Discovering Wise Folk in Seventeenth Century Braintree, Essex

John Ray, the ‘father of natural history’, was a leading 17th century British naturalist and botanist. Born in Black Notley in 1627, Ray was greatly influenced at a young age by his mother, Elizabeth, a local herbalist and wise woman. Unfortunately, very little is known about any of the wise men and women of Braintree District. The aim of this project is to research these individuals to better understand John Ray’s early life and the potential impact they had on his later work. The research will be interpreted through panels for a celebratory exhibition of John Ray’s birth in 2027.