Two versions of arms of Bray (ancient): left: Gules, three bends vair, as sculpted on monument in Cobham Church, Kent, of Lord Bray's daughter Ann Bray, wife of Baron Cobham; right: with tinctures reversed Vair, three bends gules as engraved on monumental brass in Aldbury Church, Hertfordshire, of Elizabeth Bray, another of Lord Bray's daughters, wife of Sir Ralph Verney
Effigy in St Mary Magdalene's Church, Cobham, Kent, of Lord Braye's daughter, Ann Bray, with her husband George Brooke, 9th Baron Cobham (d.1558)Monumental brass in Aldbury Church, Hertfordshire, of Lord Braye's daughter, Elizabeth Bray (d.1573), wife of Sir Ralph Verney. The inescutcheon of pretence of four quarters displays the arms of her heiress mother, Hallighwell, quartering Norbury, Boteler and Sudeley[1]
He was the son of John Braye lord of the manor of Eaton Bray in Bedfordshire; his younger brother was Sir Edward Braye. He inherited a large portion of the property of his uncle, Sir Reginald Bray, which was confirmed by a deed of settlement made between himself and William Sandys, 1st Baron Sandys and his wife Margery, "in adjustment of a dispute between the parties regarding the lands of the deceased".
He married Jane Halwell (d. 24 Oct 1558) (alias Halgawell, Halliwell, Haleighwell, etc.), daughter and heiress[3] of Sir Richard Halwell of Halwell near Harberton in Devon, by his wife Jane Norbury,
daughter and heiress of John Norbury[4] of Stoke d'Abernon in Surrey,[5] (eldest son of Henry Norbury (d.1415) of Hoddesdon and Little Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire, a Member of Parliament for Bedfordshire in 1454 and 1454) the arms of which families were quartered by his descendants. By his wife he had issue one son and six daughters, as follows:
John Braye, 2nd Baron Braye (d. 1557), eldest son and heir, who died childless when his heirs became his six[6] sisters;
Anne Bray (Lady Cobham), eldest daughter, who married George Brooke, 9th Baron Cobham (c1497 - 29 Sept 1558), lord of the manor of Cobham, Kent; her alabaster recumbent effigy survives, together with that of her husband, on their magnificent monument in St Mary Magdalene's Church, Cobham;
Elizabeth Bray (d.1573), second daughter, who married Sir Ralph Verney (1509–1546), of Pendley in Tring, Hertfordshire, and of Middle Claydon, Buckinghamshire,[7] whose monumental brasses with heraldic shields survive in the Church of St. John the Baptist, Aldbury, Hertfordshire.[8] On her robe are engraved the arms of Verney (quarterly of four) impaling Bray (quarterly of four: 1&4: Bray modern; 2&3: Bray ancient, all charged with an inescutcheon of pretence of four-quarters: 1: Or, on a bend gules three goats argent (Hallighwell); 2: Sable, a chevron between three bull's heads cabossed argent (Norbury); 3: Gules, a fess chequy argent and sable between six crosslets formée fitchée argent (Boteler); 4: Or, two bends gules (Sudeley).[1] She married secondly to Richard Catesby.[6] Her sons included:
Edmund Verney (1528–58), of Pendley, eldest son and heir, twice MP for Buckinghamshire;[9]
Francis Verney (1531/4-1559), of Salden in Mursley, Buckinghamshire, 4th son, also twice MP for Buckinghamshire;[10]
Frideswide Bray, who married Sir Percyval Hart, chief sewer and knight harbinger to King Henry VIII;
^She was an heraldic heiress as the arms of Halliwell (Or, on a bend gules three goats argent ), Norbury (Sable, a chevron between three bull's heads cabossed argent) and Bray were later quartered by her descendants Brooke, Baron Cobham
^G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume II, page 288.
