Nicholas Brady Biography | Poet

BRADY, NICHOLAS (1659-1726), Anglican divine and poet, was born at Bandon, Co. Cork, on the 28th of October 1659. He received his education at Westminster school, and at Christ Church, Oxford; but he graduated at Trinity College, Dublin. He took orders, and in 1688 was made a prebendary of Cork. He was a zealous promoter of the Revolution and suffered in consequence. When the troubles broke out in Ireland in 1690, Brady, by his influence, thrice prevented the burning of the town of Bandon, after James II. had given orders for its destruction; and the same year he was employed by the people of Bandon to lay their grievances before the English parliament. He soon afterwards settled in London, where he obtained various preferments. At the time of his death, on the 20th of May 1726, he held the livings of Clapham and Richmond. Brady’s best-known work is his metrical version of the Psalms, in which Nahum Tate collaborated with him. It was licensed in 1696, and largely ousted the old version of T. Sternhold and J. Hopkins. He also translated Virgil’s Aeneid, and wrote several smaller poems and dramas, as well as sermons.