Thomas Bradley

Thomas Bradley was born in 1596 or 1597, the son of Henry Bradley of Wokingham in Berkshire and his wife, Barbara daughter of Walter Lane of Reading in the same county. He was educated at Exeter College, Oxford and was admitted to the degree of Doctor of Divinity.

He was initially chaplain to George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, whom he accompanied on trips to the Île de Ré and to La Rochelle and in 1628 he was appointed chaplain to Charles I. He became Rector of Castleford in 1630 and from 1643 he was additionally Rector of Ackworth. His parishes were in a strongly Royalist part of Yorkshire. It is generally supposed that he attended Charles I at his execution on 30 January 1649. In 1666 he founded two almshouses at Ackworth. He resigned from his livings in 1672 and died on 10 October 1673.