Archives of the Associates of Dr Bray

Catalogue record

Notes

The body of records consists primarily of correspondence files, minute books and financial reports for the institution established by Dr Thomas Bray and his associates. The files concern the organisation of the Associates up to 1900, and include annual reports. (Documents relating solely to the period after 1900, when the Associates were in decline, have not been reproduced.)
Of particular interest in this collection is the material on the Associates' activities in North America, including Canada, and in the Bahamas, both in the establishment and running of their Negro Schools and in the grant of library books. This work was funded in part by "Mr D'Allone's Charitable Bequest for the Conversion of Negroes" (e.g. in BRAY/GENERAL/1/f5).
Much of the remaining correspondence is the result of the provision of Bray libraries in England, Wales and abroad. Detailed financial accounts for the purchase and sending of books to colonial parochial libraries is included and these, with the correspondence from the early 18th century, allow the development and subsequent decline of the organisation to be understood.
The documents are organised by geographical location, except for ledgers of reports and volumes of the minutes of meetings, which are numbered chronologically by subject in a running series. The GENERAL heading denotes home correspondence, meaning that entered into by the Associates of Dr Bray, and REP denotes annual reports.
This archive forms part of the USPG archive, which is now held at the Rhodes House Library, Oxford.

Read online

This collection has been digitised and is available to read online in British Online Archives.

'Bray Schools' in Canada, America and the Bahamas, 1645–1900