OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bradberry, David

​BRADBERRY, sometimes called BRADBURY, DAVID (1736–1803), nonconformist minister, appears to have been resident in London in 1768, and for a time was minister of the congregation at Glovers' Hall, London, which then belonged to the baptists; but he went from Ramsgate to Manchester, where he succeeded the Rev. Timothy Priestley, brother of Joseph Priestley, 14 Aug. 1785, as the minister of a congregational church in Cannon Street. He was not very successful in his ministry, which was disturbed by controversy, especially with some Scotch members, who were anxious to import the fashion of 'ruling elders,' and who eventually seceded and erected in Mosley Street what was then the largest dissenting chapel in Lancashire (Halley). He resigned his position in 1794 and left the neighbourhood. He is buried in Bunhill Fields, where his gravestone states that he 'died 13 Jan. 1803, aged 67 years; having been a preacher of the gospel forty-two years.'
Bradberry was the author of:
* 'A Challenge sent by the Lord of Hosts to the Chief of Sinners,' a sermon upon Amos iv. 12, London, printed for the author, 1766.
* 'Letter Relative to the Test Act,' 1789.
* 'Tetelestai, the Final Close.' a poem, in six parts, Manchester, 1704. This poem describes the day of judgment from an 'evangelical' standpoint, and is remarkable for its unusual metre.
The book is also a literary curiosity from its long and quaint dedication, addressed to the Deity, who is styled, among many other titles, 'His most sublime, most high and mighty, most puissant, most sacred, most faithful, most gracious, most catholic, most serene, most reverend,' and 'Governor-general of the World, Chief Shepherd or Archbishop of Souls, Chief Justice of Final Appeals, Judge of the Last Assize, Distributor of Rights and Finisher of Fates, Father of Mercies and Friend of Men' (cf. Notes and Queries, 2nd series, vols. ix. x. xi. xii.)
[Manual of the Chorlton Road Congregational Church. 1877; Wilson's Dissenting Churches iii. 220; Halley's Lancashire, its Puritanism, &c.; British Museum General Catalogue; Allibone's Dictionary; Gent. Mag. vol. lxxxviii. pt. ii. p. 516; Jones's Bunhill Memorials. 1849. p. ll]
W. E. A. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Braddocke, John

​BRADDOCKE, JOHN (1656–1719), divine, was a native of Shropshire, and received his education at St. Catharine's Hall, Cambridge, where he was elected to a fellowship (B.A. 1674, M.A. 1678). On leaving the university about 1689, he became chaplain to Sir James Oxenden, bart., of Dean, near Canterbury, and chaplain to Dr. John Battely, rector of the neighbouring parish of Adisham. In 1694 he was nominated by Archbishop Tenison to the perpetual curacy of Folkestone, and on 1 April 1698 he was presented to the vicarage of St. Stephen's, alias Hackington, near Canterbury. On the promotion of Dr. Offspring Blackall, his contemporary at college and intimate friend, to the see of Exeter in 1707, Braddocke was made the bishop's chaplain, though he got nothing by the appointment except the title. In 1709 he was collated by Archbishop Tenison to the mastership of Eastbridge hospital in Kent. He died in his vicarage house on 14 Aug. 1719, in his sixty-fourth year.
He wrote: # 'The Doctrine of the Fathers and Schools considered, concerning the Articles of a Trinity of Divine Persons and the Unity of God. In answer to the Animadversions on the Dean of St. Paul's Vindication of the Doctrine of the Holy and ever Blessed Trinity, in defence of those sacred Articles, against the objections of the Socinians, and the misrepresentations of the Animadverter.' Part I, 1695, 4to. # 'Deus unus et trinus,' 4to. This was entirely printed, except the title-page, but was suppressed, and never published, by the desire of Archbishop Tenison, who thought the controversy ought not to be continued.
[MS. Addit. 5863, f. 114 b; Cantabrigienses Graduati (1787), 49; Hasted's Kent, iii. 388, 601, iv. 628.]
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bradburn, Samuel

1904 Errata appended.
​BRADBURN, SAMUEL (1751–1816), methodist preacher, was an associate of Wesley, and an intimate disciple of Fletcher of Madeley. He was the son of a private in the army, and was born at Gibraltar. On his father's return to England, when he was about twelve years old, he was apprenticed to a cobbler at Chester, and after a course of youthful profligacy became a methodist at the age of eighteen, entered the itinerant ministry about three years later, and continued in it more than forty years till his death. Bradburn was, according to the testimony of all who heard him, an extraordinary natural orator. He had a commanding figure, though he grew corpulent early in life, a remarkably easy carriage, and a voice and intonation of wonderful power and beauty. By assiduous study he became perhaps the greatest preacher of his day, and was able constantly to sway and fascinate vast masses of the people. His natural powers manifested themselves from the first time that he was called upon to speak in public. On that occasion he was suddenly impelled to take the place of an absent preacher, and spoke for an hour without hesitation, though for months previously he had been trembling at the thought of such an ordeal. In the evening of the same day a large concourse came together to hear him again, when he preached for three hours, and found, at the same moment in which he exercised the powers, that he had obtained the fame of an orator. Bradburn was a man of great simplicity, generosity, and eccentricity. Of this once famous preacher nothing remains but a volume of a few posthumous sermons of no particular merit.
[Bradburn's Life (written by his daughter in the same year that he died); a second biography (1871), by T. W. Blanshard, under the somewhat affected title of The Life of Samuel Bradburn, the Methodist Demosthenes.]
R. W. D.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.35 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 149 | ii | 7 | Bradburn, Samuel: after merit insert He was president of the Wesleyan Conference in 1799 |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bradbury, George

[Foss's Lives of the Judges; State Trials, x 616, 626; Luttrell's Diary, i. 490, 555, 557, iv 117; Parliamentary History, V. 362; Pat. 1 W and M. p. 4; Nicholl's Herald and Genealogist, viii. 107; Redington's Treasury Papers, i., 438; Cat. Oxford Graduates; Woolrych's Life of Jeffreys.]
J. A. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bradbury, Henry

​BRADBURY, HENRY (1831–1860), writer on printing, was the eldest son of William Bradbury, of the firm of Bradbury & Evans, proprietors of 'Punch,' founders of the 'Daily News,' the 'Field,' and other periodicals, and publishers for Dickens and Thackeray. In 1850 he entered as a pupil in the Imperial Printing Office at Vienna, where he became acquainted with the art of nature printing, a process whereby natural objects are impressed into plates, and afterwards printed from in the natural colours. In 1855 he produced in folio the fine 'nature-printed' plates to Moore and Lindley's 'Ferns of Great Britain and Ireland.' These were followed by 'British Sea Weeds,' in four volumes, royal octavo, and a reproduction of the 'Ferns,' also in octavo. In the same year, and again in 1860, he lectured at the Royal Institution of Great Britain on the subject of nature printing. He paid much attention to the production of bank notes and the security of paper money, on which he discoursed at the Royal Institution. This lecture was published in 1856, in quarto, with plates by John Leighton, F.S.A. In 1860 this subject was pursued by the publication of 'Specimens of Bank Note Engraving,' &c. Another address on 'Printing: its Dawn, Day, and Destiny,' was issued in 1858. He died by his own hand 2 Sept. 1860, aged 29, leaving a business he had founded in Fetter Lane, and afterwards moved to Farringdon Street, which was carried on under the name of Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co. At the time of his death he thought of producing a large work in folio on the graphic arts of the nineteenth century, but he never got beyond the proof of a prospectus that was ample enough to indicate the wide scale of his design.
[Information supplied by Mr. John Leighton, F.S.A.; Bigmore and Wyman's Bibliogr. of Printing, i. 23, 77-8; Proceedings of Royal Institution.]
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Braddon, Laurence

​BRADDON, LAURENCE (d. 1724), politician, the second son of William Braddon of Treworgy, in St. Genny's, Cornwall, was called to the bar at the Middle Temple, and for some time worked hard at his profession. When the Earl of Essex died in the Tower in 1683, Braddon adopted the belief that he had been murdered, and worked actively to collect sufficient evidence to prove the murder. He set on foot inquiries on the subject in London, and when a rumour reached him that the news of the earl's death was known at Marlborough on the very day of, if not before, the occurrence, he posted off thither. When his action became known at court, he was arrested and put under restraint. For a time he was let out on bail, but on 7 Feb. 1683-4 he was tried with Mr. Hugh Speke at the king's bench on the accusation of conspiring to spread the belief that the Earl of Essex was murdered by some persons about him, and of endeavouring to suborn witnesses to testify the same. Braddon was found guilty on all the counts, but Speke was acquitted of the latter charge. The one was fined 1,000l. and the other 2,000l., with sureties for good behaviour during their lives. Braddon remained in prison until the landing of William III, when he was liberated. In February 1695 he was appointed solicitor to the wine licence office, a place valued at 100l. per annum. His death occurred on Sunday, 29 Nov. 1724.
Most of Braddon's works relate to the death of the Earl of Essex. The 'Enquiry into and Detection of the Barbarous Murther of the late Earl of Essex' (1689) was probably from his pen, and he was undoubtedly the author of 'Essex's Innocency and Honour vindicated' (1690), 'Murther will out' (1692), 'True and Impartial Narrative of the Murder of Arthur, Earl of Essex' (1729), as well as 'Bishop Burnet's late History charg'd with great Partiality and Misrepresentation' (1725) in the bishop's account of this mysterious affair. Braddon also published 'The Constitutions of the Company of Watermen and Lightermen,' and an 'Abstract of the Rules, Orders, and Constitutions' of the same company, both of them issued in 1708. 'The Miseries of the Poor are a National Sin, Shame, and Danger' was the title of a work (1717) in which he ​argued for the establishment of guardians of the poor and inspectors for the encouragement of arts and manufactures. Five years later he brought out 'Particular Answers to the most material Objections made to the Proposals for relieving the Poor.' The report of his trial was printed in 1684, and reprinted in 'Cobbett's State Trials,' ix. 1127-1228, and his impeachment of Bishop Burnet's 'History' is reprinted in the same volume of Cobbett, pp. 1229-1332.
[Hist. Register (1724), 51; Kippis's Biog. Brit. iii. 229-30; North's Examen, 386-8; Wilts Archæological Mag. iii. 367-76; Notes and Queries (1863), 3rd ser. iv. 500; Ralph's Hist. of England, i. 761-5; Luttrell's State Affairs, i. 286, 299-306, iii. 441; Bibl. Cornub. i. 40, iii. 1091; Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Report, 406-7.]
W. P. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Astbury, John

​ASTBURY, JOHN (1688?–1743), potter, was a clever mechanic, who introduced himself disguised as an idiot to the wworks of two brothers named Elers, of Nürnberg, who had settled at Bradwell, Staffordshire, about 1690. He discovered the secrets of their manufacture of red ware, and, obtaining his discharge on pretence of sickness, set up a rival establishment at Shelton, also in the potteries. He introduced the use of Bideford pipeclay, and in 1720, happening to notice an ostler blowing powder from a red-hot flintstone pulverised into the eyes of a horse as a remedy, hit upon the application of calcined flint in pottery, which greatly improved his ware. He died in 1743, aged 55, as his tombstone in Stoke churchyard testifies, having made a fortune, and leaving several sons. One of these, Thomas, had begun business at Lane Delpli in 1725, and was the first English manufacturer of cream-coloured ware. Samuel Astbury, also a potter, a brother of John Astbury, married Elizabeth, the sister of Thomas Wedgewood, father of Josiah Wedgewood, and was in 1744 one of the witnesses to the deed of Josiah's apprenticeship to potteiy-making. Wedgewood's latest biographer attributes his success to his adoption of the important inventions described above, with which she credits Samuel Astbury. Possibly Samuel Astbury contributed to John's improvements of his art, but there seems no reason for doubting that it was John and not Samuel who was their discoverer.
[Jewitt's Ceramic Art in Great Britain, passim; Eliza Meteyard's Life of Josiah Wedgewood, i. 140-56; Marryatt's History of Pottery, 194-5; Chaffers's Marks on Pottery and Porcelain, pp. 692-3; Shaw's History of Staffordshire Potteries, pp. 119-30, 141.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Astley, John (d.1595)

1904 Errata appended.
​ASTLEY, JOHN (d. 1595), master of the Jewel House, was the eldest son of Thomas Astley, Esq., by his second wife Anne (Wood). He held a confidential position in the household of the Princess Elizabeth, on whom his wife Catherine was in attendance, although she was for a time removed from that charge by a special order of the privy council. In a letter to his friend Roger Ascham (1552) he refers to their friendly fellowship at Cheston, Chelsey, and Hatfield, and their pleasant studies in reading together Aristotle's 'Rhetoric,' Cicero, and Livy. Leaving England in the reign of Queen Mary, he played a conspicuous part in the troubles of the English church at Frankfort. On the accession of Elizabeth he returned to this country, and in December 1558 was appointed master of the jewel house and treasurer of her majesty's jewels and plate, with the annual fee of 50l. His wife was appointed chief gentlewoman of the privy chamber, and he was also one of the grooms of the chamber. Soon afterwards he obtained from the crown a grant of the mastership of the game in Enfield chace and park, with the office of steward and ranger of the manor of Enfield. Accompanying her majesty on her visit to the university of Cambridge in 1564, he was created M.A. In or about 1568 the queen granted him a lease in reversion of the castle and manor of Allington in Kent, and he also had an estate at Otterden in the same county. He represented Maidstone in the parliaments of 29 Oct. 1586 and 4 Feb. 1588-9, having before sat in the House of Commons. His death appears to have occurred about July 1595. By his first wife Catherine, daughter of Sir Philip Champernowne of Devonshire, he had no issue. His second wife was Margaret, daughter of Thomas Lord Grey, by whom he had a son, afterwards Sir John Astley, and three daughters.
Astley was the author of 'The Art of Riding, set foorth in a breefe treatise, with a due interpretation of certeine places alledged out of Xenophon, and Gryson, verie expert and excellent Horssemen: Wherein also the true use of the hand by the said Grysons rules and precepts is speciallie touched: and how the Author of this present worke hath put the same in practise, also what profit men maie reape thereby: without the knowledge whereof, all the residu of the order of Riding is but vaine. Lastlie is added a short discourse of the Chaine of Cauezzan, the Trench and the Martingale: written by a Gentleman of great skill and long experience in the said Art,' London, 1584, 4to.
T. C.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.10 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 206 | ii | 30 | Astley, John (d. 1595): before Maidstone insert Lyme Regis in the parliament of 1750 and |
| | | 31-32 | omit having before . . . . Commons |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Astley, John (1730?-1787)

​ASTLEY, JOHN (1730?–1787), portrait painter, was born at Wem in Shropshire, was sent to London and placed under the portrait painter, Hudson. Leaving him, perhaps in 1749, he visited Rome, where he was the companion of Reynolds (from whose accounts a little later it appears that Astley was indebted to him in the sum of 12l. 15s. 6d.), of Richard Wilson and other well-known English artists. James Northcote is the author of the story that at Rome Astley was so poor that he was forced to patch the back of his waistcoat with a canvas of his own painting which represented a magnificent waterfall. Returning from Rome, probably with Reynolds, he secured the patronage and high favour of Horace Walpole. In 1759 he left London for Dublin, and in three years of portrait-painting made a large sum of money. Painting his way back to London, he revisited his birth-place, and met, in that neighbourhood, a rich widow. Lady Duckenfield Daniell, whom he married. This lady and her daughter died shortly after the marriage, and Astley, who was now a wealthy man, married a second time. He bought Schomberg House in Pall Mall (afterwards Gainsborough's), and fantastically re-arranged it for his convenience. 'He was a gasconading spendthrift, and a beau of the flashiest order. When the Dublin ladies sat to him, he is said, by way of flourish, to have used his sword as a maulstick.' He had slight gift as a painter, and little merit as a man, but his good fortune never failed him. He had wasted much money in speculation, when the accidental death of a brother put 10,000l. in his pocket. Quite late in life he married his third wife : it is recorded that at this time he experienced a strange moral quickening and reflected with gravity on the past. He left a son and two daughters. Leslie enumerates Astley, 'a clever, conceited, out-at-elbows, and reckless fellow,'amongst the forgotten artists who were Sir Joshua's companions in youth. His best works, according to one writer, were copies from Italian pictures.
E. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Astell, William

1904 Errata appended.
​ASTELL, WILLIAM (1774–1847), an eminent director of the East India Company, was the second son of Godfrey Thornton, a director of the Bank of England. He assumed the name of Astell instead of Thornton in 1807. He was elected a member of the court of directors of the East India Company in 1800, and in the same year took his seat in the House of Commons as conservative member for Bridgewater, which borough he represented during six successive parliaments. He subsequently sat for the county of Bedford until the day of his death. Being a director of the East India Company for the unprecedented period of forty-seven years, he filled the offices of chairman and deputy-chairman several times, and was actively engaged in the discussion and settlement of most of the many ​important questions bearing upon Indian administation which arose during that lengthened period. He was chairman of the court at the commencement of the negotiations between that body and the government which preceded the enactment of the East India Company's Charter Act of 1833. Although at first opposed to the abolition of the monopoly which the company enjoyed in respect of its trade with China, Astell eventually acquiesced in the settlement of the question made by Lord Grey's government. As chairman again in 1844 he took a leading part in the recall of Lord Ellenborough, whose policy as governor-general he considered to be highly detrimental to the good government of that country. He was averse to annexation, unless clearly required for the safety of the British possessions, and was a staunch advocate of the policy of respecting the religious feelings of the natives of India.
Astell was a deputy-lieutenant of the county of Bedford, lieutenant-colonel of the Bedfordshire militia, and colonel of the Royal East India volunteers. He was also chairman of the Russia company and of the Great Northern railway, besides filling other important offices in the city of London.
A. J. A.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.10 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 202 | ii | 11-10 f.e. | Astell, William: for in the same year . . . . the House read after an unsuccessful contest in 1806 was in 1807 returned to the House |
| | ii | 8 f.e. | for six successive read seven successive |
| | | 7 f.e. | after subsequently insert from 1841 |
| | | 4 f.e. | after filled insert each of |
| | | 3 f.e. | for several read four |
| 203 | i | 29 | after London insert He died 7 March 1847 |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fothergill, George

​FOTHERGILL, GEORGE, D.D. (1705–1760), principal of St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, eldest son of Henry Fothergill of Lockholme in Ravenstonedale, Westmoreland, and Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Fawcett of Rottenmoor, Warcop, was born at Lockholme on 20 Dec. 1705. After attending the free school in Ravenstonedale, which had been founded in 1668 by Thomas Fothergill, master of St. John's College, Cambridge, he was sent to Kendal school. On 16 June 1722 he entered Queen's College as batteler. He took the degree of B.A. in 1726, M.A. in 1730, B.D. in 1744, and D.D. in 1749. He became chaplain of Queen's in 1730, and was elected to the fellowship which should next fall vacant in 1734. In 1751 the fellows of Queen's appointed him principal of St. Edmund Hall and vicar of Bramley. When Dr. Joseph Smith, provost of Queen's, died on 23 Nov. 1756, the fourteen votes of the fellows were equally divided between Fothergill and Dr. Joseph Browne. As the votes remained equal for ten days, it was put to the question whether either candidate had a majority of seniors on his side, and as the number of seniors had apparently never been authoritatively determined, ‘the electors unanimously agreed upon six as the properest number of seniors, and it appearing that this number was equally divided between the two candidates, and Dr. Browne being the senior candidate, he was (as the statute directs) declared duly elected provost, to which the electors unanimously agreed.’ Fothergill died 5 Oct. 1760, and was buried in St. Edmund Hall. He published at Oxford during his lifetime the following sermons, some of which reached second and third editions: 1. ‘Importance of Religion to Civil Societies’ (preached at the assizes), 1735. 2. ‘Danger of Excesses in the Pursuit of Liberty’ (before the university, 31 Jan.), 1737. 3. ‘Unsuccessfulness of Repeated Fasts’ (before the university), 1745. 4. ‘Duty of giving thanks for National Deliverances,’ 1747. 5. ‘Reasons and Necessity of Public Worship’ (at the assizes), 1753. 6. ‘Proper Improvement of Divine Judgments’ (after the Lisbon earthquake), 1756. 7. ‘Condition of Man's Life a constant Call to Industry’ (before the university), 1757. 8. ‘Violence of Man subservient to the Goodness of God’ (before the university on occasion of the war against France), 1758. 9. ‘Duty, Objects, and Offices of the Love of our Country’ (before the House of Commons on Restoration-day), 1758. After his death his brother, Thomas Fothergill, provost of Queen's from 1767 to 1796, published a volume entitled ‘Sermons on several Subjects and Occasions by George Fothergill, D.D.,’ Oxford, 1761. In 1765 this volume reappeared, with the same title, as ‘vol. ii. 2nd ed.,’ the nine sermons mentioned above being collected together and printed as vol. i.
E. C-n.