Cambridge, July 29. 1851.
On the Letter "v" (Vol. iv., p. 55.).
—I have read with pleasure the paragraphs in your "NOTES AND QUERIES" on "the letter v," and beg space for a further notice, with an especial reference to the patronymic of Ray or Wray. One family uses the motto, "Juste et Vrai," whose name is Wray; and another the same motto, whose name is Ray. And it will be remembered that John Ray, the naturalist, changed the orthography of his name from Wray to Ray, as he concluded it had been formerly written; and in one of the letters published by the Ray Society, [9] allusion is made to the adjective or substantive vrai, as if that distinguished philosopher and divine had either derived his name thence, or it had the same signification as that French word. Are we then to take this as an instance of the silent v or double u or v; and as any proof that families writing their names Wray and Ray were originally of one patronymic and one common root, and that presumptively Norman?
[9] Vide the Correspondence of John Ray. Edited by Edwin Lankester, M.D. London, 1848, pp. 65, 66.
Under a separate heading, perhaps you will also indulge me with a Query as to the coat of arms, under the portrait by Bathon, 1760, after W. Hibbart, of Joannes Rajus, A.M., prefixed to Dr. Derham's Life of John Ray, published by George Scott, M.A. and F.R.S.: London, 1760. The shield is, gules, on a fesse, between three crescents, three cross crosslets. Is it inferable that that coat was ever borne by patent or admissible prescriptive right, by any of his ancestors? Several families in the north of England, whence his father came, also have registered in respectable armories crescents against their names. The poor origin of John Ray is obviated, in some degree, by what is said in a Life of him, published in The Portrait Gallery of British Worthies, by Charles Knight. I suppose he himself used the armorials in question, and was related to the family of nearly the same name, bearing crescents, viz. Reay.
The glasses of some of your correspondents may assist one more shortsighted than themselves.
H. W. G. R., Presbyter,
and Member of the Ray Society.
1. Mead Place, Derby, Aug. 2. 1851.
I beg leave to correct a remark of W. S. W***. as to Tiverton, Devon, which was never pronounced Terton; it is Twiverton, near Bath, which is pronounced Twerton.
S. S.