42 
MEMOIR OF RAY. 
in representing such objects, and his distance from 
London prevented him from giving efficient direc- 
tions. 
The death of Mr Willughby’s mother, which 
happened about the year 1676, produced a consi- 
derable change in Ray’s domestic relations. His 
pupils were taken from under his charge, and he no 
longer continued to reside at Middleton-Hall. He 
took up his abode for a time at Sutton Cofield, a few 
miles distant ; but soon removed to Falborne-Hall, 
in Essex, which was in the vicinity of his native place. 
During his residence there, his mother died at Black 
Notley, an event of which the following notice is found 
in his diary: “March 15, 1678, departed this life, 
my most dear and honoured mother Elizabeth Ray, 
of Black Notley, in her house on Dewlands, in the 
hall chamber, about three of the clock in the after- 
noon, aged, as I suppose, seventy-eight : whose death, 
for some considerations, was a great wound to me. 
Yet have I good hope that her soul is received to 
the mercy of God, and her sins pardoned through 
the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, in whom 
she trusted, and whose servant she hath been from 
her youth up, sticking constantly to her profession, 
and never leaving the church in these times of gid- 
diness and distraction.” Shortly afterwards he re- 
moved to Black Notley with his family, in which 
place he intended, as he himself expressed it, to 
settle, if such was the will of God, for the short pit- 
tance of time he had yet to live in this world. 
