BR ACH3V1ANS BRADSHAW. 



657 



i abitants are Protestants; in the southern, chiefly 

 Catholics. 



BRACHM.WS. See Gymnosophists. 

 BRACTEATES ; thin coins of gold or silver, wit! 

 irregular figures on them, stamped upon one surface 

 only, so that the impression appears raised on on- 

 side, while the other appears hollow. It seems mos 

 probable, that these coins, being circulated in grea 

 quantities under Otho I., emperor of Germany, when 

 the working of the silver mines of the Hartz affordec 

 the most convenient medium of exchange, were firsi 

 coined at that place, and spread into other countries, 

 where the Roman money was not known, or in circu- 

 lation. The original form of these coins was bor- 

 rowed from that of the Byzantian gold ones, which 

 about that time, lost in thickness what they had 

 gained in extension. Allowance was made, how- 

 ever, for the greater softness of the silver. Gold and 

 copper bracteates belong only to a later period. The 

 name bracteate itself points to Byzantium (according 

 to Isidore, it is derived from ^a^uv, to ring). Bractea 

 signifies leaf of gold, or other metal. The real name, 

 at the time when they were in circulation, was dena- 

 rius, moneta, obolus, panningus. They are of impor- 

 tance as illustrating history. A very good represen- 

 tation of a rich collection of bracteates can be seen in 

 W. G. Becker's Two hundred rare Coins of the Mid- 

 dle Ages (Dresden, 1813, 4to). In later times, there 

 have been many bad imitations of these coins, and 

 the study of them is therefore much more difficult. 

 Bracteated coins, or bracteati nummi ; a term used to 

 signify coins or medals covered over with a thin plate 

 of some richer metal. They are usually made of 

 iron, copper, or brass, plated over and edged with 

 gold or silver leaf. Some of them are to be found 

 even among the truly ancient coins. The French 

 call them fourrecs. 



BRACTON, Henry de, one of the earliest writers on 

 English law, flourished in the thirteenth century. He 

 studied civil and canon law at Oxford, and, about the 

 year 1244, Henry III. made him one of his judges 

 itinerant. Some writers say, that he was afterwards 

 chief justice of England ; but his fame at present is 

 derived from his legal treatise, entitled De Legibus et 

 Consuetudinibus Anglia, which was first printed in 

 1569, folio, but of which a more correct edition was 

 published in 1640, 4to. It is possibly to the unset- 

 tled nature of the times, and the alternate ascendency 

 of the crown and barons, that we must attribute his 

 inconsistency with regard to the royal prerogative ; 

 in one place observing that no man must presume to 

 dispute or control the actions of the king; and in 

 another, that he is subordinate to the law, and may 

 lie " bridled" by his court of " earls and barons." 

 The time of his death is unknown. 



BRADDOCK, Edward, major-general, and commander 

 of the British army in the expedition against the 

 French, on the river Ohio, in 1755, arrived in Virgi- 

 nia in February of that year, and, in the spring, 

 marched against fort Du Quesne, now Pittsburg. He 

 reached the Monongahela, July 8, at the head of 

 J?00 men, the baggage having been left behind, 

 under the care of colonel Dunbar, to advance by 

 slower marches. On the next day, he moved for- 

 ward to invest the fort, and, by disregarding the cau- 

 tion of his provincial officers, who warned him of the 

 danger of surprise in an Indian war, fell into an 

 ambuscade, by which he lost nearly one half of his 

 troops, and received himself a mortal wound. All 

 his officers on horseback, except colonel, afterwards 

 general, Washington, who acted as aid, being killed, 

 the army retreated precipitately, near forty miles, to 

 Dunbar's camp, where the general, who was conveyed 

 there in a tumbril, expired! 

 BRADFORD, William, an American lawyer of emi- 



nence, was born in Philadelphia, September 14th, 

 1755. In the spring of 1769, he entered the college 

 of Nassau hall, at Princeton, New Jersey, then un- 

 der the direction of the late learned and pious doctor 

 J ohn Witherspoon. In 1779, he was admitted to the 

 bar of the supreme court of Pennsylvania, where his 

 character soon introduced him to an unusual share of 

 business ; and, in August, 1780, only one year after 

 he was licensed to practise, he was appointed attor- 

 ney-general of the state of Pennsylvania. August 



22, 1791, he was made a judge of the supreme court 

 of Pennsylvania. His industry, integrity, and ability 

 enabled him to give general satisfaction in this office. 

 On the attorney-general of the United States being 

 promoted to the office of secretary of state, B. was 

 appointed to the vacant office, Jan. 28, 1794. This 

 office he held till his death. In 1793, he published 

 an Inquiry how far the Punishment of Death is ne- 

 cessary in Pennsylvania. This performance justly 

 gained him great credit. His death was occasioned 

 by an attack of the bilious fever. He died August 



23, 1795, in the fortieth year of his age. 

 BRADLEY, James, a celebrated astronomer, was 



born at Shireborn, England, in 1692. He studied 

 theology at Oxford, and took orders ; but his taste 

 for astronomy soon led him to change his course of 

 life. His uncle instructed him in the elements of 

 mathematics, his own industry did every thing else, 

 and, in 1721, he was appointed professor of astrono- 

 my at Oxford. Six years afterwards, he made known 

 his discovery of the aberration of light, (q. v.) But, 

 although this discovery gave a greater degree of ac- 

 curacy to astronomical observations, and although the 

 discrepancies of different observations were much 

 diminished, yet slight differences remained, and did 

 not escape his observation. He studied them during 

 eighteen years with the greatest perseverance, and 

 finally discovered that they were fully explained by 

 the supposition of an oscillating motion of the earth's 

 axis, completed during a revolution of the moon's 

 nodes, i. e., in eighteen years. He called this pheno- 

 menon the nutation of the earth's axis ; and pub- 

 lished, in 1748, (Philosoph. Trans. No. 785), his 

 account of the apparent motion of the fixed stars, with 

 ts laws, arising from this phenomenon of nutation. 

 D'Alembert afterwards explained the physical causes 

 of this phenomenon, upon the principle of universal 

 attraction. By these two discoveries, astronomers 

 were, for the first time, enabled to make tables of the 

 motions of the heavenly bodies with the necessary 

 accuracy. B. had already, in 1726, explained the 

 method of obtaining the longitude by means of the 

 eclipse of Jupiter's first satellite. In 1741, at the 

 death of doctor Halley, he received the office of 

 astronomer royal, and removed to the observatory at 

 ireenwich. Here he spent the remainder of his life, 

 entirely devoted to his astronomical studies, and left 

 .hirteen volumes folio of his own observations, in 

 manuscript. Of these, the first volume was published 

 iy Horesby, 1798. The whole appeared under the 

 itle of Astronomical Observations made at the Obser- 

 atory at Greenwich, 175062 : Oxford, 1805, 2 vols. 

 olio. From this rich mine have been taken thousands 

 f observations on the sun, moon, and planets, which, 

 jroperly arranged, have brought our astronomical 

 ables to great accuracy. It was from this that Mayer 

 Irew the elements of his celebrated tables of the 

 moon. In addition to his merit as a man of science, 

 Jradley was modest, benevolent, humane, and gen- 

 rous in private life. He died in 1762, aged 

 seventy. 



BRADSHAW, John ; president of the high court of 

 ustice which tried and condemned Charles I. He 

 tudied law in Gray's Inn, and obtained much cham- 

 >er practice from the partisans of the parliament, to 



