James Bradley

These two discoveries were called "the most brilliant and useful of the century" by Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre, historian of astronomy, mathematical astronomer and director of the Paris Observatory. In his History of astronomy in the 18th century (1821), Delambre stated:

"It is to these two discoveries by Bradley that we owe the exactness of modern astronomy. ... This double service assures to their discoverer the most distinguished place (after Hipparchus and Kepler) above the greatest astronomers of all ages and all countries."

Biography

Bradley was born at Sherborne, near Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, to William Bradley and Jane Pound in September 1692. His nephew John was also an astronomer. After attending Westwood's Grammar School at Northleach in Gloucestershire, he entered Balliol College, Oxford, on 15 March 1711, and took degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in 1714 and 1717 respectively. His early observations were made at the rectory of Wanstead in Essex, under the tutelage of James Pound, his uncle and a skilled astronomer. Bradley was elected a fellow of the Royal Society on 6 November 1718.

He took orders on becoming vicar of Bridstow in Herefordshire in the following year, and a small sinecure living in Wales was also procured for him by his friend Samuel Molyneux. He resigned his ecclesiastical preferments in 1721, when appointed to the Savilian chair of astronomy at Oxford. As reader on experimental philosophy from 1729 to 1760, he delivered 79 courses of lectures at the Ashmolean Museum.

In 1742, Bradley was appointed to succeed Edmond Halley as Astronomer Royal; his reputation enabled him to apply successfully for a set of instruments costing £1,000; and with an 8-foot quadrant completed for him in 1750 by John Bird, he accumulated at Greenwich in ten years materials of inestimable value for the reform of astronomy. A crown pension of £250 a year was conferred upon him in 1752.

Bradley retired in broken health, nine years later, to the Cotswold village of Chalford in Gloucestershire. He had medical attention from a local doctor, and Daniel Lysons from Oxford. He died at Skiveralls House on 13 July 1762 and was buried in the churchyard of Holy Trinity church, Minchinhampton in Gloucestershire. His wife died before him, in 1757 and he was survived by one daughter.