Thomas Bray, Priest
15 February -- Commemoration
If celebrated as a Lesser Festival,
Common of Pastors, page 483
Born at Marton in Shropshire in 1656, Thomas Bray was
educated at Oxford and
subsequently ordained. He was chosen by the Bishop of
London to assist with the work of organising the church in
Maryland in the USA but, during an extended delay in his
setting out, he managed to organise a system of free
libraries, initially for use in America but later instituted
in England. This led to his founding the Society for the
Promotion of Christian Knowledge (SPCK) in 1698. On his
return to Europe in 1699, he also founded The Society for
the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG). He died on this day in
the year 1730.