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Baron Braye

Title in the Peerage of England

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 4, 2026
Entity authorityQ4862195
Source-derived summary

Baron Braye, of Eaton Bray in the County of Bedford, is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1529 for Edmund Braye, 1st Baron Braye. However, the family originally originate from Normandy, they are direct descendants of Chevalier Baudry de Bray who came over to England in the Battle of Hastings of 1066. The family's local area in Leicestershire played host to two battles in England of note, the Battle of Bosworth Field where the current family's ancestor's were on opposing sides, and also Battle of Naseby during the First English Civil War, where the old manor house hosted King Charles I.

The barony was created by writ, which means that it can descend through both male and female lines. He was succeeded by his son, the second Baron. He died from wounds received at the Battle of St Quentin in 1557. Lord Braye was childless and on his death the title fell into abeyance between his sisters.

It remained in abeyance for 282 years until the abeyance was terminated in 1839 in favour of Sarah Otway-Cave, who became the third Baroness Braye, which was granted by Queen Victoria. She was the wife of Henry Otway and only daughter of Sir Thomas Cave, 6th Baronet, of Stanford, grandson of Sir Thomas Cave, 3rd Baronet, of Stanford, and his wife Margaret Verney, daughter of John Verney, 1st Viscount Fermanagh, great-great-grandson of Elizabeth Verney, second daughter of the first Baron Braye, and her husband Sir Ralph Verney. In 1819 she assumed by Royal licence the additional surname of Cave.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Baron Braye” as title in the Peerage of England. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Baron, Braye and Title.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1529, 1066, 1557, 1839—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Baron, Braye and Title providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Baron Braye”, the useful work is to connect “title in the Peerage of England” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4862195. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1529, 1066, 1557 and 1839.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  2. Expand the search: follow Baron Braye primary sources, Baron Braye archive and Baron research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Baron Braye” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.