Thomas Braddock or Bradock (–1607) was an Anglican clergyman of the 16th century, Headmaster of

Reading School Reading School is a state grammar school for boys with academy status in the English town of Reading, the county of Berkshire. It traces its history back to the school of Reading Abbey and is, thus, one of the oldest schools in England, alth ...

from 1588 to 1589 and a translator into

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

. Born in 1556 in

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

, the son of Thomas Bradoke,Stephen Wright, ‘Bradock, Thomas (1555/6–1607)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 23 June 2017
/ref> Braddock was attending

Westminster School Westminster School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Westminster, London, England, in the precincts of Westminster Abbey. It descends from a charity school founded by Westminster Benedictines before the Norman Conquest, as do ...

by 1570 followed by Greyfriars School. He

matriculate Matriculation is the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by fulfilling certain academic requirements such as a matriculation examination. Australia In Australia, the term ''matriculation'' is seldom used now ...

d as a

pensioner A pensioner is a person who receives a pension, most commonly because of retirement from the workforce. This is a term typically used in the United Kingdom (along with OAP, initialism of old-age pensioner), Ireland and Australia where someone of p ...

from

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Corpus Christi College (full name: "The College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary", often shortened to "Corpus") is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. From the late 14th c ...

in June 1573 aged 17. He migrated to

Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, commonly known as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges an ...

in May 1574 aged 18 before finally taking his degree at

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...

in 1576-77 aged 20 or 21. He obtained his

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

degree in 1580 and took a

Bachelor of Divinity In Western universities, a Bachelor of Divinity or Baccalaureate in Divinity (BD, DB, or BDiv; ) is an academic degree awarded for a course taken in the study of divinity or related disciplines, such as theology or, rarely, religious studies. ...

in 1593.Thomas Braddock - ''Alumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge from the Earliest Times to 1900'' Vol. 1 The Earliest Times to 1752: Part 1 Abbas-Cutts

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

(2011) pg 199 - ''

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

'' Braddock was a

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

of Christ's College from 1579 to 1587. Braddock was sympathetic to the

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...

leanings in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

. In 1579 he and the other Fellows of Christ's College signed a protest on behalf of

Hugh Broughton Hugh Broughton (1549 – 4 August 1612) was an English scholar and theologian. Early life He was born at Owlbury, Bishop's Castle, Shropshire. He called himself a Cambrian, implying Welsh blood in his veins. He was educated by Bernard Gil ...

, who had been deprived of his Fellowship by Dr. Edward Hawford, the Master. Braddock's signature can also be found on a letter from the Fellows to

Lord Burghley William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (13 September 15204 August 1598), was an English statesman, the chief adviser of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State (1550–1553 and 1558–1572) and Lord High Treasurer from ...

thanking him for mediating in a dispute involving the

Vice-Chancellor A vice-chancellor (commonly called a VC) serves as the chief executive of a university in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Kenya, other Commonwealth of Nati ...

, Dr

John Copcot John Copcot, DD (died 1590) was an English cleric and academic, becoming Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge and Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Early life and family Copcot was born in Calais, son of Adam Copcott, an Eng ...

against the non-conformist Sampson Sheffield for preaching an "erroneous and scandalous" sermon. He was ordained a

Deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Cathol ...

in London in March 1580 and a priest at Ely in April 1580 and

Proctor Proctor (a variant of ''wikt:procurator, procurator'') is a person who takes charge of, or acts for, another. The title is used in England and some other English-speaking countries in three principal contexts: # In law, a proctor is a historica ...

in 1584. He was incorporated at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

in 1584. In March 1588 he was elected Headmaster of

and resigned that post in April 1589. During his tenure at Reading one of his students was

William Laud William Laud (; 7 October 1573 – 10 January 1645) was a bishop in the Church of England. Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Charles I of England, Charles I in 1633, Laud was a key advocate of Caroline era#Religion, Charles I's religious re ...

. Braddock's ecclesiastical appointments included being vicar of

Stanstead Abbots Stanstead Abbotts (alternatively Stanstead Abbots) is a village and civil parishes of England, civil parish in the districts of England, district of East Hertfordshire, Hertfordshire, England; it lies on the county boundary with Essex. At the 2 ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

from 1590 to 1593, where he married Elizabeth Graves in August 1593; Rector of

Navenby Navenby is a village and civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. Lying south from Lincoln, England, Lincoln and north-northwest from Sleaford, Navenby had a population of 2,361 in the 2021 census. In March 2011 ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

from 1593 to 1599; and Rector of

Wittersham Wittersham is a small village and civil parish in the borough of Ashford in Kent, England. It is part of the Isle of Oxney and is situated within 2 miles of the East Sussex border. History The Domesday Book of 1086 does not mention Wittersha ...

in Kent to his death in 1607.Coates, Charles ''The History and Antiquities of Reading'', J. Nichols and Son, London (1802) pg 335
- ''

'' Today Braddock is mostly remembered for his translation into

of ''Apologia pro Ecclesia Anglicana'', the confutation in six parts by

John Jewel John Jewel (''alias'' Jewell) (24 May 1522 – 23 September 1571) of Devon, England was Bishop of Salisbury from 1559 to 1571. Life He was the youngest son of John Jewel of Bowden in the parish of Berry Narbor in Devon, by his wife Alice Bel ...

Bishop of Salisbury The Bishop of Salisbury is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Salisbury in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers much of the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset. The Episcopal see, see is in the Salisbur ...

against the criticisms of the

Lollard Lollardy was a proto-Protestantism, proto-Protestant Christianity, Christian religious movement that was active in England from the mid-14th century until the 16th-century English Reformation. It was initially led by John Wycliffe, a Catholic C ...

dissenter A dissenter (from the Latin , 'to disagree') is one who dissents (disagrees) in matters of opinion, belief, etc. Dissent may include political opposition to decrees, ideas or doctrines and it may include opposition to those things or the fiat of ...

Thomas Harding Thomas Harding (born 1448 in Cambridge, Gloucestershire, England and died at Chesham, Buckinghamshire, England, May 1532) was a sixteenth-century English religious dissident who, while waiting to be burnt at the stake as a Lollard in 1532, wa ...

. Braddock's translation was published in Geneva in 1600 and was undertaken that foreign scholars and divines might be able to follow the controversy which Jewel's ''Apologia'' had caused since its first publication in 1562. Braddock dedicated his work to

John Whitgift John Whitgift (c. 1530 – 29 February 1604) was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1583 to his death. Noted for his hospitality, he was somewhat ostentatious in his habits, sometimes visiting Canterbury and other towns attended by a retinue of 8 ...

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...

, ‘who has filled the diocese with learned men’. Braddock is also remembered for having given books from his own library to the library of Christ's College, where he had studied. A book inscribed with Braddock's signature from his library and with marginalia in his own hand was formerly in the Glenn Christodoulou Collection.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Braddock, Thomas 1556 births 1607 deaths People educated at Westminster School, London Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Fellows of Christ's College, Cambridge 16th-century English translators 17th-century English writers 17th-century English male writers 16th-century English Anglican priests 17th-century English Anglican priests Clergy from Reading, Berkshire People from Wittersham