January 12, 1780

John Wray was baptized  January 12, 1780, near  Hull, England. He  died in  1837, at New Amsterdam in what is known as British Guiana. Wray was a missionary in slave holding areas and worked to educate the black people. He worked in British Guiana 30 years often alone, to educate  illiterate slaves, with only his family to support him, since he also had to deal with the  the prejudices of  a misguided  government. 

It was on August 1, 1834, that the emancipation promised by legislation in 1833,  freeing slaves in all the British territories, went into effect. 

When slavery was ended in the British Empire people like Wray tried to smooth the transition for former slaves to a system  where men were paid for their labor. It was confusing because now, though people were not slaves, their employer still had the right to insist if they were going to work, that they work certain days and hours.  On many farms nothing was explained to the former slaves and this confusion resulted in situations in which the workers appeared before judges in the court system.  
Particularly confusing was the fact that the judges formerly supporting the slave owners, now spoke of their concern justice be done the new freedmen. Said one freed man,"being told, .... that the magistrates were now put to protect them [--that he never] "knew people put the cat to watch the meat!" Perhaps a proper response to this point has not yet been made.

Wray died at New Amsterdam, in British Guiana,  of illness and overwork, on the 8th of June, 1837.

This busiest of men had accepted the chore of writing a "History of the [Abolitionist ] Mission" but his death left the manuscript unfinished. We gathered the above details  from the book that Thomas Rain put together from Wray's papers and documents:  The Life and Labours of John Wray, Pioneer Missionary in British Guiana: Compiled Chiefly from His Own Mss. and Diaries (1892).