Individual Details

Birth

Notes for Richard Bray:
- 1636, birth in England [no documentation]
- 1657, Exeter, NH*, Proprietor, on jury and coroner’s jury
- 21 July 1657, Dover, NH tax list (356a—History of Durham, Vol. I)
- 22 Nov. 1659, Oyster River tax list (361a—History of Durham, Vol. I)
- No date, named in Exeter Town Grants 1644-1740 (partly indexed—Bell’s Exeter 130:146) [Note: Uncertain if this reference is from "History of Durham, Vol. I" or from "Bell’s Exeter" (??)]
- before 1661, Exeter, NH, marriage to Mary M. ___ [no documentation]
- 1663, Exeter, NH, on jury
- Oct. 1665, Lynn, Essex Co., MA, killed in Indian raid [Genealogical Dictionary of ME & NH (Noyes, p. 108)--Richard Bray d. Oct. 1665 at Lynn, MA, leaving wife Mary [Mary Whitlock in 1689], and his children John Bray [under 21 in 1666, of Middletown, Monmouth Co., East Jersey, sold Exeter land in 1689] and Mary Bray [under 18 in 1666]
- 10 Apr. 1666, Salisbury, Essex Co, MA, Salisbury Quarterly Court, "Mary Brey of Exiter was granted administration upon the estate of her deceased husband, Rich. Brey, and was ordered to present an inventory to the next Hampton court, that there might be a division of the estate for the widow and children." Records and files of the Salisbury Quarterly Court of Essex Co, 1666 (pp 318-319)]
- Oct. 9 1666, Hampton, Essex Co, MA, Hampton Quarterly Court, "Court ordered that the estate of Rich. Brey, late of Exiter, deceased, be disposed of as follows: Mary, the widow, to have one-third of the house and land during her life and also one-third of the remainder of the estate for own use and the other two thirds for the maintenance of the children, John and Mary, until they become of age and marry. The son was to have two-thirds of the house and land and the other estate, and the daughter to have the remaining third."
* Exeter is now in Rockingham Co, NH, county formed 1769)

Marriage

Notes for MARY HERBERT:
After the death of Richard, her first husband, she married Thomas Seabrook/Saybrook, who lived near the Brays. One deed for Thomas, identifies the property, "lying in the Little Bay in ye South west side of yt brook wch runneth betweene ye Lott of Rich. Bray.." They were married a few months after Richard's death and later migrated to Westchester County, NY on Long Island. ( Note: Today (2003), there is a Saybrook, LI-was this where they settled-need research. ). Thomas does appear on the Hempstead (Long Island) tax rolls in 1675. He was killed that year.
Thomas, Mary's second husband did not have a will. In a depositon to the Court, in 1676, a John Clark, stated, "when there was an alarm of Indians, Being at Castle Hill, loaded with ammunition, he was a sojourner in the house of Thomas Seabrook, and was commanded among others to go to Capt. Osbourn's house, and at his going away, he, the said Thomas Seabrooke, took his wife, (now preesnt widow Seabrooke) by the hand, as was going out, and said Wife I am going out, I know not but I may be knocked on the head. If I never come again, I give all that I have to thee.." (source: Pelletreau, William, "Early Wills of Westchester County, New York 1664-1784", 2 01 Oct 2005

She had three children by her second marriage. After Thomas's death, she then married Thomas Whitlock and lived in Shoal Harbor, Middletown, Monmouth Co. NJ. There were no children from that marriage. Thomas, along with the Bournes, are considered to be part of the original settlers of New Jersey and Middletown.