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William Bray (1682–1720), of Barrington Park, Gloucestershire was a British Army officer and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1715 to 1720.
Bray was a younger son of Reginald Bray (d. 1688) of Barrington Park and his wife Jane Rainton, daughter of William Rainton of Shilton, Oxfordshire, who had a large family of 6 sons and 9 daughters.[1] His elder brother Reginald (d. 1712) was sent to Oxford for his education, as his father had been before him.[2] William, as a younger son, was destined for a career in the army, joining the Royal Horse Guards as a Cornet in 1700. He was promoted to captain in 1706 and became a lieutenant-colonel in the 7th Dragoons in 1711.[3] During the War of the Spanish Succession, he served in Flanders.[1] As his elder brother Reginald died without an heir, William succeeded to the family estate at Barrington Park in 1712.[3]
His younger brother Edmund Bray had married a Welsh heiress and in 1715 Bray was elected Whig Member (MP) for Monmouth.[3] He voted for the Administration, except when he cast his vote against the Peerage Bill proposed in 1719.[3]
Bray died unmarried in April 1720, after which Barrington Park passed to his younger brother Edmund Bray.[3]
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