BRADLEY, JAMES, a celebrated astronomer, was born at Shireborn, in the county of Gloucester, in 1692. He received the first rudiments of his edu cation at a boarding-school in North Leach, kept by Mr Egles and Mr Brice ; and being intended by his parents for the church, he was sent to Oxford, and was admitted a commoner of Ballo! College, on the 15th of March 1710-11. After having taken the degree of B. A. in 1714, and that of M. A. in 1717, he was admitted to deacon's orders by the bishop of London, on the 24th of May 1719, and a few months afterwards, he obtained priest's orders from the bishop of Hereford, who not only appointed him his chaplain, but presented him to the vicarage of Brid stow, in the county of Hereford. The fondness which Bradley had already shown for his favourite science, and the talents which he had already dis played in the pursuit of it, introduced him to the notice of the honourable Mr Molyneux, then secre tary to the Prince of Wales, and distinguished for his successful cultivation of the sciences of optics and astronomy. This patron of learning was not satis lied with paying to our young astronomer that ge neral and unsubstantial attention, which checks of tener than it invigorates the blossom of youthful ge nius. He saw that science could only be cultivated with success, when the mind was free from the anxie ties of dependent circumstances, and he exerted him self, with zeal, in procuring for Bradley the sine cure rectory of Landowy \Velfry, in Pembrokeshire, to which he was admitted in 1719.
The taste for astronomy, which Bradley had che rished from his earliest years, was encouraged by the instructions of his maternal uncle, the Rev. Dr. Pound, who is well known as an astronomical obser ver, and resided at his living of Winstead in Essex, w' ere his nephew was for sonic time curate.
It was in this scientific retreat, during the intervals which he stole from his professional avocations, that our author commenced Grose astronomical observations which 'afterwards conducted him to sonic of the finest disco% cries of which astronomy can boast ; and though at this early period 1.e exhibited no other merit but
that of al‘ accurate observer, he was honoured with the notice of the Lord Chancellor Macclesfield, Sir Isaac NeW,OO, Dr Halley, and of many of the illus trious me n who were at that time the ornaments of the Royal Society.
In consequence of the death of Dr Keill, he was zppointed Savilian Professor of Astronomy in the university of OxIoru, on the 3Ist October 1721 ; and thus Lad the felicity of being associated with the il ln,trious Dr Halley, who was at that time Savillian PIOLSSOI ol Geome?ry. In this new situation, Brad le) seems to have abandoned all views of ecclesiasti cal pl,ferment. Ile saw that his fame was now to depend on his astronomical labours, and perceiving that La progross would be retarded by the duties of a profession, which it would he sinful to neglect, he cheerfully resigned all his livings in the church, and bent the undivided vigour of his mind to the cultiva tion of his favourite science.
In the year 1724, he communicated to the Royal Society his observations on the comet of 1723 ; and in 1726, his observations on some eclipses of Jupi ter's satellites were laid before the same learned body ; but none of these papers were distinguished by any other merit but the accuracy with which the observations were made.
About the end of 1725, when on a visit to Mr. Molyneux at Kew, Mr. Bradley's attention was di rected to the subject of the parallax of the fixed stars, by which he was led to his two brilliant dis coveries of the aberration of the celestial bodies, and the nutation of the earth's axis. The theory of the aberration of the fixed stars, of which we have al ready given a very full account under the article ABERRATION, was published in the Transactions of the Royal Society for 1728, and extended the fame of Bradley, not only as an accurate observer, but as a profound philosopher, over the whole of Eu rope.