Bray, Caroline "Cara" Hennell (1814-1905)

Caroline 'Cara' Hennell Bray was one of George Eliot's dearest friends. When Eliot met her in 1841, she was already in her fifth year of marriage to Charles Bray. Eliot met the couple when she and her father moved to Coventry, and the group grew close rapidly. Eliot, Cara, and Sara Hennell (Cara's sister) became lifelong friends, forming a sisterly bond and supporting one another in their broad-ranging studies and writing. The Brays' influence may have led Eliot to question her religious faith. Especially during her religious disagreements with her father, Eliot found a second home at Rosehill,the name of the Brays' estate.

Even after she moved to London to become a journalist and editor, Eliot remained close to the Brays and Sara, writing them long letters and frequently spending holidays with them. Though they disliked Lewes, and rarely visited after 1854, the friendship continued to Eliot's last days.

Cara and Charles Bray seem to have had marital problems or had chosen to have an unconventional marriage; Cara found love with Edward Noel, and Charles bore six children with another woman, one of which Cara accepted into her home as if she were her own child. Evidence of the Brays' complicated marital situation makes even more curious their sanctimonious response to Eliot's illicit relationship with George Henry Lewes. After six years of separation and few letters, Cara and Marian were reunited in 1859, at which time Marian revealed she was George Eliot, the now-famous author of Adam Bede. Eliot encouraged Cara to author several works of her own. When Eliot married John Cross, Cara gave her blessing. She was left a sum of money in Eliot's will.