Edward Atkyns Bray

Edward Atkyns Bray (1778-1857) was a clergyman, poet and miscellaneous writer, born on 18 December 1778 at Abbey House, Tavistock, the only son of a solicitor who managed the Duke of Bedford's Devon estates. He trained for the law at the Middle Temple, was called to the bar in 1806 and left the profession for the Church around 1811.

In 1812, through the Duke of Bedford's favour, he became vicar of St Eustachius' Church in Tavistock and perpetual curate of Brent Tor, holding both until his death on 17 July 1857. In 1822 he married Anna Eliza Stothard, who as Anna Eliza Bray wrote the letters on Dartmoor and the Tamar and Tavy country that we already list.

He published sermons in his lifetime and left most of his poetry in private circulation; his widow issued his Poetical Remains in 1859. Extracts from his journals on Dartmoor and his poems appear in her 1836 book, A Description of the Part of Devonshire Bordering on the Tamar and the Tavy. He also planned a history of Tavistock that was never finished.

A Dartmoor Explorations article credits him with bringing early Christian inscribed stones to the Tavistock vicarage garden in 1818 and 1831, among them one that had served as a clapper bridge and another from near Buckland Monachorum churchyard.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org; dartmoorexplorations.co.uk; www.genuki.org.uk