Joseph Bray (1835 - 1918)

When I first expressed interest in the family I was given a hand written family history on the Bray family prepared by one of Joseph’s grandchildren in England.  I didn’t want to rely on the document, given that it was relatively sketchy.  However, it now appears that the information in the document was correct – well, the details match the information that I discovered. It’s very hard to know when to trust such information, but it is still nice to receive (and makes me think that I should include sources all the time – which I haven’t done to date on this blog, but could if someone asked!).  But that family tree wasn't really what attracts me to Joseph Bray.  I love the letter that he wrote to his grandson - it was very endearing...

Joseph Bray was born on 16 May 1835 at Whitechapel, Middlesex, England – just about as close to the centre of London as you can get!  His father, also called Joseph Bray, was a coachman; and his mother was Frances French.  They had married at St Mary’s Whitechapel on 1 January 1826.  It is believed that Joseph had at least one other sibling that lived to adulthood and two others that died as children.  Further details of these siblings are not known.

By 1841 both of Joseph’s parents had died and young Joseph was placed in the care of his father’s brother, Richard, and his wife Caroline, who lived at 22 South Street, Enfield. 

Enfield is about 16 kilometres north of London.  It was a small market town on the edge of a forest.  At the time, the town consisted of two main streets, which had a number of well-built houses – originally built by wealthy Londoners who came to the town to hunt!  There was a large small arms factory at Enfield, plus a brewery, corn-mill, and saw-mills.  Richard was a labourer who worked on roads!  Richard and Caroline also had a son, Richard, who was five years younger than Joseph. The other member of the household was Thomas Bray, uncle of Joseph and brother of Richard.  This family structure (being Richard, Caroline, Richard, Joseph, Thomas) was unchanged from the 1841 Census to the 1851 Census – and indeed, at the 1861 Census, Richard, Caroline and Thomas still resided together! (I wonder what Caroline thought about that!)

On Tuesday, 27 October 1859, at the age of 22, Joseph married Alice Ison at St Andrews, Enfield.   The couple lived at Ponders End – Alice’s birthplace.  Ponders End was a hamlet in the parish of Enfield and was known for its manufacture of crape, a thin woven silk fabric often used for mourning dresses.  Joseph was an office worker.

Joseph and Alice Bray had at least eight children over the next 18 years:

• Alice Mary – born 1858
• Elizabeth Emma – 1860
•  Joseph Richard – 1863
• Annie Eliza – 1867
•  Emily Ada – 1868
•  Edward John – 1870
•  Herbert William – 1873
•  Maude Ison – 1876.

The Family lived in High Street, Ponders End for all of their children’s births. The eldest daughter, Alice, married in 1879 and Joseph became a grandfather in 1880 – at the age of 45!  Sometime between 1881 and 1891, the family moved to Tottenham, about five kilometres south of Enfield (towards London).  The Census states they lived at 29 Fresherfield Road, but that address does not exist now. 

On 8 September 1895 Alice Bray died; she was 61.  Joseph and children, Emily, Edward and Maude, were living at 7 Winshelsea Road, Tottenham at the 1901 Census.  At least Edward and Maude married while in Tottenham and then in 1910 his eldest daughter immigrated to Australia with her family.  By the 1911 Census Joseph was back in Enfield, living with his daughter Maude, her husband Frederick Brown, and their son Eric.   Maude, Frederick, Eric and Joseph moved to Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, sometime between 1911 and 1917.

In 1914 England declared War on Germany and a number of Joseph’s grandchildren enlisted for service.  Joseph wrote the following letter (transcribed as written) to his grandson, Wilfrid Crofts, in 1917:

My Dear Wilf

I hear your birthday is very near.  I wish you may have many happy ones to come and it may please God to spare you and bring you safe out of this cruel war and land you safe home to the love ones far away.  My Dear boy I don’t forget you all night and morning in my prayers that it may be so.  I am please to know that you are walking in the good old paths and may the Lord keep you safe in them as he promise to do.  So if you trust him and ask his help.  I have found him so during my long life which I shall be 82 if I live to the 16th of May.  What a long winter we are having.  Snowing very hard this morning. I shall be very glad when the warmer weather comes. It tries my breath of in the morning otherwise I am fairly well.

I think things are looking brighter your way.  I do hope this cruel war will soon come to an end.

This is a very short note from me and I hope you will be able to make it out and pass over the bad spelling. I don’t think is bad for a youngster of 82 is it.

Auntie Maude is the one for long letters.

With kind regards to your friends and with love to yourself.

From you old Granpa Bray

Love from Auntie Maude and Eric 

Having been a widower for 23 years, Joseph died at Leigh-on-Sea on 11 November 1918: the day that the Great War officially ended - Armistice Day!  He was 83.

Relationship to SNR = Great, great, great grandfather