As Astronomer Royal, Bradley's great achievement was the high standard to which he raised the practical work of observation. From his day onwards, also, there was always at least one assistant. His first assistant was his own nephew, John Bradley, who received the munificent salary of ten shillings a week. Still, this was not out of proportion to the then salary of the Astronomer Royal, which practically amounted only to £90. However, in 1752, Bradley was awarded a Crown pension of £250 a year. He refused the living of Greenwich, which was offered him in order to increase his emoluments, on the ground that he could not suitably fulfil the double office. Bradley's later assistants were Charles Mason and Charles Green.
Bradley's last work was the preparation for the observations of the transit of Venus of 1761, according to the lines laid down by his predecessor, Halley. His health gave way, and he became subject to melancholia, so that the actual observations were taken by the Rev. Nathaniel Bliss, who succeeded him in his office after his death, in 1762. He was buried at Minchinhampton.
So far as we know Bradley's character, he seems to have been a gentle, modest, unassuming man, entirely free from self-seeking, and indifferent to personal gain. He was in many ways an ideal astronomer, exact, methodical, and conscientious to the last degree. His skill as an observer was his chief characteristic; and though his abilities were not equal as a mathematician or a mechanician, yet, on the one hand, he had a very clear insight into the meaning of his observations, and, on the other, he was skilful enough to himself adjust, repair, and improve his instruments.
Of Bradley's instruments, there are still preserved his famous twelve-and-a-half-foot zenith sector, with which he made his two great discoveries; his brass quadrant, which in 1750 he substituted for Halley's iron quadrant; his transit instrument, and equatorial sector. Bradley added to the buildings of the Observatory that portion which is now represented by the upper and lower computing rooms, and the chronometer room, which adjoins the latter. This room—the chronometer room—was his transit room, and the position of the shutters is still marked by the window in the roof.
The Rev. Nathaniel Bliss, who succeeded Bradley, only held the office for a couple of years, and during that time was much at Oxford. He, therefore, has left no special mark behind him as Astronomer Royal.
He was born November 28, 1700. His father, like himself, Nathaniel Bliss, was a gentleman, of Bisley, Gloucestershire.
NATHANIEL BLISS.
(From an engraving on an old pewter flagon.)