Transcript 

of

Obituary: Mrs Bray

Trans. Devon Assoc., 1883, Vol XV, pp. 52-54.

by

Rev. W. Harpley

Prepared by Michael Steer

Ann Eliza Bray was a prolific, celebrated romantic novelist featuring topics generally related to the history of Devon and Cornwall. She was elected an Honorary Member of the Devonshire Association in 1876. Her last years were embittered by a report that during a visit to Bayeux in 1816, she had stolen a piece of the Bayeux Tapestry. However, her character was cleared by correspondence and leading articles that appeared in the Times. She died in London on 21 January 1883. Her autobiography up to 1843 was published by her nephew, John A. Kempe, in 1884, although it is sketchy and inaccurate. It depicts an accomplished and kindly woman, proud of her own creations, and enthusiastic in praise of the literary characters she knew. The article, from a copy of a rare and much sought-after journal can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.

Mrs. BRAY was born in the parish of St. Mary, Newington, on Christmas-day, 1790, and came of a family called Kempe, formerly resident in Cornwall, with numerous connections among its chief families. Her grandfather settled in London, and both he and her father held the office of bullion porter in the Mint. Her brother, Alfred John Kempe, published several works on antiquarian subjects, such as a History of the Parish of St. Martin-le-Grand, and an account of the Losely Manuscripts, and contributed many historical articles to the pages of the Gentleman's Magazine. Miss Kempe's first love was for painting. She sought the introduction of the chief artists of her early years, and was inspired by her enthusiasm for the art into some attempts in painting on her own account. Among those with whom she became acquainted was the venerable Thomas Stothard, a man endeared to all with whom he came in contact, both for his talents and his private character.

In 1818 Miss Kempe was married to the painter's second son, Charles Stothard, and in his company she rambled through the old towns of Normandy and Brittany, while he was studying their churches and municipal buildings, and soon afterwards published her first book - a series of letters descriptive of her tour. A long future of uninterrupted happiness seemed before her; but in 1821, as Charles Stothard was making a drawing from the stained-glass in the chancel window of Beer Ferrers Church, Devon, he slipped from the ladder, and fell dead on the ground.

One only child, a daughter, was born, just four weeks after the death; but seven months after its birth the infant was taken away, to the grief of its agonized mother. The widow, with the assistance of her antiquarian brother, who supplied the biographical portions, finished her husband's work on the Monumental Effigies of Great Britain; and two years after his decease she published his memoirs, a duty which, twenty-two years later, she likewise paid to her father-in-law, Thomas Stothard. Of her many works this perhaps has most permanent value.

Having numerous friends and relations in the two western-most counties, Mrs. Stothard made frequent visits to the West of England, and there she met her second husband, the Rev. Edward Atkyns Bray. In the course of a life of no long duration he had been in the army and at the bar ; but was best known when he took orders in the Church, and became vicar of Tavistock.

This marriage introduced her into a district abounding in striking legends and attractive family history. Her first novels - The White Hood, The Talba, and several others - had dealt with foreign life and foreign scenery; and in these, as her able and kindly critic, Southey, candidly said, she was not so much at home as on the moors and by the rivers of the West. Taking these, and the traditions which surround them, as fit themes for her fancy, she produced in rapid succession Fitz of Fitzford, Warleigh, Trelawny of Trelawne, Henry de Pomeroy, and Courtenay of Walreddon names which sufficiently indicate the subjects of her novels. They met with so much popularity as to justify the publication of a complete set in ten volumes in 1845-6. Many years before these dates she had been numbered among the correspondents of Southey. Though he lived in the north of England, several of his friends resided beyond Exeter. He himself, while on his way to Portugal in 1795, had rested in the north of Cornwall; his acquaintances, the Farwells, were beneficed on the Cornish coast; Derwent Coleridge was at Helston, and Val Le Grice was near Penzance. Southey passed a week with the Brays at Tavistock in 1836, and reviewed in the Quarterly the works of Mary Colling, their poetic protégée. In one of his letters to Mrs. Bray he suggested that she should undertake a work, on the model of White's Selborne, descriptive of the history, traditions, and manners of the neighbourhood around Tavistock. The suggestion took root in Mrs. Bray's mind, and in 1838 she published, in a series of letters addressed to Southey, three charming volumes on the Traditions, Legends, and Superstitions of the Tamar and the Tavy, a work which met with much favour at the time, and was recently, in 1879, reissued in two volumes.

Mrs. Bray was again left a widow in 1857, and thenceforward settled in London. After the lapse of a few years, she once more resumed the congenial task of writing. This time she selected some of the events in French history, which have most attracted the interest of readers on this side of the Channel. Her volumes on The Good St. Louis, The Revolt of the Cevennes, and Joan of Arc, were all marked by considerable research, and by a graceful style. The novel of Rosteague, a tale connected with one of the ancient seats of the Kempes, had long lain in MS. in her possession, and in 1874 she determined upon its publication.

Mrs. Bray's mental vigour and capacity for work never failed, and there is hardly a more remarkable incident in the whole range of English literature than the fact that at the age of 90 she undertook and carried through the press the revised edition of her well-known book. In this work she would have had the assistance, but for his lamented death, of the late Mr. Richard John King; but he died before the " copy " finally passed into the printer's hands, and all the arrangements, both business and literary, were made by herself alone, the latter with a critical acumen and decision of judgment that bespoke the prime of life, and not advanced age. Not a single point of detail escaped her, and, save when an attack of illness for the time incapacitated her from writing more than her signature, every correction was made, and every letter, from beginning to end was written, by her own hand.

Mrs. Bray was elected an honorary member of this Association in 1876, on the nomination of Mr. Richard John King, and she repeatedly expressed her high appreciation of the work done by the Association, and the interest with which she perused the volumes of Transactions annually sent to her.

She died in January, 1883, in her ninety-third year, and leaves behind her a name which will long live in memory, by reason of her thorough acquaintance with every relic of a bygone age, be they preserved in monuments of stone, or in the warm hearts of its people, which can be found among the cleaves and tors of the borderland of Cornwall and Devon, and for the skill with which she imparted to others both her knowledge and her enthusiasm.