Charles S. Bradley

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Charles Smith Bradley (July 19, 1819 – April 29, 1888) was an American lawyer and legal scholar who served as the Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court from 1866 to 1868. Born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, he entered Brown University at 15 and graduated in 1838 with high honors. He studied law at Harvard and formed the prominent law firm Tillinghast & Bradley with Charles Foster Tillinghast, Sr.

Bradley also had a public career in Rhode Island politics. Elected to the Rhode Island Senate in 1854, he helped secure the Amnesty Act for those involved in the 1842 Dorr Rebellion. In 1866 he became Chief Justice, serving about two years before returning to private practice and business duties. He was also Bussey Professor of Law at Harvard Law School until 1879. He married three times—Sarah Manton (died 1854), Charlotte Augusta Saunders (died 1864), and Emma Pendleton Chambers (died 1875)—and had four children. He died in New York City in 1888. Bradley’s Providence house was later bought by Providence College and renamed Martin Hall, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.