Samuel Bradford (20 December 1652 – 17 May 1731) was an English churchman and whig, bishop successively of Carlisle and Rochester.
Life
He was the son of William Bradford of London and was born in
St. Anne's, Blackfriars. He was educated at
St Paul's School; and when the school was closed, owing to the
Great Plague
The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...
and the
Great Fire of London, he attended
Charterhouse School. He was admitted to
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in 1669, but left without a degree in consequence of religious scruples.
He devoted himself for a time to the study of medicine; but he was admitted in 1680, through the favour of Archbishop
William Sancroft
William Sancroft (30 January 161724 November 1693) was the 79th Archbishop of Canterbury, and was one of the Seven Bishops imprisoned in 1688 for seditious libel against King James II, over his opposition to the king's Declaration of Indul ...
, to the degree of M.A. by royal mandate. He only took holy orders after the
Glorious Revolution of 1689, and in the meantime acted as private tutor in the families of several country gentlemen. Bradford was ordained deacon and priest in 1690, and in the spring of the following year was elected by the governors of
St. Thomas's Hospital the minister of their church in Southwark. He soon received the lectureship of
St. Mary-le-Bow, and was tutor to the two grandsons of Archbishop
John Tillotson
John Tillotson (October 1630 – 22 November 1694) was the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury from 1691 to 1694.
Curate and rector
Tillotson was the son of a Puritan clothier at Haughend, Sowerby, Yorkshire. Little is known of his early youth ...
, with whom he resided at Carlisle House, Lambeth. In November 1693 Tillotson collated Bradford to the rectory of St. Mary-le-Bow; he then resigned his minor ecclesiastical preferments, but soon after accepted the lectureship of
All Hallows, Bread Street.
Bradford was a frequent preacher before the corporation of London, and was a staunch whig. On 30 January 1698 he preached before
William III, who that March following appointed Bradford one of the royal chaplains in ordinary. The appointment was continued by
Queen Anne, by whose command he was created D.D. on the occasion of her visit to the University of Cambridge, 16 April 1705.
In 1699 Bradford delivered the
Boyle lecture in
St. Paul's Cathedral. He was elected master of Corpus Christi College on 17 May 1716; and on 21 April 1718 was nominated to the
bishopric of Carlisle, to which he was consecrated on 1 June. In 1723 he was translated to the see of Rochester, and was also appointed
dean of Westminster
The Dean of Westminster is the head of the chapter at Westminster Abbey. Due to the Abbey's status as a Royal Peculiar, the dean answers directly to the British monarch (not to the Bishop of London as ordinary, nor to the Archbishop of Canterbu ...
, which he held ''
in commendam'' with the bishopric of Rochester. In 1724 Bradford resigned the mastership of Corpus Christi, and in 1725 became the first dean of the revived
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...
. He died at the deanery of Westminster, and was buried in
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the Unite ...
.
Works
Bradford published more than 20 separate sermons. One of these, ''Discourse concerning Baptismal and Spiritual Regeneration'', 2nd ed., London, 1709, attained popularity. A ninth edition was published in 1819 by the
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) is a UK-based Christian charity. Founded in 1698 by Thomas Bray, it has worked for over 300 years to increase awareness of the Christian faith in the UK and across the world.
The SPCK is t ...
. As Boyle lecturer he preached eight sermons on ''The Credibility of the Christian Revelation, from its Intrinsick Evidence.'' These, with a ninth sermon preached in his own church in January 1700, were issued with other Boyle lectures delivered between 1691 and 1732, in ''A Defence of Natural and Revealed Religion'', &c. 3 vols., London, 1739.
Family
Bradford's wife, who survived him, was a daughter of Captain Ellis of
Medbourne
Medbourne is a village and civil parish in the Harborough district, in the county of Leicestershire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 473.
Each year it competes with nearby Hallaton during the Bottle-kickin ...
in
Leicestershire, and bore him one son and two daughters. One of the latter was married to Reuben Clarke,
archdeacon of Essex, and the other to
John Denne
John Denne D.D. (1693–1767) was an English churchman and antiquarian, Archdeacon of Rochester from 1728.
Life
Born at Littlebourne, Kent, on 25 May 1693, he was the eldest son of John Denne, woodreeve to the see of Canterbury. He was educated a ...
,
archdeacon of Rochester
The Archdeacon of Rochester is a senior office-holder in the Diocese of Rochester (a division of the Church of England Province of Canterbury.) Like other archdeacons, they are administrators in the diocese at large (having oversight of parishes in ...
. His son, the Revd William Bradford, died on 15 July 1728, aged thirty-two, when he was archdeacon of Rochester and vicar of Newcastle upon Tyne.
Notes
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bradford, Samuel
1652 births
1731 deaths
Bishops of Carlisle
Bishops of Rochester
Masters of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
People educated at Charterhouse School
People educated at St Paul's School, London
Canons of Westminster
Deans of Westminster
18th-century Church of England bishops