Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 06.djvu/167

  account of Braddock's expedition and of the events leading up to it is given in Parkman's 'Montcalm and Wolfe,' vol. i. Some brief military criticisms were contributed by Colonel Malleson to the 'Army and Navy Magazine,' March 1885, pp. 401, 404-5. The Home Office and War Office Warrant and Military Entry Books in the Record Office in London contain references to the expedition, but none of any special note.



BRADDOCKE, JOHN (1656–1719), divine, was a native of Shropshire, and received his education at St. Catharine's Hall, Cambridge, where he was elected to a fellowship (B.A. 1674, M.A. 1678). On leaving the university about 1689, he became chaplain to Sir James Oxenden, bart., of Dean, near Canterbury, and chaplain to Dr. John Battely, rector of the neighbouring parish of Adisham. In 1694 he was nominated by Archbishop Tenison to the perpetual curacy of Folkestone, and on 1 April 1698 he was presented to the vicarage of St. Stephen's, alias Hackington, near Canterbury. On the promotion of Dr. Offspring Blackall, his contemporary at college and intimate friend, to the see of Exeter in 1707, Braddocke was made the bishop's chaplain, though he got nothing by the appointment except the title. In 1709 he was collated by Archbishop Tenison to the mastership of Eastbridge hospital in Kent. He died in his vicarage house on 14 Aug. 1719, in his sixty-fourth year.

He wrote: # 'The Doctrine of the Fathers and Schools considered, concerning the Articles of a Trinity of Divine Persons and the Unity of God. In answer to the Animadversions on the Dean of St. Paul's Vindication of the Doctrine of the Holy and ever Blessed Trinity, in defence of those sacred Articles, against the objections of the Socinians, and the misrepresentations of the Animadverter.' Part I, 1695, 4to. # 'Deus unus et trinus,' 4to. This was entirely printed, except the title-page, but was suppressed, and never published, by the desire of Archbishop Tenison, who thought the controversy ought not to be continued.



BRADDON, LAURENCE (d. 1724), politician, the second son of William Braddon of Treworgy, in St. Genny's, Cornwall, was called to the bar at the Middle Temple, and for some time worked hard at his profession. When the Earl of Essex died in the Tower in 1683, Braddon adopted the belief that he had been murdered, and worked actively to collect sufficient evidence to prove the murder. He set on foot inquiries on the subject in London, and when a rumour reached him that the news of the earl's death was known at Marlborough on the very day of, if not before, the occurrence, he posted off thither. When his action became known at court, he was arrested and put under restraint. For a time he was let out on bail, but on 7 Feb. 1683-4 he was tried with Mr. Hugh Speke at the king's bench on the accusation of conspiring to spread the belief that the Earl of Essex was murdered by some persons about him, and of endeavouring to suborn witnesses to testify the same. Braddon was found guilty on all the counts, but Speke was acquitted of the latter charge. The one was fined 1,000l. and the other 2,000l., with sureties for good behaviour during their lives. Braddon remained in prison until the landing of William III, when he was liberated. In February 1695 he was appointed solicitor to the wine licence office, a place valued at 100l. per annum. His death occurred on Sunday, 29 Nov. 1724.

Most of Braddon's works relate to the death of the Earl of Essex. The 'Enquiry into and Detection of the Barbarous Murther of the late Earl of Essex' (1689) was probably from his pen, and he was undoubtedly the author of 'Essex's Innocency and Honour vindicated' (1690), 'Murther will out' (1692), 'True and Impartial Narrative of the Murder of Arthur, Earl of Essex' (1729), as well as 'Bishop Burnet's late History charg'd with great Partiality and Misrepresentation' (1725) in the bishop's account of this mysterious affair. Braddon also published 'The Constitutions of the Company of Watermen and Lightermen,' and an 'Abstract of the Rules, Orders, and Constitutions' of the same company, both of them issued in 1708. 'The Miseries of the Poor are a National Sin, Shame, and Danger' was the title of a work (1717) in which he