Samuel Bradford

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St. Anne's, Blackfriars
Died17 May 1731(1731-05-17) (aged 78)
The Deanery, Westminster
BuriedWestminster Abbey
NationalityEnglish (later British)
DenominationAnglican
ResidenceThe Deanery, Westminster
ParentsWilliam Bradford of London
Spousewife (née Ellis)
Children2 daughters; 1 son: Revd William
Alma materCorpus Christi College, Cambridge

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

Great Plague 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.[1]

He devoted himself for a time to the study of medicine; but he was admitted in 1680, through the favour of Archbishop

St. Mary-le-Bow, and was tutor to the two grandsons of Archbishop John Tillotson, 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

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, 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
.

He died at the deanery of Westminster, and was buried in Westminster Abbey with a monument by Henry Cheere.[2]

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. 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

archdeacon of Essex, and the other to John Denne, archdeacon of Rochester
. 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

  1. ^ "Bradford, Samuel (BRDT669S)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  2. ^ "Samuel and William Bradford".

References

Academic offices
Preceded by Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
1716–1724
Succeeded by
Church of England titles
Preceded by Bishop of Carlisle
1718–1723
Succeeded by
Preceded by Bishop of Rochester
1723–1731
Succeeded by
Dean of Westminster
1723–1731