BRADLEY, Dr James, a celebrated English astronomer, the third son of William and Jane Bradley, was born at Sherborne in Dorsetshire in the year 1692. He was educated for the university at North Leach by Mr Egles and Mr Brice, who kept a boarding-school there; and from North Leach he was sent to Oxford. His friends intending him for the church, his studies were regulated with that view; and as soon as he was of sufficient age to receive holy orders, the Bishop of Hereford, who had conceived a great esteem for him, gave him the living of Bridstow, and soon after he was inducted to that of Welfrie in Pembrokeshire. But notwithstanding these advantages, from which he might have promised himself still further advancement in the church, he at length resigned his livings, that he might be wholly at liberty to pursue his favourite study of mathematics and astronomy. He was nephew to Mr Pound, a gentleman favourably known to the learned world by many excellent observations, and who would have enriched it with more, if the journals of his voyages had not been burnt at Pulo Condore, [7:5:172]when the place was set on fire, and the English who had settled there cruelly massacred, Mr Pound himself very narrowly escaping with his life. With this gentleman Mr Bradley passed all the time he could spare from the duties of his function; and perhaps he sometimes trespassed upon them. He was then sufficiently acquainted with the mathematics to improve by Mr Pound’s conversation; yet it does not appear that, in this study, he had any preceptor but his genius, or any assistant but his labour and perseverance.

It may easily be imagined that the example and conversation of Mr Pound did not render Bradley fonder of his profession than he was before. He continued, however, as yet to fulfil the duties of it, though at this time he had made such observations as laid the foundation of those discoveries which afterwards distinguished him as one of the best astronomers of his age. Although these observations were made as it were by stealth, they gained him at first the notice and then the friendship of the Lord Chancellor Macclesfield, Mr (afterwards Sir Isaac) Newton, Mr Halley, and many other members of the Royal Society, into which he was soon elected a member. About the same time the chair of Savilian professor of astronomy becoming vacant by the death of the celebrated Dr Keil, Mr Bradley was elected to succeed him on the 31st of October 1721, being then just twenty-nine years old; and he had for his colleague Mr Halley, who was professor of geometry on the same foundation. Bradley, upon his being elected to this professorship, gave up both his livings, and with great joy quitted a situation in which his duty was directly at variance with his inclination. From this time he applied himself wholly to the study of his favourite science; and in the year 1727 he published his Theory of the Aberration of the Fixed Stars, which is allowed to be one of the most useful and ingenious discoveries of modern astronomy. Three years after this discovery, by which Mr Bradley acquired great reputation, he was appointed lecturer in astronomy and physics, at the Museum of Oxford.

He pursűed his studies with equal application and delight; and in the course of his observations, which were innumerable, he discovered that the inclination of the earth’s axis upon the plane of the ecliptic was not always the same, but that it varied backwards and forwards some seconds, and that the period of these variations was nine years. This period seemed altogether unaccountable, as it could not be supposed to have any thing in common with the revolution of the earth, which is performed in one year. Mr Bradley, however, discovered the cause of this phenomenon in the Newtonian system of attraction, and published his discovery in 1737; so that in the space of about ten years he communicated to the world two of the finest discoveries in modern astronotny, which will for ever form an epoch in the history of that science.

Mr Bradley always preserved the esteem and friendship of Mr Halley, who, being worn out by age and infirmities, thought he could do nothing better for the service of astronomy than procure for Mr Bradley the place of regius professor of astronomy at Greenwich, which he had himself held for many years with great reputation. With this view he wrote many letters, which have been since found among Mr Bradley’s papers, desiring his permission to apply for a grant of the reversion of it to him, and even offering to resign in his favour, if it should be thought necessary; but before Mr Halley could bring this kind project to bear, he died. Mr Bradley, however, obtained the place afterwards, by the favour and interest of Lord Macclesfield, who was subsequently president of the Royal Society. As soon as the appointment of Mr Bradley to this place became known, the university of Oxford sent him a diploma creating him doctor of divinity. The appointment of astronomer at Greenwich placed Mr Bradley in his proper element, and he pursued his observations with unwearied diligence. However numerous the collection of astronomical instruments at the observatory at Greenwich, it was impossible that so accurate an observer as Dr Bradley should not desire to increase them, as well to answer those particular views, as in general to make observations with greater exactness. In the year 1748, therefore, he took the opportunity of the annual visit made by the Royal Society to the observatory, in order to examine the instruments and receive the professor’s observations for the year, to represent so strongly the necessity of repairing the old instruments, and purchasing new ones, that the society thought proper to represent it to his majesty, and he gave them L.1000 for that purpose. This sum was laid out under the direction of Dr Bradley, who, with the assistance of Mr Graham and Mr Bird, furnished the observatory with as complete a collection of astronomical instruments as the most skilful and diligent observer could desire. Dr Bradley, furnished with such assistance, pursued his observations with new assiduity; an incredible number of which were found after his death, and put into the hands of the Royal Society.

It has been already observed, that when Dr Bradley was elected to the professor’s chair at Oxford, he gave up his two livings, which were at such a distance that he could not possibly fulfil the duties of them himself; but it happened, that after he was settled at Greenwich, the living of that parish, which is very considerable, became vacant, and was offered to him, as he was upon the spot to perform the duty, and had the claim of uncommon merit to the reward. This, however, Dr Bradley, to his honour, refused, fearing that the duties of the astronomer would too much interfere with those of the divine. His majesty, on hearing of the refusal, was so pleased with it, that he granted him a pension of L.250 a year, in consideration of his great abilities and knowledge in astronomy and other branches of the mathematics, which had proved so advantageous to the commerce and navigation of Great Britain, as is particularly mentioned in the grant, dated the I5th of February 1752. Dr Bradley, about the same time, was admitted into the council of the Royal Society. In the year 1748 he was admitted a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Belles-lettres of Berlin, upon the death of Μ. Crevier, first physician to his Catholic majesty; in the year 1752, a member of the Imperial Academy at Petersburg; and in 1757, of that instituted at Bologna.

Dr Bradley was still indefatigable in his observations, and every honour he received became an incitement to obtain new distinction; but his corporeal abilities at length declined, though his intellectual suffered no abatement. In the year 1780 he became extremely weak and infirm; and towards the end of June 1762 he was attacked with a total suppression of urine, which on the 12th of July following put an end to his life, in the seventieth year of his age. He was buried at Mitchin Hampton, in Gloucestershire, in the same grave with his mother and his wife. In the year 1744 he married Susannah Peach, the daughter of a gentleman of that name in Gloucestershire, by whom he had only one daughter.

As to his character, he was remarkable for a placid gentle modesty, very uncommon in persons of an active temper and robust constitution; yet, with this untroubled equanimity of temper, he was compassionate and liberal in the highest degree. Although he was a good speaker, and possessed the rare but happy art of expressing his ideas with the utmost precision and perspicuity, yet no man [7:5:173] was a greater lover of silence, and he never spoke except when he thought it absolutely necessary. He did indeed think it necessary to speak when he had a fair opportunity to communicate any useful knowledge in his own way; and he encouraged those who attended his lectures to ask him questions, by the exactness with which he answered, and the care he took to adapt himself to every capacity. He was not more inclined to write than to speak, for he has published very little. He had a natural diffidence, which made him always afraid that his works would injure his character; and he therefore suppressed many, which probably were well worthy of the public attention. He first became known, as it were, in spite of himself; but the distinction which he avoided followed him. He was acquainted with many of the first persons in this kingdom, eminent for rank as well as abilities; he was honoured by men of learning in general; and there was not an astronomer of any eminence in the world with whom he had not a literary correspondence. Upon the whole, it may be said of Dr Bradley, that no man cultivated eminent talents with more success, or had a better claim to be ranked among the greatest astronomers of his a S e ∙ . .