term 1678 he was created a baron of the exchequer, but early next year (29 April) was dismissed, without reason assigned, along with Sir William Wild of the king's bench, Sir Edward Thurland of the exchequer, and Vere Bertie of the common pleas, Sir Thomas Raymond being sworn in his place (5 May), though, according to his own account, he 'had laboured, and not without great reason, to prevent it.' It was supposed that either Sir William Temple or Lord-chancellor Finch was at the bottom of the affair. On 4 June a pension of 500l. a year was granted him, of which the first three terminal instalments only were paid him. At his death, which occurred at his chambers in Serjeants' Inn 27 March 1683, it was three years and six months in arrear. He was buried 30 March in Roxwell Church. He died heavily in debt, and his brother John, who was his executor, made persistent efforts to get in the amount due in respect of his pension (some 1,750l.), and succeeded in 1686 in recovering 1,456l. 5s., the balance being, as he plaintively puts it, abated in costs. Sir Francis was never married. In person he was short and rather stout.
[Evelyn's Diary, 1645, 8 Aug., 10 Oct., 1668, 3 Aug.; Autobiogr. of Sir John Bramston (Camden Society), xi. 24, 29, 97, 163, 265; Sir Thos. Raymond's Reports, 103, 182, 244, 251; Foss's Lives of the Judges.]
BRAMSTON, JAMES (1694?–1744), poet, was the son of Francis Bramston, fourth son of Sir Moundeford Bramston, master in chancery, who in his turn was younger son of Sir John Bramston the elder [q.v.], lord chief justice of the king's bench. In 1708 James Bramston went to Westminster School. Thence, in 1713, he passed to Christ Church, Oxford, taking his B.A. degree on 17 May 1717, and his M.A. degree on 6 April 1720. In March 1723 he became vicar of Lurgashall, Sussex, and later (1725) vicar of Harting in the same county, obtaining a dispensation to hold both livings. In 1729 he published the 'Art of Politicks,' an imitation of the 'Ars Poetica' of Horace, accompanied by a clever frontispiece illustrating the opening lines:—
If to a Human Face Sir James [Thornhill] should draw
A Gelding's Mane, and Feathers of Maccaw,
A Lady's Bosom, and a Tail of Cod,
Who could help laughing at a Sight so odd?
Just such a Monster, Sirs, pray think before ye,
When you behold one Man both Whig and Tory.
Not more extravagant are Drunkard's Dreams',
Than Low-Church Politicks with High-Church Schemes.
The 'Art of Politicks' was followed by 'The Man of Taste. Occasion'd by an Epistle of Mr. Pope's on that subject' (i.e. that to the Earl of Burlington, 1731), 1733. Both these little satires, which hold an honourable place in eighteenth-century verse, abound with contemporary references, and frequently happy lines. They were reprinted in vol. i. of Dodsley's 'Poems by several Hands.' The only other works attributed to Bramston are some Poems in 'Carolina Quadragesimalia;' one in the University Collection on the death of Dr. Radcliffe, 1715; 'Ignorami Lamentatio,' 1736; and a not very successful imitation of the 'Splendid Shilling' of John Philips, entitled 'The Crooked Sixpence,' Dodsley, 1743. This, in 'a learned preface,' is ascribed to Katherine Philips (the 'matchless Orinda'). 'Bramston,' say the authors of Dallaway and Cartwright's 'History of Sussex,' ii. (i.) 365, 'was a man of original humour, the fame and proofs of whose colloquial wit are still remembered in this part of Sussex.' He died 16 March 1744.
[Rawlinson MSS. fol. 16, 271, 4to, 5, 217; Thompson Cooper in Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. v. 205; Alumni Wesmonasterienses, 1852, 260; Bramston's Works in British Museum.]
BRAMSTON, JAMES YORKE, D.D. (1763–1836), catholic bishop, was born 18 March 1763 at Oundle in Northamptonshire. He came of an old and well-to-do race of landowners in that county, his family being staunch protestants. He was educated at a school near his birthplace, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He was first intended for the Indian civil service and then for the navy, which latter intention was abandoned at the desire of his invalid mother. On 26 April 1785 he was entered as a student at Lincoln's Inn. Although he was never called to the bar, he studied for nearly four years under the distinguished catholic, Charles Butler. He frequently conversed with Charles Butler on religious matters, and in 1790 publicly joined the catholic church. Bramston was bent upon at once becoming an ecclesiastic. He yielded, however, to his father's entreaty that he should remain at least twelve months longer in England. In 1792 he went to Lisbon, where he entered himself as a theological student at the English college. He remained between eight and nine years in Portugal. In 1796 he was ordained to the priesthood. His last five years at Lisbon were given up entirely to his missionary labours, chiefly among the British then in garrison there. While he was thus engaged, early in 1800, a terrible epidemic
