Brave (The), Alfonzo IV. of Portugal (1290-1357).
The Brave Fleming, John Andrew van der Mersch (1734-1792).
The Bravest of the Brave, Marshal Ney, Le Brave des Braves (1769-1815).
Bray (Mr.), a selfish, miserly old man, who dies suddenly of heart-disease, just in time to save his daughter from being sacrificed to Arthur Gride, a rich old miser.
Madeline Bray, daughter of Mr. Bray, a loving, domestic, beautiful girl, who marries Nicholas Nickleby.—C. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby (1838).
Bray (Vicar of), supposed by some to be Simon Aleyn, who lived (says Fuller) "in the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth. In the first two reigns he was a protestant, in Mary's reign a catholic, and in Elizabeth's a protestant again." No matter who was king, Simon Aleyn resolved to live and die "the vicar of Bray" (1540-1588).
Others think the vicar was Simon Symonds, who (according to Ray) was an independent in the protectorate, a high churchman in the reign of Charles II., a papist under James II., and a moderate churchman in the reign of William III.
Others again give the cap to one Pendleton.
The well-known song was written by an officer in colonel Fuller's regiment, in the reign of George I., and seems to refer to some clergyman of no very distant date.