Thomas Bradbury

Thomas Bradbury (1677–1759), was an English congregational minister.

Bradbury was born in Yorkshire, and was educated for the congregational ministry Attercliffe Academy; Oliver Heywood gave him books. He preached his first sermon on 14 June 1696, and went to reside as assistant and domestic tutor with Thomas Whitaker, minister of the independent congregation, Call Lane, Leeds. From Leeds, in 1697, Bradbury went to Beverley, as a supply; and in 1699 to Newcastle-on-Tyne, first assisting Richard Gilpin, and then Benjamin Bennet, Gilpin's successor, both presbyterians. It seems that Bradbury expected a co-pastorate, and on William Turner's account his later influence helped split the congregation.

Bradbury went to London in 1703 as assistant to Galpine, in the independent congregation at Stepney. On 18 September 1704 he was invited to become colleague with Samuel Wright at Great Yarmouth, but declined. After the death of Benoni Rowe, Bradbury was appointed (16 March 1707) pastor of the independent congregation in New Street, by Fetter Lane. He was ordained 10 July 1707 by ministers of different denominations; his confession of faith on the occasion (which reached a fifth edition in 1729) showed uncompromising Calvinism, expressed entirely in words of scripture. His brother Peter became his assistant. Bradbury took part in the weekly dissenting lectureships, delivering a series at the Weighhouse on the duty of singing (1708), and a sermon before the Societies for Reformation of Morals (1708).

Bradbury boasted of being the first to proclaim George I, which he did on Sunday, 1 August 1714, being apprised, while in his pulpit, of the death of Queen Anne by the agreed signal of a handkerchief. The report was current that he preached from 2 Kings ix. 34, "Go, see now this cursed woman and bury her, for she is a king's daughter"; but perhaps he only quoted the text in conversation. Another story is to the effect that when, on 24 Sept., the dissenting ministers went in their black gowns with an address to the new king, a courtier asked, "Pray, sir, is this a funeral?" On which Bradbury replied, "Yes, sir, it is the funeral of the Schism Act, and the resurrection of liberty".

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