrey Iron Railway (the first ever public rail route for horse-drawn freight,1803) and Surrey turnpike roads. Did Bray give much weight to preserving a record of modern life? Perhaps not, and yet perhaps: his volume of newspaper cuttings is entitled ‘Fugitive’, in gold letters.
Bray chose a Latin quotation from the great Roman orator and statesman Cicero for the frontispiece of Volume Two of the ‘History and Antiquities’ (1809). ‘The labour is itself a pleasure. Since only a short time to live is allowed us, let us do something to show that we have lived’. Bray had longer to live than most, as he eventually lived until 1832, dying aged 96. Fortunately, he had marked his era well.
Images
Select image to view a larger version.
- 'The telegraphe', 1794 (reference G85/2/9 (part))
- Surrey volunteer corps recruitment poster, 1803 (reference G85/2/4/1/95)
- Advertisement for Russell's globe of the moon, circa 1797 (reference G85/2/2/2 (part))
- Notice of meeting of Guildford Provident Society, 1816 (reference G85/2/4/1/118)