7.
JOHN RAY - Naturalist (1627-1705)
A recent exhibition held at the Tudor
House Museum, Bocking, focussed attention on
John Ray.
The exhibition was organised by the
Braintree and Bocking Civic Society, who drew
on various sources to mount a small yet
interesting display to illustrate the
surroundings that Ray was born and brought up
in, and later in life returned to, and spent
his later years in writing and contemplation
on the natural world.
The booklet accompanying the exhibition
had a foreword by William T. Stearn, President
of the Ray Society, who indicates Ray's
importance as the supreme British naturalist
of the seventeenth century. Ray's publications
"Historia Plantarum" (3 volumes, folio, 1686-
1704) and "Synopsis methodica stirpum
Britannicarum" (1654 2nd edition 1696) are
works of enduring importance, and laid the
foundations for much of the work which enabled
Carl Linnaeus (the great Swedish Naturalist)
to develop his system of classification in the
next century.
For those with some time to spare, a
delve into the literature about Ray is full
of interesting facts, starting with articles
in the Essex Field Club publication (Vol IV
1886), The Dictionary of National Biography,
or Canon Charles Raven's biography "John Ray,
Naturalist - his life and works". Maybe a
visit to Black Notley Churchyard to see his
impressive monument, and to spot John Ray's
cottage in nearby Bakers Lane, will stimulate
the imagination into seeing the man in his
environment.