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 _V_rai," 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?
[Footnote 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.