The importance of the Reverend Thomas Bray to the mission of the English church is hard to underestimate. He was the motivating force in the founding of missionary and philanthropic societies that were to have worldwide implications and a profound effect upon the American colonies: the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (founded 1699); the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (founded 1701); and the Associates of Dr. Bray (founded 1723, enlarged 1729--a group which supported the founding of Georgia).

Thomas Bray was born in 1656 at Marton in Shropshire. Although he matriculated at Hart Hall, Oxford, on 12 March 1675, he soon left because of a lack of funds. Returning to Oxford, he graduated from All Souls College on 11 November 1678. He subsequently took an M.A. at Oxford in 1693 and both bachelor and doctor of divinity degrees at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, on 17 December 1696.

Bray's relationship to the American Plantations began...