Park and Lister Park, each comprising over 50 acres, and also two smaller parks. The first temperance hall in Eng land was erected at Bradford in 1837. There are two court houses for the holding of the county and West Hiding courts; the borough court is held in the town-hall. Nume rous political and social clubs flourish in the town. Three daily and four weekly papers are published. Statues of the late Sir Robert Peel and Richard Oastler, "the factory king," were put up in advantageous positions some years ago ; and recently the statues of two local commercial celebrities, Sir Titus Salt and Mr S. C. Lister, have been erected. Bradford has communication with all parts of the country by the Midland, Great Northern, Lancashire and Yorkshire, and London and North- Western Railways. A branch canal in connection with the Leeds and Liverpool canal was opened in 1774, but in 1871 it was closed by injunction, in consequence of the polluted condition of its water. Since then, however, it has been purified and
re-opened.In addition to its extensive operations in connection with the worsted trade, Bradford is largely engaged in the machine, stone, coal, and iron trades. The well-known Bowling and Low Moor Ironworks are within a short dis tance of the town. Formerly a septennial festival was held at Bradford in honour of Bishop Blaize, the patron saint of the wool-combers, but after 1825 it was discon tinued. The market days are Moziday and Thursday.
BRADFORD, John, was born at Manchester in the early part of the reign of Henry VIII. Being a good penman and accountant, he became secretary to Sir John Harrington, who was paymaster of the English forces in France. Brad ford at this time was gay and thoughtless, and to support his extravagance he appropriated some of the money en trusted to him ; but being unable to bear the load of his guilt, he made restitution, and relinquished his employment. About 1547 he took chambers in the Inner Temple, and began to study law ; but finding divinity more con genial to his taste, he removed, in the following year, to Catherine Hall, Cambridge, where he studied with such assiduity that in little more than a year he was admitted to the degree of master of arts, and was soon after made fellow of Pembroke Hall. Bishop Ridley, who in 1550 was translated to the see of London, sent for him to the metro polis and appointed him his chaplain. In 1553 he was also made chaplain to Edward VI., and became one of the most popular preachers in the kingdom. Soon after the accession of Mary he was arrested on a charge of sedition and con fined in the Tower, where he continued a year and a half. During this time he wrote several epistles which were dis persed in various parts of the kingdom. He was afterwards removed to South wark, and was at last brought to trial before the court in which Gardiner sat as chief, where he defended his principles to the last, in defiance of all attempts to effect his conversion. He was condemned to the flames, and suffered in Smithfield, July 1, 1555. His writings, which consist chiefly of sermons, meditations, tracts, letters, and prayers, have been published in 12mo by tlie Religious Tract Society.
BRADLEY, Dr James, one of the most eminent British astronomers, was born at Sherborne in Gloucestershire in March 1692. He entered Balliol College, Oxford, in 1710, and graduated as B. A. in 1714 and as M.A. in 1717. At the house of his uncle, the Rev. James Pound, himself known as an acute observer, he had found instruments and means for carrying on a regular series of astronomical obser vations. He became a member of the Royal Society in 1718, and though he took orders in the following year, and was presented to the vicarage of Bridstow, he did not give up his scientific pursuits. He also obtained a small sinecure living in Wales, but in 1721, on his appoint ment to the Savilian professorship of astronomy at Oxford, he resigned all his ecclesiastical preferments. In 1727 he communicated to the Royal Society his great paper on aberration, a remarkable combination of exact observation and profound induction. Some years afterwards Bradley began his lectures at the Oxford Museum, and in 1742 he was appointed to succeed Harley as astronomer royal. In 1747 his minute observations led him to the second of his great discoveries, the nutation of the earth s axis. The remainder of Bradley s life was devoted to the Greenwich Observatory. In 1748 he succeeded in getting a small grant for instruments from the public funds, and in 1752 he was rewarded with a pension of 250. He continued his labours till 1761, when his health began to give way. He then retired into the country and died at Chalford, Gloucestershire, in July 1762. The immense mass of useful observations left by him at Greenwich was singularly neglected by English astronomers ; but since Bessel pre sented them in systematic form to the world (see Bessel, vol. iii. p. 616) their true value has been recognized. For an account of Bradley s scientific discoveries see Astronomy and Aberration.
Copious information as to Bradley s life and works will lie found in Prof. Eigaud s Memoir prefixed to Miscellaneous Works and Correspondence of the Rev. James Bradley, 1832.
BRADSHAW, Henry, an English poet, born at Chester about the middle of the 15th century. Early displaying a taste for religion and literature, he was received while a boy into the Benedictine monastery of St Werberg in that city ; and he was afterwards sent to Gloucester (now Wor cester) College, Oxford. After studying there for a time with the novices of his order he returned to his convent, where, in the latter part of his life, he applied himself chiefly to the study of history. He died in 1513. His poetry in some respects is not inferior to that of any of his contemporaries. His works are, (1), De aittiquitate et magnificentia Urbis Cestrice; (2), Chronicon; (3), The Life of the Glorious Virgin St Werberg, printed at London, 1521, 4to, in verse, and now extremely rare. The life of St Werberg forms only part of this work, which contains also a description of the kingdom of Mercia, a life of St Etheldred, a life of St Sexburg, the foundation and history of Chester, and the chronicles of some kings.
Justice which tried Charles I., appears to have been born in 1602 at Marple Hill, near Stockport in Cheshire. He was of good family, and is believed to have been connected with Milton, the mother oi: the latter having married a Bradshaw. At all events, whether connected or not, the two knew and respected each other. Milton gives a highly eulogistic account of Bradshaw s character in his Defensio Secunda, and Bradshaw left by will .10 to Milton. His education seems to have been carried on at Stockport free school, and afterwards at Bunbury and Middleton. He was called to the bar at Gray s Inn in April 1627, and in 1645 became a bencher. For some time he acted as judge in the Sheriff-Courts of London. As a lawyer he had con siderable chamber practice, especially among those whom Clarendon calls the <; factious." In 1644 he was employed by Parliament as one of the prosecutors of the Irish Lords Macguire and Macmahon. In October 1646 he was voted by the Commons as one of the commissioners of the Great Seal, and in March of the following year he was appointed chief -justice of Cheshire. On October 12, 1648, ho was raised to the rank of Serjeant. In January 1 649, when it was found difficult to compose a court of justice for the trial of the king, Bradshaw was proposed as president, and at once elected. His demeanour on the trial is well known, but has been variously judged. He continued to retain
the title of Lord President for some time after the trial,