BILLY BRAY
Cornish Miner, Dancing Preacher
© 2008 Chris Wright
Made by Serif
WEBSITES
The following websites will provide further assistance for anyone wanting to look more closely into the life and times of Billy Bray. They are listed in random order, not in order of importance. Other worthwhile sites can be added by sending mean email:
Three Eyes Chapel is supported by the Billy Bray Memorial Trust, a group of Methodist trustees. For information on the Trust, and what is happening at Three Eyes Chapel, log on to: www.billybray.org.uk
Web pages are headed: About the Trust, Visitor Information, History of Billy Bray, Forthcoming Services, Souvenirs for Sale. There is also a contact name and address.
There is an excellent colour photograph of Three Eyes Chapel on:
www.cornwall.gov.uk/history/ab-
There is information on the Bible Christians on:
www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/genuki/DEV/Shebbear/BibleChristians/index.html
An impartial reference to the Bible Christians, from the Encyclopaedia Britannica dated 1911, can be found on: http://21.1911encyclopedia.org/B/BI/BIBLE_CHRISTIANS.htm
There is much information about the names of Bible Christians in the Methodist Archives, a source I used to research the identity of people mentioned in Billy’s Journal, on the JRULM home page: http://rylibweb.man.ac.uk/data1/dg/text/method.html
Information on Hicks Mill Chapel is on:
www.chyvounder.freewire.co.uk/hcksmll.htm
An interesting site, with a history of Cornish Methodism and links to tin mining, is:
www.cornish-
William Haslam wrote at some length about a visit by Billy Bray. More information on Haslam on: www.williamhaslam.org
In 1844 Robert Aitken was appointed the first vicar of the new Cornish parish of Pendeen. There he and the parishioners built their own church. For a full biography of Robert Aitken, a colleague of William Haslam see:
www.isle-
Note the spelling of methdism.
Copies of FW Bourne’s original book on Billy Bray, The King’s Son, and a huge range
of other second-
www.usedbooksearch.co.uk
www.abebooks.co.uk
(Using abebooks directly sometimes comes up with more titles than accessing them through www.usedbooksearch.co.uk, useful though that site is. Searching for “Bourne” as the author and “Bray” as the keyword, with no book title, can produce more results than adding “The King’s Son”, since not all booksellers use this title.)
In 1838 Billy visited St Ives and witnessed a massive catch of pilchards. A reference to an extremely large catch in 1846 is on:
http://west-
