Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/780

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
BRA
732
BRA

his family are the fruits of his marriage with Miss Bolton of Ardwick, near Manchester, in 1816. One son is, we believe, in the army. The other three, Hamilton, Charles, and Augustus, are rising members of their father's profession. His daughter married, first, John James Henry Waldegrave, Esq.; secondly, in 1840, George Edward, seventh earl of Waldegrave; and, thirdly, in 1847, George Granville Vernon Harcourt, Esq., eldest son of the late archbishop of York.—E. F. R.

BRAHE TYCHO. See Tycho.

BRAINERD, David, a celebrated American missionary to the Indians, was born at Haddam in Connecticut, April 20, 1718. His parents died when he was quite young, and until the age of nineteen, he expected to spend his life as a farmer. But he possessed by nature a thoughtful, conscientious disposition, and the strong religious cast of his mind made him very desirous to prepare himself for the clerical profession. In 1738 he went to reside with Mr. Fisher, the minister of his native town, and in 1739 he entered Yale college. About this time, Whitfield came to New England, and most of the students were greatly excited by his preaching. Brainerd's feelings were strongly roused, and in his zeal he made use of some rash expressions against one of the college officers, which caused his expulsion. This, however, did not interfere with his preparation for the ministry, and in 1742 he was ordained, and immediately commenced his labours as a missionary among the Indians. His services were engaged by an association in New York, and he was first sent to the settlement of Kanaumeek, between Stockbridge and Albany, and here he laboured most conscientiously in the midst of privations and sufferings. His health had never been good, and amid the sufferings of his Indian life, it often gave way altogether. He was a rigid Calvinist, and subject to the most distressing fits of religious depression; but notwithstanding this distress of body and mind, he pursued his work indefatigably, until he found that he might be more useful elsewhere; and in 1774 he left Kanaumeek, and removed to Crossweeksung, at the Forks of the Delaware. His duties were now of the most arduous description. Notwithstanding his ill health, he spent a life of unremitting activity, making frequent journeys from one place to another, and devoting all his energies to the advancement of civilization and religion. For a long time his labours seemed almost entirely without success; he had no time to learn the Indian language, and his preaching lost much of its effect when communicated to his hearers through an interpreter, who himself only partially understood the true import of what was said. Finally, however, he achieved a great success. The Indians listened with attention, and many were not only converted to Christianity, but made considerable progress in civilization; he baptized seventy-eight savages in one year. Meantime his health suffered fearfully. He was obliged to sleep in smoky cabins, or else in the open air, protected only by a few boughs; the symptoms of consumption increased, and it was with the greatest difficulty that he continued his duties. He struggled on, however, for several months, when it became evident that he must abandon his labours for a time, if not for ever. In April, 1747, he set out for New England, and was received at Northampton into the family of Dr. Jonathan Edwards, where he was told by the physicians that his case was hopeless; he lingered a few months, a daughter of Dr. Edwards attending him devotedly as his nurse. His death took place at Northampton, October 9, 1747, in the thirtieth year of his age. Dr. Edwards published a memoir of him, composed chiefly of extracts from a diary which he kept with great minuteness throughout his career. It is a deeply affecting record of spiritual experience, of the hardships of his life, increased by the morbid tenderness of his conscience, and the enthusiastic zeal with which he pursued his Master's work in sickness and solitude. John Wesley abridged the work, and published it in England. In 1822 the original, with additional extracts from Brainerd's diary, was published at New Haven by Sereno E. Dwight.

BRAITHWAITE, John, a member of the British embassy at Morocco at the period of the Emperor Muley Ishmael's death. He wrote an account of the political movements of 1727 and 1728, following that event. The work was published in London in 1729, and was translated into several continental languages, and is interesting for its details concerning the history and condition of Morocco.—J. B.

BRAITHWAITE, William, one of the forty-seven divines appointed by James I. to prepare the version of the Bible at present in use, born about the middle of the sixteenth century, was fellow of Emanuel college, Cambridge, and afterwards master of Gonville and Cains college.

BRAKEL, G. A., a Swedish poet, born in 1782, author of "Oden i Svithiod," a tragedy, published in 1826, and "Wäinemöinen," a lyrical drama. 1829.—M. H.

BRAKEL, Jan van, a Dutch naval officer, born in 1618, began his gallant career under the famous De Ruyter. For distinguished service in the engagement between the Dutch and English fleets, August 4, 1666, he was raised to the command of a ship in the squadron despatched by the states of Holland against Chatham. In this expedition, having forced his way up the river in the face of a tremendous fire, he succeeded in destroying a part of the English fleet. His most gallant exploit, however, was his boarding the leading ship of the enemy in an action between the Dutch and the combined fleets of Great Britain and France in 1672. The earl of Sandwich, his opponent, fought with the most determined bravery, and having the advantage of a larger ship, would have sunk that of Brakel, but the encounter, one of the most desperate in the annals of naval history, unexpectedly terminated in favour of the Dutch, through the accident of the English flag-ship taking fire. Brakel was killed in an engagement with the French in 1690.—J. S., G.

BRAKENBERG, Renier, a Dutch painter, born at Haerlem in 1649. He first studied under Mommers, and then under Schendel, whom he imitated with all Brouwer's dissolute riot and coarse repulsive fun. Sometimes the drinking-bout merrymakings of Ostade were his models. His figures are mannered and badly drawn, and he painted with a careless facility which only simulated finish. His chiaro-scuro is cleverly balanced, neither light nor dark having too much their own way. His later pictures betray negligence in the drawing of hands and feet. His earlier pictures are ingeniously varied in subject, the colouring strong and natural, the touch vigorous and firm. He died at Haerlem in 1702.—W. T.

BRAMAH, Joseph, whose name is known in connection with numerous mechanical improvements, was born at Stainborough, Yorkshire, in 1749. He was apprenticed to a carpenter in his native place, and having served his apprenticeship, he removed to London, and ere long began business as a cabinetmaker. Having shown great aptitude for mechanical invention, by some improvements which he effected in the construction of water-closets, he devoted himself to that branch of labour. His next invention, which he patented in 1784, was an improvement on the construction of the lock, rendering it more inviolable. Perhaps his most important achievement was the construction of a hydraulic press, acting on the principle of the hydrostatic paradox, which produced great force, and could be conveniently applied to many useful purposes. Its power was tested in Holt Forest, Hampshire, where 300 of the largest trees were raised from the ground by its means, managed by only two men. Bramah erected at Woolwich arsenal a machine for planing timber, moved by this power, which acted with great rapidity and exactness. In 1807 he invented, for the bank of England, a machine for numbering and dating their notes, which effected a great saving of time and labour. He died in 1814, in consequence of cold caught in Holt Forest, while superintending his experiments there. Mr. Bramah left "A Dissertation on the Construction of Locks," and "A Letter on the subject of an alleged Violation of Patents."—J. B.

BRAMANTE. So little is recorded of the origin of this great Italian architect, that his name and birthplace are equally unknown. He is called Donato Bramante, and Bramante Lazzari—the former is probably the correct name—and he was, according to Vasari, born at Castel Durante, or, according to another account, Monte Asdrualdo, both in the duchy of Urbino, in 1444. He was brought up as a painter, and studied from the works of Fra Bartolommeo of Urbino, called Fra Carnovale, a painter of reputation in his time; but Bramante's real disposition was for architecture, and from 1474 he travelled throughout the north of Italy in search of occupation accordingly, until he settled, about 1480, in Milan, where he found patrons in Gian Galeazzo Visconti, and in Lodovico il Moro. He was finally appointed, in 1491, engineer of the cathedral. He had already furnished plans for the cathedrals of Foligno and Faenza. Bramante was also the architect of the new cathedral of Pavia, of which the first stone was laid by Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, June 29, 1488; and he superintended the works while he resided in Milan,