, a facetious preacher among the dissenters, whose oddities are
, a facetious preacher among
the dissenters, whose oddities are still traditionary, was
born in 1677, at Wakefield, in Yorkshire. His father
belonged to a dissenting meeting at Alverthorp, near that
town, of which Mr. Peter Naylor, an ejected minister, was
pastor. Under his care, and at the free-school at Leeds,
he received the first rudiments of learning. He was afterwards sent to an academy kept by Mr. Jollie, at Attercliffe. He began to preach at the early age of eighteen,
about the year 1696, when his juvenile figure procured
him some rebuffs, which he soon disregarded, and convinced his hearers that he was a boy only in appearance.
His conquest over these remarks at this time seems to have
formed an aera in his history, as he used to “bless God
that from that hour he had never known the fear of man.
”
He soon after left the academy, and was taken into the
family of Mr. Whitaker, who, according to his biographer,
checked his ardour, at least so far that he preached but
seldom. In 1697 he went to Beverley, where he continued
two years, and then became assistant to Dr. Gilpin, at
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and remained there three years,
with almost unbounded popularity. He then removed to
Stepney, near London, and in 1707 was chosen pastor of
a meeting in Fetter-lane, vacant by the death of Mr. Benoni Rowe. After preaching here to a crowded congregation for twenty years, a quarrel took place; about what, his
biographer does not inform us; but Mr. Bradbury was immediately invited to succeed the noted Daniel Burgess, in
the meeting at New-court, Carey-street, and in less than
a fortnight exchanged his former for his latter pulpit,
carrying with him such of his Fetter-lane hearers as adhered to him in the late contest. Here he succeeded
Daniel Burgess as a wit as well as a divine, and his biographer gravely informs us, that “this pulpit a se*cond
time presented a phenomenon as rare as it is beneficial,
wit consecrated to the service of serious and eternal truth.
”
Of this wit, however, Mr. N. Neal, in a letter to Dr.
Doddridge, (1749,) gives a different opinion. “I have
seen Mr. Bradbury’s sermons, just published, the nonsense and buffoonery of which would make one laugh, if
his impious insults over the pious dead did not make one
tremble.
” After entertaining the public by this species
of comic preaching for thirty-two years, he died at Warwick-court, Gray’s-inn, Sept. 9, 1759, aged eighty-two.
Of his character it is said, that “had he possessed as much
judgment as quickness of wit, and as much temper as zeal,
he would have been a man of much greater consideration.
His usefulness was much abated after the Sailers’ -hall
synod, for though he was warm on the orthodox side, his
ill-conducted zeal did much mischief.
” Among his other
differences of opinion from his brethren, he made it his
business in the pulpit to lampoon and satirize the hymns
and psalms of Dr. Watts. It is said, indeed, that whentever he gave out one of the former, it was prefaced with
“Let us sing one of Watts’s whims.
” Among the numerous anecdotes of Tom Bradbury, as he was familiarly
called, we shall give only the following, which contains
some characteristic features. “Tom generally gave audience at supper-time, and the ceremony was thus conducted. On a little table lay two pocket bibles, one of
which was taken up by Bradbury, and the other by his
daughter, and each having read a portion, one of the visiting ministers was desired to pray: they then adjourned
to supper; after which, Tom entertained the company
with ‘ The roast beef of old England,’ which, it is said,
he sung better than any man in England.
” His printed
works amply justify the character usually given of him,
that with much zeal he was totally destitute of judgment,
and regardless of the dignity of his sacred calling, dwelling
perpetually on political topics, and enforcing them in a
strain of ridicule totally unfit for the place in which he
stood. These works consist of “Fifty-four Sermons,
”