Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/389

Even when a reaping-hook was held to her throat her mien was bold and fearless. On that same evening Col. Bratton arrived with seventy-five men, and, taking the royalists by surprise, totally defeated them. Mrs. Bratton received the wounded of both sides, and showed them impartial atten- tion. Just before the fall of Charleston, Gov. Rut- ledge intrusted to Mrs. Bratton's care a quantity of powder, and she blew it up when it was in danger of being captured by the British.

BRAVO, Nicolas (brah'-vo), Mexican soldier, b. in Chilpancingo about 1790 ; d. there, 22 April, 1854. He took part in the first revolution in 1810, served in all the actions till 1814, and fought under Father Morelos at Acapulco. Having joined Mina's party in 1817, he was imprisoned in Mexico till 1820. He was a zealous supporter of the emperor Iturbide, and became a member of the regency that exer- cised the supreme power for forty days in 1822 ; but he contributed to the deposition of the em- peror in 1823, and was a member of the provisional government with Gens. Victoria and Negrete till 1824. In December, 1827, he headed a revolt against President Bustamante, being at the time vice-president, which office he held till April, 1829. In 1830 he commanded against the insurgents under Guerrero, who was captured and executed by Bravo's order, 17 Feb., 1831. In 1839 he be- came president of the council, and in 1842-'3 held the supreme power for a few months as substitute of Santa Anna, who was absent with the army; and he was again temporary president from 29 July till 4 Aug., 184G, when he was deposed by a revolution. During the war with the United States he participated in the battle of Cerro Gordo ; and toward the end of 1853, being accused by Santa Anna's ministry of having secretly joined the in- surrection headed by Juan Alvarez, he denied the accusation and retired from public life. His death was sudden and suspicious.

BRAXTON, Carter, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. in Newington, King and Queen CO., Va., 10 Sept., 1736; d. in Richmond, Va., 10 Oct., 1797. He inherited a large estate in land and slaves from his father and grandfather, was edu- cated at William and Mary col- lege, and mar- ried, at the age of nineteen, a wealthy heiress named Judith Robinson, who died two years latei", leaving two daughters. Af- ter spending two or three years in England, he mar- ried Elizabeth Corbin, daugh- ter of the king's receiver - general

of customs, and

lived in great splendor in richly furnished man- sions on two of his plantations. He entered the house of burgesses about 1761, and in 1765 sup- ported Patrick Henry's stamp-act resolutions with vigor. He was a member of the subsequent legis- latures that were dissolved by the governor, and of the Virginia convention of 1769. In the assembly elected in place of the one dissolved by Lord Botetourt in 1769, Mr. Braxton was appointed on three of the six standing committees. After its dissolution by Lord Dunraore, 12 Oct., 1771, he was not elected to the next assembly because the office that he lield of high sUeriff of the county made him ineligible. But he was the representa- tive from King William co. in the convention that met in Williamsburg in Aug., 1774, after Lord Dunmore's dissolution of the new assembly, and in that body he recommended a general congress of the colonies. The convention agreed to make common cause with Boston, and to break off com- mercial intercourse with the mother country. On reassembling, 20 March, 1775, it adopted measures for the defence of the country, and for the encour- agement of the domestic production of textiles, iron, and gunpowder. When Lord Dunmore, on 20 April, 1775, caused the powder belonging to the colony to be removed to a British vessel in James river, and when Patrick Henry alone, of the lead- ers of the militia who flew to arms in consequence of this act, refused to disband his troops and in- sisted upon making reprisals on the king's property sufficient to cover the value of the powder, Mr. Braxton interceded and obtained from his father- in-law, the receiver-general, a bill on Philadelphia for the amount of Henry's demand, whereupon the latter dismissed his men, and bloodshed was for the time averted. Braxton was chosen a member of the last house of burgesses, which was elected immediately after the dissolution in May, 1774, and convened on 1 June, 1775. He was a member of the general convention that, after the flight of the governor on 7 June, was convened in Rich- mond on 17 July, 1775, and, assuming the powers of the executive and the legislature, passed acts for the organization of the militia and minute-men. He was one of the eleven members of the commit- tee of safety appointed by that body. Peyton Randolph, delegate to the continental congress from Virginia, and the first president of that body, died in Oct., 1775, and when the convention reas- sembled, on 1 Dec, in Richmond, and afterward in Williamsburg, Mr. Braxton was chosen, on 15 Dec, 1775, to succeed the deceased representative. He affixed his name to the Declaration of Inde- pendence on 4 July, 1776, but, in consequence of a resolve passed by the Virginia convention on 20 June, 1776, reducing the number of delegates from Virginia in the general congress from seven to five, he ceased, on 11 Aug., 1776, to be a member of the congress. His " Address to the Convention of Virginia on the Subject of Government " (Phila- delphia, 1776) contained sentiments not relished by the more eager patriots. His popularity was, how- ever, not so much impaired but that he was elected to succeed William Aylett (who resigned to join the army) in the general convention, and in virtue of that election he became a member of the first house of delegates under the constitution. He was chairman of the committee of religion, made the reports of the committee of grievances and propositions, and was a member of the 'committee of trade, and of important special committees. He was a member of the house of delegates in 1777, 1779, 1780, 1781, 1783, and 1785. In the latter year he supported Jefferson's act for the freedom of religion. In January, 1786, he was appointed a member of the privy council, or council of state, and remained in that office till 30 March, 1791. He then returned to the legislature as member for Henrico co., having removed to Richmond in 1786. In 1793 he was again appointed by the gen- eral assembly a member of the executive council, and continued to serve until his death. The great fortune that he inherited he risked in extensive commercial enterprises, and during the revolu- tionary war his vessels were captured by the