There is little more that need be said. Derham printed the confession which the Rev. William Pyke, who had succeeded Plume as Rector of Black Notley in 1686, reported as made by Ray on his death-bed. It is a plain statement of faith and of loyalty to the Church of England such as his whole life corroborates. Sloane, who sent an offer of sympathy and help to Margaret Ray, preserved a few letters from her in which she consulted him about approaching Sir Thomas Willughby for the payment of the half year's annuity, told him that the books were to be sold and were being catalogued by Dale, that the insects and all the papers about them had been delivered to Dale for his (Sloane's) use, and that Willughby's papers were safe and would be returned when instruction was given. Later, when Sir Thomas had responded ‘in charity’ to Sloane's petition, she wrote again to express gratitude, to return the papers and to report that ‘the circumstances of the family cannot but be strait when Mr Ray did not leave £40 per year among us all out of which taxes, repairs and quit-rents make a great hole’. By his will dated 13 April 1704 and proved in the Commissary Court of the Bishop of London for Essex, Ray had left £4 to the poor of the parish and £5 to the Library of Trinity College; Dewlands to his wife and afterwards to his daughters; and to them lands in Hockley, ‘Bird's lands’ at Black Notley and £200 respectively.