John Cox Bray: Difference between revisions
m Quick-adding category "Old Adelaide Family" (using HotCat) |
No edit summary Tags: Mobile edit Mobile web edit Advanced mobile edit |
||
(93 intermediate revisions by 50 users not shown) | |||
Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{Short description|Australian politician}} |
|||
[[Image:John Cox Bray.jpg|thumb|250px|John Cox Bray]] |
|||
{{citations|date=September 2022}} |
|||
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}} |
|||
{{Use Australian English|date=August 2021}} |
|||
{{Infobox officeholder |
|||
| honorific-prefix = The Hon. Sir |
|||
| name = John Cox Bray |
|||
| honorific-suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KCMG}} |
|||
| birth_name = John Cox Bray |
|||
| education = [[St Peter's College, Adelaide]] |
|||
|image = John Cox Bray.jpg |
|||
|caption = Bray, c. 1880 |
|||
|order = 15th |
|||
|office = Premier of South Australia |
|||
|term_start = 24 June 1881 |
|||
|term_end = 16 June 1884 |
|||
|predecessor = [[William Morgan (South Australian politician)|William Morgan]] |
|||
|successor = [[John Colton (politician)|John Colton]] |
|||
|governor = [[William Jervois|Sir William Jervois]]<br />[[William C. F. Robinson|Sir William Robinson]] |
|||
|birth_date = {{birth date|1842|5|31|df=y}} |
|||
|birth_place = [[Adelaide]], South Australia |
|||
|death_date = {{death date and age|1894|6|13|1842|5|31|df=y}} |
|||
|death_place = At sea |
|||
}} |
|||
'''Sir John Cox Bray''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KCMG|JP}} (31 May 1842 – 13 June 1894) was a prominent [[South Australia]]n politician and the first native-born [[Premier of South Australia]] (1881–1884). |
|||
==Early life and education== |
|||
'''Sir John Cox Bray''', [[KCMG]], [[Justice of the Peace|JP]], ([[31 May]] [[1842]] - [[13 June]] [[1894]]) was a prominent [[South Australia]]n politician and the first native-born [[Premier of South Australia]] (1881-1884). |
|||
John Cox Bray was born in East [[Adelaide]], a son of [[#Background|Tom Cox Bray]] (1815–1881), shoemaker from [[Portsmouth]], [[Hampshire]], and Sarah Bray, née Pink, (1813–1877), from the same county. John was the second of their four sons (with two daughters), all born in Adelaide.{{cn|date=September 2022}} |
|||
Educated at [[St Peter's College, Adelaide|St. Peter's College]] and in England, Bray read law in South Australia, being articled to W. T. Foster, and was called to the South Australian Bar in November 1870.{{cn|date=September 2022}} |
|||
==Early life== |
|||
Born in East [[Adelaide]], South Australia, Bray was the second of four sons (with two daughters) of early immigrants to the new [[colony]]. His father, Tom Cox Bray (1815–1881), was a native of [[Portsmouth]], [[Hampshire]], and his mother, Sarah Pink (1813-1877), was from the same county (her father, William Pink (d. 1853), also settled in Adelaide, and was employed as a labourer in the Survey of South Australia). The couple were married at St Mary's parish church, Portsea, Hampshire, on [[22 July]] [[1838]], just prior to their embarkation for Australia in the ''Prince George''. |
|||
He joined the able lawyer J. B. Sheridan in partnership as Bray and Sheridan, but his mercurial temperament made him ill-suited to the practice of law; however, he had the wit and debating skills for a life of politics.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article196426662 |title=The Biographer |newspaper=[[The Leader (Melbourne)|Leader]] |issue=1698 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=28 July 1888 |access-date=15 February 2018 |page=36 |via=Trove}} a witty contemporary account.</ref> |
|||
In the early years in Adelaide, T.C. Bray worked as a shoemaker, following in the footsteps of his own father, William Bray, who, rather than being a captain in the Royal Navy as is traditionally claimed, in fact, worked as a [[cordwainer]] and cabinet maker prior to his early death in 1816, aged about 26 years. |
|||
==Political career== |
|||
The Bray family appears to have moved to the Portsmouth area from the [[Isle of Wight]], in contradiction to the very garbled accounts of their origins to be found in [[Burke's Colonial Gentry]] (1891-1895), volume 2, under "Bray of Adelaide", and in the American Supplement (1939) to [[Burke's Landed Gentry]] (1937 edition), now renamed [[Burke’s American Family Records with British Ancestry]], and found under "Bray" (covering the career and descent of Professor [[William Crowell Bray]] (1879-1946), head of the Chemistry department at the [[University of California, Berkeley]], who belonged to the Canadian branch of the Bray family which had been established in [[Upper Canada]] in 1839 by [[William Bray, J.P., R.N.]] (1814-1882), a [[gunnery officer]] in the [[Royal Navy]], and the elder brother of T.C. Bray). |
|||
In Adelaide, Bray practised law only briefly, as a [[solicitor]], before being elected to the [[South Australian House of Assembly]] as M.P. for [[Electoral district of East Adelaide|East Adelaide]] on 14 December 1871, a constituency he held until his retirement from politics on 6 January 1892.<ref>{{cite SA-parl |pid=3654 |name=John Cox Bray |former=yes |access-date=19 August 2022}}</ref> |
|||
Bray served as Minister of Justice and Minister of Education in the 3rd [[Arthur Blyth|Blyth]] ministry (15 March 1875 – 3 June 1875). He also served as [[Attorney-General of South Australia]] (June 1876 – 26 October 1877) in the [[John Colton (politician)|Colton]] ministry, when he was responsible for introducing an "Act to Provide for the formation and registration of trades unions", the first such legislation in Australia. He served as [[Leader of the Opposition (South Australia)|Leader of the Opposition]] to the [[William Morgan (South Australian politician)|Morgan]] ministry (October 1877 – 24 June 1881), and Premier and Chief Secretary of the Province of South Australia (24 June 1881 – 23 April 1884), and Premier and [[Treasurer of South Australia]] (23 April 1884 – 16 June 1884). At the time, he was the longest-serving premier of the colony.{{cn|date=September 2022}} |
|||
Educated at [[St Peter's College, Adelaide]] and in England, Bray read law in South Australia, and was called to the South Australian Bar in November 1870. Meanwhile, his parents, elder brother and sisters returned to England, due to an improvement in their circumstances said to be the result of T.C. Bray's having inherited shipping interests from his paternal grandfather, possibly George Bray (elsewhere called Charles Bray), who had disapproved of his son's marriage to Ann Cox (1789-1840), later Winship, daughter of a farmer from Southsea, Hampshire. |
|||
The Bray Government in 1883 petitioned the British Government for absolute control of the [[Northern Territory]], put in 1865 under the administration of South Australia, but on the grounds that at some future time it might be necessary to erect a separate colony in the north their request was refused.<ref>''The Northern Territory'', [[Adelaide Advertiser|The Advertiser]], 6 June 1901, p. 6. (Note: the article contains several inaccuracies)</ref> |
|||
Once in England, the family lived in comfort first at [[Blackheath, London|Blackheath]] in [[Kent]], and later at [[Harrogate]], the [[Yorkshire]] [[spa town]] in which Mrs Bray died. The elder son, [[Thomas William Bray]] (1840-1887), was sent to [[Clare College, Cambridge]], and later became an [[Anglican]] clergyman. He was father of Sir [[Denys de Saumarez Bray]] (1875-1951), [[K.C.S.I.]], [[K.C.I.E.]], [[Order of the British Empire|C.B.E.]], sometime [[Foreign Secretary]] to the [[Government of India]], and Indian delegate to the [[League of Nations]] during the [[British colonial period]]. |
|||
Bray visited England and the [[United States]] from 1884 to 1885, returning to serve as [[Chief Secretary of South Australia]] (14 October 1885 – June 1887), and Treasurer (8 June 1886 – 7 June 1887) in the 1st [[John Downer|Downer]] ministry. He was acting Premier during Downer's absence in England until June 1887. Due to his popularity, Bray was elected [[Speaker of the South Australian House of Assembly]] (served 31 May 1888 – June 1890), after which he refused renomination to that office. He was Chief Secretary in the 2nd Playford ministry (19 August 1890 – 6 January 1892), when he left politics, sparking the [[1892 East Adelaide by-election|East Adelaide by-election]], which saw the first Labor MP elected in South Australian history.{{cn|date=September 2022}} |
|||
T.C. Bray lived the rest of his life as a gentleman, moving to [[Kilmacolm]], [[Renfrewshire]] in [[Scotland]], where he had descendants in the mid 1980s. He died in Scotland and his will was proved in Scotland and South Australia. Descendants include Sir [[John Henry Kerr]], colonial governor in India, [[David Russell (guitarist)|David Russell]], classical guitarist, and [[Piers Sellers]], astronaut. |
|||
Bray attended the [[Sydney Intercolonial Conference]] in 1883, and was one of seven South Australian representatives at the [[first Federal Convention at Sydney]] in 1891.{{cn|date=September 2022}} |
|||
==Political career== |
|||
In Adelaide, J.C. Bray practised law only briefly, as a solicitor, before being elected to the [[South Australian House of Assembly]] as M.P. for East Adelaide in December 1871, a constituency he was to hold until his retirement from politics on [[6 January]] [[1892]]. |
|||
==Later life and legacy== |
|||
Bray served as Minister of Justice and Minister of Education in the 3rd [[Arthur Blyth|Blyth]] ministry (15 March 1875 - 3 June 1875). He also served as [[Attorney-General]] (June 1876 - 26 October 1877) in the [[John Colton|Colton]] ministry, when he was responsible for introducing an "Act to Provide for the formation and registration of trades unions", the first such legislation in Australia. He served as [[Leader of the Opposition]] to the [[William Morgan (Australian politician)|Morgan]] ministry (October 1877-24 June 1881), and Premier and Chief Secretary of the Province of South Australia (24 June 1881-23 April 1884), and Premier and Treasurer of South Australia ([[23 April]] [[1884]] – [[16 June]] [[1884]]). At the time, he was the longest-serving premier of the colony. He visited England and the [[United States]] from 1884 to 1885, returning to serve as [[Chief Secretary of South Australia]] (14 October 1885-June 1887), and Treasurer ([[8 June]] [[1886]] – [[7 June]] [[1887]]) in the 1st [[John Downer|Downer]] ministry. He was acting Premier during Downer's absence in England until June 1887. Due to his popularity, Bray was elected Speaker (served [[31 May]] [[1888]] - June 1890), after which he refused renomination to that office. He was Chief Secretary in the 2nd Playford ministry ([[19 August]] [[1890]] – [[6 January]] [[1892]]), when he left politics. |
|||
Bray was appointed [[Agent General for South Australia]] in London (served 29 February 1892 – April 1894), resigning early because of ill health. He was created a Knight Commander of the [[Order of St Michael and St George]] (KCMG) by [[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Queen Victoria]] in the New Year's Honours List for 1890.{{cn|date=September 2022}} |
|||
On 13 June 1894, he died at sea between [[Aden]] and [[Colombo]] aboard the ''Oceana'' en route for South Australia. His obituary appeared in [[The Times]] (London) of 19 June 1894.{{cn|date=September 2022}} |
|||
Bray attended the [[Sydney Intercolonial Conference]] in 1883, and was one of seven South Australian representatives at the [[first Federal Convention at Sydney]] in 1891. |
|||
Bray was the first native-born South Australian to serve as premier, speaker, and agent-general for the colony. |
|||
==Late life and legacy== |
|||
Bray was appointed [[Agent General for South Australia]] in London (served [[29 February]] [[1892]] – April 1894), resigning early because of ill health. |
|||
His wife, Alice Maude née Hornabrook, Lady Bray, (1850 – 13 July 1935), whom he married in 1870, survived him. They had three sons and one daughter.{{cn|date=September 2022}} |
|||
On [[13 June]] [[1894]], he died at sea between [[Aden]] and [[Colombo]] aboard the ''Oceana'' en route for South Australia. His obituary appeared in [[The Times]] (London) of [[19 June]] [[1894]]. |
|||
===Descendants=== |
|||
Bray was created a Knight Commander of the [[Order of St Michael and St George]] by [[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Queen Victoria]] in the New Year's Honours List for 1890. His wife, Alice, Lady Bray, née Hornabrook, survived him until 1935. They had three sons and one daughter. The youngest son, Harry Midwinter Bray (1879-1965), an Adelaide stock broker, was the father of the Honourable Dr [[John Jefferson Bray]] (1912-1995), poet, lawyer, academic, and judge, who served as [[Chief Justice of South Australia]] and Chancellor of the [[University of Adelaide]]. Bray's only daughter, Blanche Ada Bray, married as his first wife, Sir [[John Lavington Bonython]] (1875-1960), sometime [[Lord Mayor of Adelaide]], and member of the well-known family of newspaper proprietors, philanthropists, and art connoisseurs. Bray's descendants continue to include people prominent in [[Australian politics]] and the [[Australian judiciary]]. |
|||
*The youngest son, Harry Midwinter Bray (1879–1965), an Adelaide stockbroker, was the father of the Honourable Dr [[John Jefferson Bray]] (1912–1995), poet, lawyer, academic, and judge, who served as [[Supreme Court of South Australia|Chief Justice of South Australia]] and Chancellor of the [[University of Adelaide]]. |
|||
*In 1904 Bray's only daughter, Blanche Ada Bray (1881–1908), married, as his first wife, Sir [[John Lavington Bonython]] (1875–1960), sometime Mayor and later [[Lord Mayor of Adelaide]], member of the well-known family of newspaper proprietors, philanthropists, and art connoisseurs. They had three children; she died in childbirth aged 26: [[John Langdon Bonython (1905–1992)|John Langdon Bonython]] AO (1905–1992); Elizabeth Hornabrook Bonython (1907–2008), later Lady Wilson, though better known by the incorrect but popular style [[Keith Wilson (South Australian politician)|Lady Betty Wilson]] [[CBE]], who lived to age 101; and Ada Bray Heath (1908–1965). |
|||
Bray's descendants continue to include people prominent in [[Australian politics]] and the [[Judiciary of Australia|Australian judiciary]]. |
|||
Bray was the first native-born South Australian to serve as premier, speaker, and agent-general for the colony. |
|||
==Family home in Adelaide== |
|||
The historic building known as [[Bray House, Adelaide|Bray House]] is situated on the south-eastern corner of [[Hutt Street|Hutt]] and [[Wakefield Street]]s in Adelaide city centre. Built and then extended in the early to mid-19th century, the home was bought by Bray in 1880. The Hutt Street frontage was built for him, and the house remained in the Bray family until it was bought by the [[Adelaide City Council]] in 1973.<ref>{{cite web | author=The Adelaide City Explorer team | title=Bray House | website=Adelaide City Explorer | date=8 September 2022 | url=https://adelaidecityexplorer.com.au/items/show/132 | access-date=8 September 2022}}</ref> |
|||
==Birth family== |
|||
===Background=== |
|||
Tom's father, William Bray, rather than being a captain in the [[Royal Navy]] as is traditionally claimed, in fact, worked as a [[cordwainer]] and [[cabinet maker]] prior to his early death in 1816, aged about 26 years. Tom and Sarah were married at St Mary's parish church, [[Portsea, Portsmouth|Portsea]], Hampshire, on 22 July 1838, just prior to their embarkation for Australia in the ''Prince George'', arriving in the colony in December 1838. Sarah's father, William Pink (died 1853), also settled in Adelaide, and was employed as a labourer in the Survey of South Australia. Tom Cox Bray had a boot and shoe factory at 79 [[Hindley Street, Adelaide]] from 1840 to 1856, when he and his family returned to England.{{cn|date=September 2022}} He had the good fortune to be one of the "Snobs" (i.e. tradesmen) who risked their savings on shares in the [[South Australian Mining Association]] copper mine at Burra, and made handsome profits.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27450031 |title=Mining Association- Election of Officers |newspaper=[[South Australian Register]] |location=South Australia |date=30 April 1845 |access-date=15 February 2018 |page=3 |via=Trove}}</ref> |
|||
The Bray family appears to have moved to the Portsmouth area from the [[Isle of Wight]], in contradiction to the very garbled accounts of their origins to be found in ''[[Burke's Colonial Gentry]]'' (1891–1895), volume 2, under "Bray of Adelaide", and in the American Supplement (1939) to ''[[Burke's Landed Gentry]]'' (1937 edition), and ''[[Burke's American Families with British Ancestry]]'', and found under "Bray" (covering the career and descent of Professor [[William Crowell Bray]] (1879–1946), head of the Chemistry department at the [[University of California, Berkeley]], who belonged to the Canadian branch of the Bray family which had been established in [[Upper Canada]] in 1839 by [[William Bray, J.P., R.N.]] (1814–1882), a [[gun|gunnery officer]] in the [[Royal Navy]], and the elder brother of T.C. Bray).{{cn|date=September 2022}} |
|||
===Return to England=== |
|||
John Cox Bray's parents, elder brother and sisters returned to England at some point during his early career, due to an improvement in their circumstances said to be the result of Tom Cox Bray's having inherited shipping interests from his paternal grandfather, possibly George Bray (elsewhere called Charles Bray), who had disapproved of his son's marriage to Ann Cox (1789–1840), later Winship, daughter of a farmer from Southsea, Hampshire.{{cn|date=September 2022}} |
|||
Once in England, the family lived in comfort first at [[Blackheath, London|Blackheath]] in [[Kent]], and later at [[Harrogate]], the [[Yorkshire]] [[spa town]] in which Mrs Bray died. The elder son, [[Thomas William Bray]] (1840–1887), was sent to [[Clare College, Cambridge]], and later became an [[Anglican]] clergyman. He was father of [[Denys Bray|Sir Denys Bray]] (1875–1951), [[K.C.S.I.]], [[K.C.I.E.]], [[Order of the British Empire|C.B.E.]], sometime [[Foreign Secretary (India)|Foreign Secretary]] to the [[Government of India]], and Indian delegate to the [[League of Nations]] during the [[British Empire|British colonial period]].{{cn|date=September 2022}} |
|||
T.C. Bray lived the rest of his life as a gentleman, moving to [[Kilmacolm]], [[Renfrewshire]] in [[Scotland]], where he had descendants in the mid-1980s. He died in Scotland and his will was proved in Scotland and South Australia. Descendants include Sir [[John Henry Kerr]], colonial governor in India, [[David Russell (guitarist)|David Russell]], classical guitarist, and [[Piers Sellers]], astronaut.{{cn|date=September 2022}} |
|||
==References== |
==References== |
||
{{Reflist}} |
|||
*J. J. Bray, '[http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A030205b.htm Bray, Sir John Cox (1842 - 1894)]', ''[[Australian Dictionary of Biography]]'', Volume 3, [[Melbourne University Press|MUP]], 1969, pp 220-221. |
|||
*{{Australian Dictionary of Biography |author-link=John Jefferson Bray |first=J. J. |last=Bray |id2=bray-sir-john-cox-3045 |title=Bray, Sir John Cox (1842-1894) |year=1969 |pages=220–221 |access-date=19 August 2022}} |
|||
*{{Dictionary of Australian Biography|First=John Cox|Last=Bray|Link=http://gutenberg.net.au/dictbiog/0-dict-biogBr-By.html#bray1}} |
|||
*{{Dictionary of Australian Biography|First=John Cox|Last=Bray|shortlink=0-dict-biogBr-By.html#bray1}} |
|||
*Richard Herbert Bray Carruthers-Zurowski ''The Bray Family of England, Canada, and Australia'' (1986), deposited in the libraries of the [[Hampshire Family History Society]] and the [[South Australian Society for Genealogy and Heraldry]]. |
|||
*Richard Herbert Bray Carruthers-Żurowski, ''The Bray Family of England, Canada, and Australia'' (1986), deposited in the libraries of the [[Hampshire Family History Society]] and the [[South Australian Society for Genealogy and Heraldry]]. |
|||
==External links== |
|||
{{start box}} |
|||
{{Commons category|John Cox Bray}} |
|||
{{succession box |
|||
* {{cite Australasia|Bray, Hon. Sir John Cox}} |
|||
| before=[[William Morgan (Australian politician)|William Morgan]] |
|||
|
|||
| title=[[Premier of South Australia]] |
|||
{{s-start}} |
|||
| years=1881–1884 |
|||
{{s-off}} |
|||
| after=[[John Colton]] |
|||
|- |
|||
}} |
|||
{{s-bef |before=[[Charles Mann (Australian politician)|Charles Mann]] }} |
|||
{{end box}} |
|||
{{s-ttl | title=[[Attorney-General of South Australia]] |years=1876-1877}} |
|||
{{s-aft |after=[[Charles Mann (Australian politician)|Charles Mann]] }} |
|||
|- |
|||
{{s-bef | rows=2 | before = [[William Morgan (South Australian politician)|William Morgan]]}} |
|||
{{s-ttl | title = [[Premier of South Australia]] | years =1881{{spaced ndash}}1884}} |
|||
{{s-aft|after=[[John Colton (politician)|John Colton]]}} |
|||
|- |
|||
{{s-ttl|title=[[Chief Secretary of South Australia]]|years=1881{{spaced ndash}}1884}} |
|||
{{s-aft|after=[[John Brodie Spence|John B. Spence]]}} |
|||
|- |
|||
{{s-bef|before=[[John Colton (politician)|John Colton]]}} |
|||
{{s-ttl|title=[[Leader of the Opposition (South Australia)|Leader of the Opposition of South Australia]]|years=1884}} |
|||
{{s-aft|after=[[John Downer]]}} |
|||
|- |
|||
{{s-bef|before=[[John Brodie Spence|John B. Spence]]}} |
|||
{{s-ttl|title=[[Chief Secretary of South Australia]]|years=1885{{spaced ndash}}1886}} |
|||
{{s-aft|after=[[John Brodie Spence|John B. Spence]]}} |
|||
|- |
|||
{{s-par|au-sa}} |
|||
{{s-bef|before=[[David Murray (South Australian politician)|David Murray]]}} |
|||
{{s-ttl|title=Member for [[Electoral district of East Adelaide|East Adelaide]]|years=1871–1892|alongside=[[Robert Cottrell]], [[William Kay (politician)|William Kay]], [[George Fowler (politician)|George Fowler]], [[Thomas Johnson (Australian politician)|Thomas Johnson]], [[George Dutton Green|George Green]], [[Theodor Scherk]]}} |
|||
{{s-aft|after=[[John McPherson]]}} |
|||
|- |
|||
{{s-bef | before=[[Robert Dalrymple Ross|Robert Ross]] }} |
|||
{{s-ttl | title=[[Speaker of the South Australian House of Assembly|Speaker of the <br />South Australian House of Assembly]] | years=1888–1890}} |
|||
{{s-aft|after=[[Jenkin Coles]]}} |
|||
|- |
|||
{{s-dip}} |
|||
{{s-bef|before=[[Arthur Blyth]]}} |
|||
{{s-ttl|title=[[Agent-General#List of Agents-General for South Australia|Agent-General for South Australia]]|years=1892–1894}} |
|||
{{s-aft|after=[[Thomas Playford II]]}} |
|||
{{end}} |
|||
{{Premiers of South Australia}} |
{{Premiers of South Australia}} |
||
{{authority control}} |
|||
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bray, John Cox}} |
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bray, John Cox}} |
||
[[Category:1842 births]] |
[[Category:1842 births]] |
||
[[Category:1894 deaths]] |
[[Category:1894 deaths]] |
||
[[Category: |
[[Category:Colony of South Australia people]] |
||
[[Category:Australian Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George]] |
|||
[[Category:Australian justices of the peace]] |
|||
[[Category:Bray family (Hampshire)|John Cox]] |
|||
[[Category:Premiers of South Australia]] |
[[Category:Premiers of South Australia]] |
||
[[Category: |
[[Category:Attorneys-General of South Australia]] |
||
[[Category:Politicians from Adelaide]] |
|||
[[Category:People educated at St Peter's College, Adelaide]] |
|||
[[Category:Speakers of the South Australian House of Assembly]] |
|||
[[Category:Leaders of the Opposition in South Australia]] |
|||
[[Category:Treasurers of South Australia]] |
|||
[[Category:19th-century Australian politicians]] |
|||
[[Category:Australian people of English descent]] |
Revision as of 01:59, 30 November 2023
![]() | This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. (September 2022) |
The Hon. Sir John Cox Bray | |
---|---|
![]() Bray, c. 1880 | |
15th Premier of South Australia | |
In office 24 June 1881 – 16 June 1884 | |
Governor | Sir William Jervois Sir William Robinson |
Preceded by | William Morgan |
Succeeded by | John Colton |
Personal details | |
Born | John Cox Bray 31 May 1842 Adelaide, South Australia |
Died | 13 June 1894 At sea | (aged 52)
Education | St Peter's College, Adelaide |
Sir John Cox Bray KCMG JP (31 May 1842 – 13 June 1894) was a prominent South Australian politician and the first native-born Premier of South Australia (1881–1884).
Early life and education
John Cox Bray was born in East Adelaide, a son of Tom Cox Bray (1815–1881), shoemaker from Portsmouth, Hampshire, and Sarah Bray, née Pink, (1813–1877), from the same county. John was the second of their four sons (with two daughters), all born in Adelaide.[citation needed]
Educated at St. Peter's College and in England, Bray read law in South Australia, being articled to W. T. Foster, and was called to the South Australian Bar in November 1870.[citation needed]
He joined the able lawyer J. B. Sheridan in partnership as Bray and Sheridan, but his mercurial temperament made him ill-suited to the practice of law; however, he had the wit and debating skills for a life of politics.[1]
Political career
In Adelaide, Bray practised law only briefly, as a solicitor, before being elected to the South Australian House of Assembly as M.P. for East Adelaide on 14 December 1871, a constituency he held until his retirement from politics on 6 January 1892.[2]
Bray served as Minister of Justice and Minister of Education in the 3rd Blyth ministry (15 March 1875 – 3 June 1875). He also served as Attorney-General of South Australia (June 1876 – 26 October 1877) in the Colton ministry, when he was responsible for introducing an "Act to Provide for the formation and registration of trades unions", the first such legislation in Australia. He served as Leader of the Opposition to the Morgan ministry (October 1877 – 24 June 1881), and Premier and Chief Secretary of the Province of South Australia (24 June 1881 – 23 April 1884), and Premier and Treasurer of South Australia (23 April 1884 – 16 June 1884). At the time, he was the longest-serving premier of the colony.[citation needed]
The Bray Government in 1883 petitioned the British Government for absolute control of the Northern Territory, put in 1865 under the administration of South Australia, but on the grounds that at some future time it might be necessary to erect a separate colony in the north their request was refused.[3]
Bray visited England and the United States from 1884 to 1885, returning to serve as Chief Secretary of South Australia (14 October 1885 – June 1887), and Treasurer (8 June 1886 – 7 June 1887) in the 1st Downer ministry. He was acting Premier during Downer's absence in England until June 1887. Due to his popularity, Bray was elected Speaker of the South Australian House of Assembly (served 31 May 1888 – June 1890), after which he refused renomination to that office. He was Chief Secretary in the 2nd Playford ministry (19 August 1890 – 6 January 1892), when he left politics, sparking the East Adelaide by-election, which saw the first Labor MP elected in South Australian history.[citation needed]
Bray attended the Sydney Intercolonial Conference in 1883, and was one of seven South Australian representatives at the first Federal Convention at Sydney in 1891.[citation needed]
Later life and legacy
Bray was appointed Agent General for South Australia in London (served 29 February 1892 – April 1894), resigning early because of ill health. He was created a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) by Queen Victoria in the New Year's Honours List for 1890.[citation needed]
On 13 June 1894, he died at sea between Aden and Colombo aboard the Oceana en route for South Australia. His obituary appeared in The Times (London) of 19 June 1894.[citation needed]
Bray was the first native-born South Australian to serve as premier, speaker, and agent-general for the colony.
His wife, Alice Maude née Hornabrook, Lady Bray, (1850 – 13 July 1935), whom he married in 1870, survived him. They had three sons and one daughter.[citation needed]
Descendants
- The youngest son, Harry Midwinter Bray (1879–1965), an Adelaide stockbroker, was the father of the Honourable Dr John Jefferson Bray (1912–1995), poet, lawyer, academic, and judge, who served as Chief Justice of South Australia and Chancellor of the University of Adelaide.
- In 1904 Bray's only daughter, Blanche Ada Bray (1881–1908), married, as his first wife, Sir John Lavington Bonython (1875–1960), sometime Mayor and later Lord Mayor of Adelaide, member of the well-known family of newspaper proprietors, philanthropists, and art connoisseurs. They had three children; she died in childbirth aged 26: John Langdon Bonython AO (1905–1992); Elizabeth Hornabrook Bonython (1907–2008), later Lady Wilson, though better known by the incorrect but popular style Lady Betty Wilson CBE, who lived to age 101; and Ada Bray Heath (1908–1965).
Bray's descendants continue to include people prominent in Australian politics and the Australian judiciary.
Family home in Adelaide
The historic building known as Bray House is situated on the south-eastern corner of Hutt and Wakefield Streets in Adelaide city centre. Built and then extended in the early to mid-19th century, the home was bought by Bray in 1880. The Hutt Street frontage was built for him, and the house remained in the Bray family until it was bought by the Adelaide City Council in 1973.[4]
Birth family
Background
Tom's father, William Bray, rather than being a captain in the Royal Navy as is traditionally claimed, in fact, worked as a cordwainer and cabinet maker prior to his early death in 1816, aged about 26 years. Tom and Sarah were married at St Mary's parish church, Portsea, Hampshire, on 22 July 1838, just prior to their embarkation for Australia in the Prince George, arriving in the colony in December 1838. Sarah's father, William Pink (died 1853), also settled in Adelaide, and was employed as a labourer in the Survey of South Australia. Tom Cox Bray had a boot and shoe factory at 79 Hindley Street, Adelaide from 1840 to 1856, when he and his family returned to England.[citation needed] He had the good fortune to be one of the "Snobs" (i.e. tradesmen) who risked their savings on shares in the South Australian Mining Association copper mine at Burra, and made handsome profits.[5]
The Bray family appears to have moved to the Portsmouth area from the Isle of Wight, in contradiction to the very garbled accounts of their origins to be found in Burke's Colonial Gentry (1891–1895), volume 2, under "Bray of Adelaide", and in the American Supplement (1939) to Burke's Landed Gentry (1937 edition), and Burke's American Families with British Ancestry, and found under "Bray" (covering the career and descent of Professor William Crowell Bray (1879–1946), head of the Chemistry department at the University of California, Berkeley, who belonged to the Canadian branch of the Bray family which had been established in Upper Canada in 1839 by William Bray, J.P., R.N. (1814–1882), a gunnery officer in the Royal Navy, and the elder brother of T.C. Bray).[citation needed]
Return to England
John Cox Bray's parents, elder brother and sisters returned to England at some point during his early career, due to an improvement in their circumstances said to be the result of Tom Cox Bray's having inherited shipping interests from his paternal grandfather, possibly George Bray (elsewhere called Charles Bray), who had disapproved of his son's marriage to Ann Cox (1789–1840), later Winship, daughter of a farmer from Southsea, Hampshire.[citation needed]
Once in England, the family lived in comfort first at Blackheath in Kent, and later at Harrogate, the Yorkshire spa town in which Mrs Bray died. The elder son, Thomas William Bray (1840–1887), was sent to Clare College, Cambridge, and later became an Anglican clergyman. He was father of Sir Denys Bray (1875–1951), K.C.S.I., K.C.I.E., C.B.E., sometime Foreign Secretary to the Government of India, and Indian delegate to the League of Nations during the British colonial period.[citation needed]
T.C. Bray lived the rest of his life as a gentleman, moving to Kilmacolm, Renfrewshire in Scotland, where he had descendants in the mid-1980s. He died in Scotland and his will was proved in Scotland and South Australia. Descendants include Sir John Henry Kerr, colonial governor in India, David Russell, classical guitarist, and Piers Sellers, astronaut.[citation needed]
References
- ^ "The Biographer". Leader. No. 1698. Victoria, Australia. 28 July 1888. p. 36. Retrieved 15 February 2018 – via Trove. a witty contemporary account.
- ^ "John Cox Bray". Former members of the Parliament of South Australia. Retrieved 19 August 2022.
- ^ The Northern Territory, The Advertiser, 6 June 1901, p. 6. (Note: the article contains several inaccuracies)
- ^ The Adelaide City Explorer team (8 September 2022). "Bray House". Adelaide City Explorer. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
- ^ "Mining Association- Election of Officers". South Australian Register. South Australia. 30 April 1845. p. 3. Retrieved 15 February 2018 – via Trove.
- Bray, J. J. (1969). "Bray, Sir John Cox (1842-1894)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. pp. 220–221. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 19 August 2022.
- Serle, Percival (1949). "Bray, John Cox". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus & Robertson.
- Richard Herbert Bray Carruthers-Żurowski, The Bray Family of England, Canada, and Australia (1986), deposited in the libraries of the Hampshire Family History Society and the South Australian Society for Genealogy and Heraldry.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Mennell, Philip (1892). . The Dictionary of Australasian Biography. London: Hutchinson & Co – via Wikisource.
- 1842 births
- 1894 deaths
- Colony of South Australia people
- Australian Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George
- Australian justices of the peace
- Bray family (Hampshire)
- Premiers of South Australia
- Attorneys-General of South Australia
- Politicians from Adelaide
- People educated at St Peter's College, Adelaide
- Speakers of the South Australian House of Assembly
- Leaders of the Opposition in South Australia
- Treasurers of South Australia
- 19th-century Australian politicians
- Australian people of English descent