Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 63.djvu/99

 plates to the ‘History of the Westminster Election, 1784.’ His person reappears as that of a whig in 1791 in Gillray's caricatures of ‘the hopes of the party prior to July 14,’ and ‘A Birmingham Toast as given on 14 July by the Revolution Society.’ He lived after 1784 in comparative obscurity. He died at Fillingham or Summer Castle, Lincolnshire, on 10 Jan. 1805, and was buried at Fillingham, a tablet being placed in the church to his memory. His wife was Esther Summers, but nothing is known as to her history or the date of their marriage. She died at Summer Castle on 1 Feb. 1825, aged 89, and was buried at Fillingham, where a tablet preserves her memory. They had no issue, and Sir Cecil Wray's estates, which his widow enjoyed for her life, passed to his nephew, son of John Dalton (1726–1811) [q. v.], who had married his sister Isabella.

There was published in 1784 ‘A full Account of the Proceedings in Westminster Hall, 14 Feb. 1784, with the Speeches of Sir Cecil Wray and others;’ and Watt mentions under his name the ‘Resolves of the Committee appointed to try the Election for the County of Gloucester in 1777, printed from the Notes of Sir Cecil Wray, the Chairman’ (Bibl. Britannica).

A full-length portrait by Reynolds of Sir Cecil Wray is said to be at Sleningford, and there are portraits also at Langton and Fillingham Castle. Miss Dalton of Staindrop possesses a miniature of him, in the uniform of the 1st dragoons, and a full-length portrait by Opie of him in yeomanry uniform. Lady Wray's portrait was painted in 1767 by Sir Joshua Reynolds. In 1865 it was at Sleningford, near Ripon, the seat of Captain Dalton, and was in fair condition.

[Burke's Extinct Baronetcies; Gent. Mag. 1805 i. 91, ii. 611, 1825 i. 477; Wraxall's Memoirs (1884 ed.), iii. 18, 80, 284–5, 341–7; Hist. of Lincolnshire, 1834, p. 39; Monthly Mag. 1805, i. 80–2; Leslie and Taylor's Sir Joshua Reynolds, i. 282–3; Charles Dalton's Wrays of Glentworth, ii. 187–214; Wright and Evans's Gillray Caricatures, pp. 35–36; Wright's Caricature Hist. of the Georges, pp. 384–98; Grego's Rowlandson, i. 122–42.] 

WRAY, CHRISTOPHER (1524–1592), judge, third son of Thomas Wray, seneschal in 1535 of Coverham Abbey, Yorkshire, by Joan, daughter of Robert Jackson of Gatenby, Bedale, in the same county, was born at Bedale in 1524. The ancient doubts, revived by Lord Campbell (Chief Justices, i. 200), as to his legitimacy, were removed by the publication in 1857 of the wills of his mother (by her second marriage wife of John Wycliffe, auditor of issues in the Richmond district) and his brother-in-law, Ralph Gower (Richmondshire Wills and Inventories, Surtees Soc. pp. 156, 161, 194–6). The pedigree, however, was first traced with accuracy from the Wrays of Wensleydale by the Rev. Octavius Wray in the ‘Genealogist,’ ed. Marshall, iv. 278–82.

Wray was an alumnus of Buckingham (refounded during his residence as Magdalene) College, Cambridge. Though apparently no graduate, he was a loyal son to his alma mater, and set a high value on learning. Tradition ascribes to him the adornment of the college with the rich Renaissance west porch, and a deed dated 16 July 1587 shows that he had then built or rebuilt a portion of the edifice containing three stories of four rooms apiece, which were appropriated to the use of two fellows and six scholars, whose maintenance he secured by a rent-charge (see and, Architectural History of the University of Cambridge, ii. 364). He added another fellowship by his will; two more were founded by his wife in 1591, and a fellowship and two scholarships by his second daughter in 1625.

Wray was admitted on 6 Feb. 1544–5 student at Lincoln's Inn, where he was called to the bar in Hilary term 1549–50, was reader in autumn 1562, treasurer in 1565–6, and again reader in Lent 1567 in anticipation of his call to the degree of serjeant-at-law, which took place in the ensuing Easter term. On 18 June of the same year he was made queen's serjeant. His parliamentary career began by his return (30 Sept. 1553) for Boroughbridge, Yorkshire, which constituency he continued to represent until the death of Queen Mary. From 1563 to 1567 he sat for Great Grimsby, Lincolnshire. Like most of the gentlemen of the north, he was probably catholic at heart, but he evidently steered a wary course, for in the religious census of justices of the peace, compiled by episcopal authority in 1564, he is entered as ‘indifferent.’ In the following year he was assigned by the court of king's bench as counsel for Bonner in the proceedings on the præmunire. In the spring of 1569–70 he attended the assizes held at York, Carlisle, and Durham for the trial of the northern rebels, and was employed in receiving their submissions. Among them were his brother Thomas and his sister's son John Gower, both of whom were pardoned.

In the parliament of 1571 Wray, then member for Ludgershall, Wiltshire, was chosen speaker of the House of Commons. In his address to the throne on presentation