J. Jackson (James Jackson) Wray

James Jackson Wray (1832–1892), often published as J. Jackson Wray, was an English Congregational minister and religious writer. Sources describe him as born in Sancton, Yorkshire, on August 12, 1832, and note that he was educated at Westminster Normal College before working in education and then entering the ministry.

In 1858 he joined the Wesleyan Methodist Conference and was sent to Freetown, Sierra Leone. Later accounts say he became well known for writing accessible religious fiction, moral tales, and devotional works aimed at ordinary readers, blending pastoral concern with a storyteller’s touch.

Although he is not as widely remembered today as some Victorian authors, his books found a place in the broad tradition of 19th-century evangelical popular literature. The surviving biographical material is brief, but it consistently presents him as a minister whose writing grew directly out of his religious vocation.