William Trewartha (Billy) Bray

  General Notes:

Michelle Kahler notes:
My BRAY line starts with my 2xgrt grandmother, Johanna BRAY (1831-1868) who was the daughter of William Trewartha "Billy" BRAY and his wife, Johanna "Joey" BRAY of Gwennap, Cornwall. Billy was a very famous preacher in Cornwall and has his own Wikipedia page! I have an issue with his parents details which I cannot confirm and quite disagree with EVERY ancestry.com family tree!

The first issue I have is with Billy Bray's mother, Ann TREWARTHA, according to ancestry she was 11 years old when she married William BRAY on 27 Jan 1794 in Kea, Falmouth! Yeh RIGHT!!! This is NOT the 1500's so obviously they have the wrong Ann TREWARTHA!!! Do you know of any related BRAY researcher who might be able to help me solve this puzzle??

I have confirmed Billy as being born in 1794, the son of William BRAY and Ann TREWARTHA, according to the ancestry trees. The trees have this William BRAY with no recorded birth or baptism yet they have managed to all agree on his parents. I'm sorry but I need proof of birth before I can start attaching parents. All they have is that he died in 1802, no date (or sources to prove it) so I am not sure where they have found this scrap of info, I can't find anything to prove this date either!

The common opinion is that William (d.1802) was the son of William BRAY and Frances Unknown. There is a marriage between a William & a Frances FRANCIS in Kea on 22 Aug 1752, they have 5 children and then Frances dies in childbirth on the day of her daughter's birth in 1766 and they were ALL GIRLS!!! NO William!!!

There is only one other marriage in the area prior to 'my' William's baptism in Kenwyn in 1768 and that was for William BRAY to Philippa COURTICE on 31 May 1766 in Kenwyn!!! Now that makes a LOT more sense to me anyhowz!!!! William and Philippa have a total of nine children, five are baptised at Kenwyn, the rest at Gwennap.

William (husband of Philippa) is recorded on the trees as born in 1737 and died in 1822 (once again I can find no record of this death) being the son of William BRAY & Mary BICE.

I have managed to locate the marriage between William BRAY & Mary BISE Jnr, on 29 Jul 1734 in Gwennap. They had Ann in 1734, 5 days before their wedding! Ann was followed by William (above) in 1737, Anthony in 1743, Mary in 1746, James in 1749 and Frances in 1752. I cannot find any further BRAY details for William BRAY who would have been born c1710 so no more on that line.

ALAS! It is NOT to be!!! I have just found William BRAY, son of William & Mary BRAY of Gwennap buried in 1755!!! He would have been 18 years old and therefore can NOT have been the father of William b.1768, husband of Philippa!!!
William's possibilities are now...
1733, base son of Jane BRAY.
1735, son of John & Cath. BRAY.
1741, son of Alexander & Margery BRAY.
1742, son of Udy BRAY.
1743, base child of William Brown of Redruth and Mary Bray.
All of whom could have married in 1768 as, born in 1733, he would have been aged 35 at the time of the marriage and in 1743 he would have been 25!!!

William married Johanna (Joey). (Johanna (Joey) was born in 1793 ²⁹².)