Daniel Wray

Daniel Wray (28 November 1701 – 29 December 1783) was an English antiquary and Fellow of the Royal Society.

Born on 28 November 1701 in the parish of St. Botolph, Aldersgate, he was the youngest child of Sir Daniel Wray (died 1719), a London citizen and soap-boiler residing in Little Britain, by his second wife. His father was knighted on 24 March 1708, while High Sheriff of Essex, where he possessed an estate near Ingatestone. At the age of thirteen Daniel the son entered Charterhouse School as a day scholar. In 1718 he matriculated from Queens' College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1722, and M.A. in 1728.

Between 1722 and 1728 he paid a prolonged visit to Italy in the company of James Douglas. On 13 March 1729 he was admitted a fellow of the Royal Society, and on 18 June 1731 he was incorporated at Oxford. He resided generally at Cambridge until 1739 or 1740, but after being elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in January 1741 he became a more habitual resident of London, lodging at the house of Arthur Pond. At a later date he removed to lodgings at Richmond and after his marriage took a house in town, first in King Street, Covent Garden, and afterwards in Duke Street, Soho, and another at Richmond.

In 1737 Wray became acquainted with Philip Yorke, and a lifelong friendship grew up. In 1741 Philip and his brother, Charles Yorke, brought out the first volume of the Athenian Letters, to which Wray contributed under the signature ‘W.’ In 1745 Philip Yorke appointed Wray his deputy teller of the exchequer, an office which he continued to hold until 1782.

Wray had many friends among his literary contemporaries, among them Henry Coventry, William Heberden the elder, William Warburton, Conyers Middleton, and Nicholas Hardinge. He was a keen antiquary and collector of rare books, and on 18 June 1765 was appointed one of the trustees of the British Museum. He had younger men as protegees, including Francis Wollaston, George Hardinge, and William Heberden the younger.

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