Bradford, Samuel

In Latin: Opposite here is buried SAMUEL BRADFORD, S.T.P. [professor of sacred theology], long time Rector of St Mary le Bow in London, sometime Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Bishop first of Carlisle, then of Rochester, Dean of this Church and of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath. He was an assiduous preacher, so long as his health permitted; grave, venerable, and holy, as in his habits, so in his precepts: prudent, simple, and of integrity, both in the rest of life's duties, and, particularly, in his pastoral office; a constancy of mind so uniform, so happily tempered, that scarcely ever was he angry or discomposed. Everywhere he contrived to affirm and promote Christian charity and civil liberty. All that this most humble, most humane, leader, nay, evangelist, performed (with piety, benevolence, and pity), in secret - and he performed much -He will reveal in his own time - He who rewards openly those things seen in secret. He died on the 17th of May 1731 in the 79th year of his age. [Translation courtesy of Westminster Abbey website, amended.]