Background

Charles William Bradley was born on June 27, 1807 at New Haven, Connecticut and was the son of Luther and Mary (Atwater) Bradley.

Education

At his youth Charles began to learn printing, but abandoned this to enter Washington (now Trinity) College, Hartford, Connecticut, in 1825. He withdrew before graduation, however, and continued his studies at the General Theological Seminary, New York City, completing his course in 1830, and later receiving an honorary M. A. both from Trinity and from Yale, as well as an LL. D. from Hobart College in 1846.

Career

After receiving his LL. D. degree from Hobart College in 1846, nevertheless, he was for ten years rector of Episcopal parishes in North Haven, East Haddam, Sharon, and Derby, Connecticut, but the work proved to be too hard for him, and he passed the next few years in enforced idleness.

In 1846-47 he was secretary of state for Connecticut, and in this capacity he collated, indexed, and arranged the state records in a manner which rendered them more generally accessible, besides preparing The Connecticut Register: being an Official State Calendar of Public Officers and Institutions in Connecticut for 1847 (1848). After two years of foreign travel (1847 - 49), Bradley began his real career, which centered in China and lasted fourteen years (1849 - 63).

His first brief position with a mercantile firm was severed because of his opposition to any connection with the opium traffic, and he then entered the United States Government service, being consul at Amoy (1849 - 54), Singapore (1854 - 57), and Ningpo (1857 - 60), respectively.

In 1857 he brought back to the United States a treaty with Siam, returning with its ratification; in 1858 he accompanied the Pei-ho expedition at the request of Mr. Reed, the United States minister to China; and in 1859 he was the senior member of the Commission on American Claims against the Chinese Government.

Feeling, however, that his services had not been duly recognized by his Government, he resigned from the service in 1860 and paid a brief visit to the United States, but soon returned to China, where he was an assistant in the Imperial Chinese Customs at Hankow until 1863. In this latter year, his health utterly broken, he retired to his native city, where he died. As his career shows, Bradley's interests and activities were rather wide.

He also published two studies: Patronomatology, a portion of a treatise on the philosophy of surnames, read before the Connecticut State Lyceum, and arising from his interest in the history of proper names, and an "Outline of the System adopted for Romanizing the [Chinese] Dialect of Amoy"; and he also presented to the same society a paper on "The Kings and Kingdom of Siam", which was never printed in full.

Achievements

• Charles Bradley collected a fairly large library, of which the Oriental section was, naturally, the more valuable; but his nervous affliction forbade any extensive literary activity, though he gave his knowledge freely to other scholars. He bequeathed his Oriental library to the American Oriental Society, to which he had already given more than 850 books and manuscripts, and for the same society he collected over $1, 000, primarily for the purchase of Chinese type, which still forms the nucleus of its "Charles W. Bradley Type Fund. "

Works

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  • The Connecticut Register: Being a State Calendar of Public Officers and Institutions in Connecticut for 1847 (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from The Connecticut Register: Being a State Cale...)

  • Manager's Guide to Small Computers

    (Discusses business computer applications, explains what t...)

  • Chinese Local Dialects Reduced to WritingAn Outline of the System Adopted for Romanizing the Dialect of Amoy

    (Lang:- eng, Vol-4, Pages 17, It is the reproduction of th...)

  • The Connecticut register: being a state calendar of public officers and institutions in Connecticut for ... Volume 1 of 11

    (Title: The Connecticut register : being a state calendar ...)

  • The Connecticut register: being a state calendar of public officers and institutions in Connecticut for ... Volume 4 of 11

    (Title: The Connecticut register : being a state calendar ...)

  • The Connecticut register: being a state calendar of public officers and institutions in Connecticut for ... Volume 11 of 11

    (Title: The Connecticut register : being a state calendar ...)

  • The Connecticut register: being a state calendar of public officers and institutions in Connecticut for ... Volume 8 of 11

    (Title: The Connecticut register : being a state calendar ...)

  • The Connecticut register: being a state calendar of public officers and institutions in Connecticut for ... Volume 7 of 11

    (Title: The Connecticut register : being a state calendar ...)

  • The Connecticut register: being a state calendar of public officers and institutions in Connecticut for ... Volume 9 of 11

    (Title: The Connecticut register : being a state calendar ...)

  • The Victories Of Wesley Castle (1900)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • Roanwell Corp. v. Plantronics, Inc. U.S. Supreme Court Transcript of Record with Supporting Pleadings

    (The Making of Modern Law: U.S. Supreme Court Records and ...)

Views

In his diplomatic career Charles Bradley manifested all due firmness regarding the interests of his government, while opposing whatever he regarded as infringing on Chinese rights.

Membership

Bradley was a member of the American Oriental Society

Personality

Shortly before leaving the Seminary, a fall gave a shock to his nervous system which permanently affected his health, making him a victim of restlessness, excitability, and repeated morbid depressions.

Connections

Father:

Luther Bradley

Mother:

Mary (Atwater) Bradley