RAY, John, a celebrated naturalist, and the son of Mr Roger Ray, a blacksmith, was born at Black Notly, in Essex, in 1628. He received the rudiments of learning at the grammar-school of Braintree; and in 1644 was admitted into Catharine Hall, Cambridge, whence he afterwards removed to Trinity College in that university. He took the degree of master of arts, and became at length a senior fellow of the college; but his intense application to his studies having injured his health, he was obliged at his leisure hours to exercise himself by riding or walking in the fields, which led him to the study of plants. He noted from Johnson, Parkinson, and the Phytologia Britannica, the places where curious plants grew; and in 1658 he rode from Cambridge to the city of Chester, whence he proceeded to North Wales, visiting many places, and amongst others the famous hill of Snowdon, and returning by Shrewsbury and Gloucester. In 1660 he published his Catalogus Plantorum circa Cnutabrigiam nascentium, and the same [7:19:78]year he was ordained deacon and priest. In 1661 he accompanied Mr Francis Willoughby and others, in search of plants and other natural curiosities, to the north of England and Scotland; and the next year he made a western tour from Chester, and through Wales, to Cornwall, Devonshire, Dorsetshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire, and other counties. He afterwards travelled with Mr Willoughby and other gentlemen through Holland, Germany, Italy, France, and other foreign parts, made several tours in England, and was admitted fellow of the Royal Society. In 1672 his friend Mr Willoughby died, in the thirty-seventh year of his age, at Middleton Hall, his seat at Yorkshire, to the infinite and unspeakable loss and grief of Mr Ray himself, his friends, and all good men. As there existed the closest and most sincere friendship between Mr Willoughby and Mr Ray from the time of their being fellow-students, Mr Willoughby not only confided in Mr Ray in his lifetime, but also at his death; for he made him one of the executors of his will, and charged him with the education of his sons, Francis and Thomas, leaving him at the same time an annuity of L.60 per annum. The eldest of these young gentlemen not being four years of age, Mr Ray, as a faithful trustee, undertook their instruction, and for their use compiled his Nomenclator Classwus, which was published the same year. Francis, the eldest, dying before he became of age, the younger became Lord Middleton. Not many months after the death of Mr Willoughby, Mr Ray lost another of his best friends, Bishop Wilkins, whom he visited in London on the 18th of November 1672, and found almost expiring from a total suppression of urine. As it is natural for the mind, when hurt in one part, to seek relief in another, so Mr Ray, having lost some of his best friends, and being in a manner left destitute, conceived thoughts of marriage; and, accordingly, in June 1673, he espoused a gentlewoman of about twenty years of age, the daughter of Mr Oakley of Launton, in Oxfordshire. Towards the end of this year came forth his Observations made in foreign countries, to which was added, his Catalvgus StirpiUm in exteris Regionibus observatarum; and about the same time appeared his Collection of unusual or local English words, which he had made in his travels through the counties of England. After having published many books upon subjects foreign to his profession, he at length resolved to appear in the character of divine, as well as in that of natural philosopher; and with this view he published his excellent demonstration of the being and attributes of God, entitled The Wisdom of God manifested in the Works of the Creation, 1697, 8vo. The rudiments of this work were read in some college lectures; and another collection of the same kind he enlarged and published under the title of Three PhysicoIheological Discourses concerning the Chaos, Deluge, and Dissolution of the World, 1692, in 8vo. Ray died in 1705. He was modest, affable, and communicative, and distinguished by his probity, charity, sobriety, and piety. He wrote a great number of works, the principal of which, besides those already mentioned, are, 1. Catalogus Plantarum Angliae; 2. Dictionariolum Trilingue secundum locos communes; 3. Historia Plantarum, Species hactenus editas, aliasque insuper multas naviter invetitas et descriptas complectens, three vols.; 4. Methodus Plantarum nova, eum Tabulis, 8vo, and several other works on plants; 5. Synopsis Methodica Animalium Quadrupedum et Serpentini generis, 8vo; 6. Synopsis Methodica Avium et Piscium; 7. Historia Insectorum, opus posthumum; 8. Methodus Insectarum; 9. Philosophical Letters.