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Charles Smith Bradley

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Charles Smith Bradley

Birth	:	18 Jul 1819 Newburyport, Essex County, Massachusetts, USA
Death	:	29 Apr 1888 New York, New York County (Manhattan), New York, USA
Burial	:	Hill Top Methodist Church Churchyard, Biddulph Moor, Staffordshire Moorlands District, England
Plot	:	Group 35, Location L, Lot 0, Space 9
Description	:	Hon. Charles Smith Bradley, son of Charles and Sarah (Smith) Bradley, was born in Newburyport, Mass., July 18, 1819. He enjoyed excellent educational advantages, and prepared for college in the Boston Latin School. He entered Brown University, drawn to it by the regard he had for his great-grandfather, and in 1838 was with the highest honors in his class, which contained an unusual number of brilliant men. Several years following were spent in post-graduate study in the University, and after taking the degree of Master of Arts he chose the legal profession for his work in life, and... Read More	Hon. Charles Smith Bradley, son of Charles and Sarah (Smith) Bradley, was born in Newburyport, Mass., July 18, 1819. He enjoyed excellent educational advantages, and prepared for college in the Boston Latin School. He entered Brown University, drawn to it by the regard he had for his great-grandfather, and in 1838 was with the highest honors in his class, which contained an unusual number of brilliant men. Several years following were spent in post-graduate study in the University, and after taking the degree of Master of Arts he chose the legal profession for his work in life, and entered the Harvard Law School. Completing his studies for the bar in the law office of Charles F. Tillinghast, of Providence, he was admitted to the bar in 1841. In the same year he formed a partnership with Mr. Tillinghast. He sprang rapidly into prominence through his eloquence as a speaker. His public utterances were all characterized by a masterly power of reasoning, comprehensive knowledge and a polished diction which led to his appointment often to speak on political and literary occasions. In 1854 he was elected by the town of North Providence to the Senate of the State, where he was influential in securing the Act of Amnesty to all who had taken part in the Dorr Rebellion of 1842. At a public meeting in Providence, June 9, 1856 relative to the assault of Brooks on Sumner in the United States Senate, he said: 'Is it not well that the second city in New England, the first which is not connected by any personal ties with Mr. Sumner, should speak of this outrage, not in the first flush of our indignation, but in the tones of deliberate condemnation? * * * We know that brutality and cowardice go hand in hand, because brutal passions and true moral courage cannot harmonize in the same character. * * * If the South upholds this act, the antagonism of their civilization and ours will mount higher and come closer and closer; and it requires no horoscope to show the future.' Judge Bradley was a conscientious member of the Democratic party throughout his life, but had the support and confidence of men of all parties in the city and State. He represented Rhode Island repeatedly in the National Democratic Convention, notably that of 1860, when the party was divided, and he adhered to the Unionists, casting his vote for Stephen A. Douglas. In 1863 he was the Democratic nominee for Congress. In February, 1866, he was elected Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island, as successor of Hon. Samuel Ames, receiving the honor at the hands of a Republican Legislature. After two years on the bench, years in which he discharged the duties of his office with consummate ability and with the greatest honor to himself and to the State, he resigned to give his entire attention to his private practice. On the occation of his retirement from the bench the 'Providence Journal' observed: 'He has discharged the duties belonging to that high position with a success, and, we may add, a judicial distinction, in which the people of the State feel both a satisfaction and pride, and which they had hoped would long continue to illustrate in a sphere so honorable and important.' On the occasion of the opening of the Rhode Island Hospital, Judge Bradley, a generous donor to the fund of $80,000 which was raised at the time, remarked in his address: 'Every human being is united, by mysterious ties, with all the past and all of the future. Those who most fully realize the greatness of our being have the strongest desire to live after death, even on earth. It is no personal ambition, but a diviner instinct, which leads such nature to found, or to ally themselves with, great institutions, whose perennial existence of beneficence shall outlast their names and their memories among men. * * * Our State will bear proudly on its bosom through coming centuries this institution, expressing in its object, and its architecture the humanity of the age. * * * In aiding you place stones of beauty in these walls, whereon the All Seeing Eye, it may not irreverently be said, shall read your name, though time and storm shall have written their wild signatures upon them. * * * The sons and daughters of toil, as the day calls them to work and the night to rest, will look upon these towers, blending with the morning and the evening sky, with their tearful benedictions. In the time of illness and accident, if the struggle of life presses too hard upon them, this shall be their honorable refuge, builded with a beneficence akin to, and sanctioned by, the Divine.' In 1866 Judge Bradley received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Brown University, and was also elected one of the fellows of that institution. For three years he officiated as lecturer in the Law School of Harvard University. In 1876 he was chosen professor of that school, and filled the chair with remarkable ability until 1879. On his retirement the board of overseers, through their chairman, Judge Lowell, said: 'We have suffered a great loss in the resignation of Hon. Charles S. Bradley, whose lucid and practical teaching was highly appreciated by the students and whose national reputation added to the renown of the school. We had hoped that some incidental advantage of quiet and freedom from care might be found to outweigh other considerations, and that the professorship was permanently filled.' Judge Bradley traveled widely in America, and at different times had visited nearly all portions of Europe. With his love of letters and broad scholarship he united a genuine and strong love for agriculture and rural enjoyments, which was perhaps in a large degree an inherited passion. The grounds about his elegant residence in Providence, his farm property and products, and his attachment to ancestral estates, were a proof of his appreciation of all that belongs to the oldest and most important of human occupations. His tastes and culture were manifested in his great love for superior works of art, of which he had many noted specimens in his home. His oration before the Alumni Association of Brown Universtiy in 1855, his oration on the 250th anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, his remarks on the retirement of President Caswell from the presidency of the University in 1872, and his oration before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard University in 1879, were models of rich thought, graceful diction, and lucid argument, vindicating his right to be classed as one of the most impressive orators of his day in the United States. Of his address before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, the Boston 'Daily Advertiser' observed: 'If there were any need for justifications of the custom of annual addresses before the college societies, such an address as Judge Bradley's yesterday gave that justification completely. It is, indeed, remarkable to see an audience of so distinguished men of leading position in every walk of life. It is remarkable to have so much good sense, so many important suggestions, nay, so many of the fundamental truths upon which civilized society rests crowded into one hour. The power of the speaker on his audience, the hold with which he compelled their fascinated attention were again and again referred to through the afternoon. This is not simply the attention which people give to what they hear with pleasure, it was the satisfaction with which the audience received important principles, of which they felt the value, whether they were or were not new to the hearer. Vero pro gratis indeed might well be taken as the motto of the address. The passage which showed how the bar of the country must be relied upon to maintain at the highest the dignity of the bench was received with profound sympathy and interest. It deserves the careful attention of the bar in every part of the country.' His oration on 'The Profession of the Law as an Element of Civil Society', pronounced June 29, 1881, before the Societies of the University of Virginia, was regarded 'as a learned and profound discussion of this subject, in which he argued that the bar is essential to the administration of justice, that the administration of justice is essential to the existence of society, and the existence of society essential for the protection of man in his endeavors to live according to the laws of his being.' Judge Bradley married (first) April 28, 1842, Sarah Manton, daughter of Joseph and Mary (Whipple) Manton, of Providence, R. I. She was born March 10, 1818, and died December 12, 1854, survived by three sons: 1. Joseph Manton, who died March 7, 1879, unmarried. 2. Charles, of whom see forward. 3. George Lothrop, of whom see forward. Judge Bradley married (second) August 4, 1858, Charlotte Augusta Saunders, of Charlottesville, Va., and she died in May, 1864, her daughter, Janet Laurie, dying in the same month. He married (third) in May, 1866, Emma Pendleton (Ward) Chambers, of Winchester, Va., who died February 28, 1875. Judge Bradley died in New York City, April 29, 1888, while on a visit to his son, the late George Lothrop Bradley.

frequently asked questions (FAQ):

Where is Charles Smith Bradley's memorial?
Charles Smith Bradley's memorial is located at: Hill Top Methodist Church Churchyard, Biddulph Moor, Staffordshire Moorlands District, England.
When did Charles Smith Bradley death?
Charles Smith Bradley death on 29 Apr 1888 in New York, New York County (Manhattan), New York, USA

Family Members:

Spouse

Sarah Manton Bradley

(1818 - 1854)

Charlotte Augusta Saunders Bradley

(1828 - 1864)

Emma Pendleton Ward Bradley

(1828 - 1875)

Children

Joseph Manton Bradley

(1843 - 1879)

Charles Bradley

(1845 - 1898)

George Lothrop Bradley

(1846 - 1906)

Mary Bradley

(1849 - 1850)

Susan Bradley

(1852 - 1854)

James Saunders Bradley

(1859 - 1880)

Janet Laurie Bradley

(1861 - 1864)

Flowers:

Left by Anonymous on 17 Dec 2012

Left by Anonymous on 28 Oct 2013

Nearby Cemetories:

1. St Leonard Churchyard
Bradley in the Moors, Staffordshire Moorlands District, England

2. Cheddleton Asylum Burial Ground
Cheddleton, Staffordshire Moorlands District, England

3. St Edward the Confessor Churchyard
Cheddleton, Staffordshire Moorlands District, England
Coordinate: 52.9824410, -2.0733810

4. St Edwards Lawn Cemetery
Cheddleton, Staffordshire Moorlands District, England
Coordinate: 52.9875710, -2.0452820

5. St. Mark the Evangelist Churchyard
Foxt, Staffordshire Moorlands District, England
Coordinate: 53.1135330, -2.0879040

6. Buxton Road Cemetery
Leek, Staffordshire Moorlands District, England
Coordinate: 53.1139430, -2.0878020

7. Leek Cemetery
Leek, Staffordshire Moorlands District, England

8. St Edward the Confessor Churchyard
Leek, Staffordshire Moorlands District, England
Coordinate: 53.0887220, -2.0625850

9. St Luke Churchyard
Leek, Staffordshire Moorlands District, England
Coordinate: 53.0409100, -2.0555020

10. Tomkin Chapel
Stanley, Staffordshire Moorlands District, England

11. St Margaret Churchyard
Wetton, Staffordshire Moorlands District, England
Coordinate: 53.0558430, -2.1082770

12. Christ Church Churchyard
Biddulph Moor, Staffordshire Moorlands District, England
Coordinate: 53.1062600, -1.8814800

13. Hill Top Methodist Church Churchyard
Biddulph Moor, Staffordshire Moorlands District, England

14. Caverswall Cemetery
Caverswall, Staffordshire Moorlands District, England

15. St Peter Churchyard
Caverswall, Staffordshire Moorlands District, England
Coordinate: 52.9824410, -2.0733810

16. All Saints Churchyard
Dilhorne, Staffordshire Moorlands District, England
Coordinate: 52.9875710, -2.0452820

17. St. Michael and All Angels Churchyard
Horton, Staffordshire Moorlands District, England
Coordinate: 53.1135330, -2.0879040

18. St. Michael's Churchyard Extension
Horton, Staffordshire Moorlands District, England
Coordinate: 53.1139430, -2.0878020

19. Longsdon Cemetery
Longsdon, Staffordshire Moorlands District, England

20. St Chad Churchyard
Longsdon, Staffordshire Moorlands District, England
Coordinate: 53.0887220, -2.0625850

21. St John the Baptist Churchyard
Wetley Rocks, Staffordshire Moorlands District, England
Coordinate: 53.0409100, -2.0555020

22. St Peter Churchyard
Wetley Rocks, Staffordshire Moorlands District, England

23. St Chad Churchyard
Bagnall, Staffordshire Moorlands District, England
Coordinate: 53.0558430, -2.1082770

24. St. Bartholomew's Churchyard
Butterton, Staffordshire Moorlands District, England
Coordinate: 53.1062600, -1.8814800