| AdminHistory | James Bradley: born at Sherbourn, Gloucestershire, 1693; educated at Northleach grammar school; admitted as a commoner to Balliol College Oxford, 1711; BA, 1714; MA, 1717; his uncle, the Reverend James Pound, rector of Wanstead in Essex, was an astronomical observer and had a close relationship with his nephew, who assisted him; the journals of the Royal Society record a communication from him regarding an aurora, 1716; his observation of an appulse of Palilicium to the moon published by Edmund Halley, 1717; elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on the motion of Halley and under the presidential sanction of Isaac Newton, 1718; his first sustained research was concerned with the Jovian system; presented to the vicarage of Bridstow and ordained deacon and priest, 1719; the sinecure rectory of Llandewi-Velfry in Pembrokeshire was procured for him by his friend Samuel Molyneux, secretary to the Prince of Wales, and he also became chaplain to the bishop of Hereford, 1720; elected to the Savilian chair of astronomy at Oxford, 1721; resigned his preferments; read his inaugural lecture, 1722; assisted his uncle in experiments upon Hadley's new reflector, 1723; his attempt, following Hadley's example and instructions, at the grinding of specula was only partially successful, c1723; his observations of a comet discovered by Halley in 1723 formed the subject of his first paper in 'Philosophical Transactions'; followed Halley in computing the orbits of comets; frequently chosen a member of the council of the Royal Society from 1725; announced his discovery of the "aberration of light"; in a letter to Halley, read before the Royal Society, 1729; lecturer on experimental philosophy at Oxford, 1729-1760; participated in a trial at sea of Hadley's sextants, which he commended, 1732; moved to Oxford, 1732; appointed astronomer-royal, 1742; received the degree of DD by diploma at Oxford, 1742; strove towards a higher degree of accuracy and worked in testing and improving his instruments; admitted to the Berlin Academy of Sciences, 1746; published his second great discovery, of a nutation of the earth's axis, in a letter to the Earl of Macclesfield, read before the Royal Society, and received the Royal Society's Copley medal, 1748; first used a new quadrant in a series of observations to determine the latitude of the observatory and the laws of refraction, 1750-1753; made observations for determining the distances of the sun and moon, 1751; continued the regular work of the observatory, consisting in meridian observations of the sun, moon, planets, and stars; resigned his readership through ill-health, 1760; suffered depression from 1760; attended, for the last time, a meeting of the Royal Society, Jan 1761; died, 1762; buried at Minchinhampton. Publications: various papers in the 'Philosophical Transactions'; his 'Astronomical Observations made at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich' eventually began to appear in 1798; his remaining papers formed the source for 'Miscellaneous Works and Correspondence of James Bradley' (Oxford, 1832); see also 'Reduction of the Observations made by Bradley at Kew and Wanstead to determine the Quantities of Aberration and Nutation' (Oxford, 1838). |
| CustodialHistory | The manuscripts formed part of the library of John Thomas Graves (1806-1870), mathematician and Professor of Jurisprudence at University College London, whose collection included manuscripts dating from the 15th to the 19th century, relating mainly to mathematics. Formerly Graves 7259. Other pressmark 148.e.6-8. |