CRAY (ST-MARY'S), a parish in the hundred of RUXLEY, lathe of SUTTON at HOVE, county of KENT, 2 miles (S. by W.) from Foot's Cray, containing 874 inhabitants. The living is a perpetual curacy, annexed to the vicarage of Orpington, in the peculiar jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church contains several ancient brasses and some memorials of the Mannings. A charity school was established here in 1710, for the education of six children; and Sir Thomas Dyke, in 1816, erected another, with a residence for the master and mistress, extending its benefits to the children of Orpington; it is supported by a rent-charge upon estates at Hunton, bequeathed in 1715 by Catherine Withens, which, with a weekly contribution of twopence paid by each pupil sent from Orpington, produces an annual income of £ 80 to the master and mistress, who also receive an allowance of £ 5 a year, coal, &c.: about one hundred children are instructed upon the National system. " The Crays," so called from the river Cray, which runs through it, is reckoned one of the most beautiful tracts in Kent, and produces a vast quantity of birch; it comprehends four parishes, with as many villages, distinguished by their prefixes, of which St. Mary's Cray was the most considerable, and had the privilege of a market so early as the reign of Edward I.; but the market-house having been destroyed by a tempest in 1703, the market has never since been held.