Thomas Bray Library
Contained in the Queen’s College Collection are 142 titles identified with Thomas Bray (1658-1730) and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Each volume can be identified by a book
plate pasted to the inside of the front cover: “This Book/ was given by the/ Associates of the Late Rev. Dr. Bray,/ to the/ Lending Library/ of St. John’s Newfoundland,/ in the County of/ And Dioceses of Newfoundland/ Established by the Associates, / 18xx. (Italics denote hand written text or numbers).” Bray and his associates attempted to address the intellectual and spiritual needs of New World colonists by providing books in large numbers. Theirs was the “first concentrated effort to establish libraries for... the people of the New World, from Newfoundland to the West Indies” (Laugher, 1973. p.6). Regarding the content of Bray libraries, Bernard C Steiner states that holdings include “selection of books in all branches of literature” (American Historical Review: Oct, 1896. p.63). Of the Bray titles in the Queen’s College Collection, however, all fall into the areas of theology, church history and devotional literature.
Access
The Bray Collection is not yet catalogued; however, a bibliography of the 142 titles may be viewed from the Digital Archives Initiative website. The Collection is not open for browsing. To see physical copies of items in the collection, or to find out more about the collection, please contact Special Collections Librarian, Patrick Warner, at pwarner@mun.ca.
More information about Thomas Bray and Thomas Bray libraries can be found in the following publications:
Laugher, Charles. T. Thomas Bray's Grand Design: Libraries of the Church of England in America, 1695-1785. Chicago: American Library Association, 1973.
Z /674/ A75/ NO.35/ 1973
Steiner, Bernard C. Rev. Thomas Bray and his American. American Historical Society. Vol. 1 (4); July 1896.