Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 06.djvu/182

 Bradley them in 1760, never saw the light, and were superseded by Mayer's own improvements in 1770. The regular work of the observatory, consisting in meridian observations of the sun, moon, planets, and stars, was meanwhile carried on with unremitting diligence and unrivalled skill.

The salary of astronomer-royal was then, as in Flamsteed's time, 100l. a year, reduced to 90l. by fees at public offices. This pittance was designed to be supplemented by Mr. Pelham's offer to Bradley, in the king's name, of the vicarage of Greenwich ; which was, however, refused on the honourable ground of incompatibility of clerical with official obligations. His disinterestedness was compensated by a crown pension of 250l. per annum, granted under the privy seal 15 Feb. 1752, and continued to his successors. Honours now fell thickly upon him. From 1725 he had frequently been chosen a member of the council of the Royal Society, and he occupied that position uninterruptedly from 1752 until his death. In July 1746 Euler wrote to announce his admission to the Berlin Academy of Sciences ; he was associated to those of Paris and St. Petersburg respectively in 1748 and 1750, and, probably in acknowledgment of his services in superintending the construction of a quadrant by Bird for the latter body, complimented with its full membership in 1754 ; while the institute of Bologna enrolled his name 16 June 1757. Scarcely an astronomer in Europe but sought a correspondence with him, which he usually declined, being averse to writing, and leaving many letters unanswered.

No direct descendant of Bradley survives. He married, 25 June 1744, Susannah,daughter of Mr. Samuel Peach of Chalford in Gloucestershire. She died in 1757, leaving a daughter, Susannah, born at Greenwich in 1745, who married in 1771 her first cousin, the Rev. Samuel Peach, and had in turn an only daughter, who died childless in 1806. Bradley's intimacy with the Earl of Macclesfield grew closer after his removal to Oxford in 1732. He co-operated with him in the establishment (about 1739) of an observatory at Shirburn Castle, and in the reform of the calendar, calculating the tables appended to the bill for that purpose. Until near the close of his life he continued to reside about three months of each year at Oxford, but resigned his readership through ill- health in 1760. For several years he had felt the approach of an obscure malady in occasional attacks of severe pain. His labours in correcting the lunar tables overtasked his hitherto robust strength, and from 1760 a heavy cloud of depression settled over his spirits, inducing the grievous apprehension of surviving his mental faculties, which remained nevertheless clear to the end. He attended, for the last time, a meeting of the Royal Society 31 Jan. 1761, and drew up a paper of instructions for Mason, on his departure to observe the transit of Venus, the latest astronomical event in which he took an active interest. But already in May he was obliged to ask Bliss to replace him, and when the day of the transit, 6 June 1761, arrived, he was unable to use the telescope. He, however, took a final observation with the transit-instrument in September, after which his handwriting disappears from the Greenwich registers. The few months that remained he spent at Chalford, being much attached to his wife's relations, and there died, in the house of his father-in-law, after a fortnight's acute suffering, 13 July 1762, in his seventieth year, and was buried with his wife and mother at Minchinhampton. His disease proved on examination to be a chronic inflammation of the abdominal viscera. The case was described by Daniel Lysons, M.D., in the 'Philosophical Transactions' (lii. 635). In character Bradley is described as 'humane, benevolent, and kind ; a dutiful son, an indulgent husband, a tender father, and a steady friend'(Suppl. to New Biog. Dict., 1767, p. 58). Many of his poorer relatives experienced his generosity. His life was blameless, his habits abstemious, his temper mild and placid. He was habitually taciturn, but was clear, ready, and open in explaining his opinions to others. No homage could overthrow his modesty or disturb his caution. He was always more apprehensive of injuring his reputation than sanguine of enhancing it, and thus shrank from publicity; polished composition, moreover, was irksome to him. His only elaborate pieces were the accounts of his two leading discoveries ; and the preservation of several unfinished drafts of that on aberration affords evidence of toil unrewarded by felicity of expression. Nor had he any taste for abstract mathematics. His great powers were those of sagacity and persistence. He possessed 'a most extraordinary clearness of perception, both mental and organic ; great accuracy in the combination of his ideas ; and an inexhaustible fund of that "industry and patient thought" to which Newton ascribed his own discoveries ' (, Memoirs of Bradley, p. cv). Less inventive than Kepler, he surpassed him in sobriety and precision. No discrepancy was too minute for his consideration ; his scrutiny of possible causes and their consequences was keen, dis-