When the Sandy Hill cemetery was closed, remains were reinterred here in Beechwood. Bradley's son Edward died in 1836 and had been buried in an even older cemetery near Barrack Hill, now Parliament Hill.
The following narrative is found in the booklet Historical Portraits published by the Beechwood Cemetery.
The American Revolution and
two wars shaped
the life of William Brown Bradley who grew up in
a family fiercely loyal to the Crown and fought in
His Majesty’s Forces to defend the British colonies. On his death in Bytown, Bradley was described as “not only a brave officer but a deserving settler” of Carleton County.
On Whitemarsh Island near Savannah, Georgia,
his
parents struggled to run their plantation during turbulent times in the 13 colonies while raising young Bradley along with his twin brother
and a sister. After their father, employed by the
British Army Commissariat, died during the
American Revolutionary War, the family got a
new father figure: Lieutenant John Jenkins, a professional soldier in the New Jersey Volunteers,
who married their mother in 1781. After the
eight-year continental war ended, the United
States forced a mass exodus of Loyalists so Jenkins moved his adopted family to New Brunswick
and started a new life as pioneers. Four more
children were born on a farm and a large estate
near Fredericton.
In 1793,
Jenkins and Bradley joined the militia
in the King’s New Brunswick Regiment, as colonists worried that the American republic would
invade the Maritimes, capitalizing on Britain being embroiled in the Napoleonic wars. Bradley
served in two more regiments, rising from the
junior rank of ensign to captain in the 104th
(New
Brunswick) Regiment of Foot. He served with a
half-brother in the infantry unit.
Capt. Bradley was commanding a 104th
company in 1812 when the United States declared war
on Britain and invaded Upper Canada. Fortunately, its armies suffered defeats in initial battles. Sir
George Prevost feared in 1813 he did not have
enough troops to defend Upper Canada from
more American invasions so the commander-in-chief ordered a whole regiment, the 104th, to
make a winter march 1,125 kilometres from
Fredericton to Quebec City and on to Kingston.
Six 104th
Regiment companies, including Capt.
Bradley’s unit, took 52 days in February and
March for the incredible overland trek of 554 men
and supplies through severe cold and heavy
snowfalls.
While the 104th
mostly did garrison duty in
Kingston for the war, various detachments were
sent on campaigns. A
Montreal Gazette
obituary
attested that Capt. Bradley participated in the
May 29, 1813 raid on the Lake Ontario shipbuilding base at Sackets Harbor where his company
sustained casualties. He also was with the 104th
detachment at the surrender of nearly 1,000
American soldiers at the battle of Beaver Dams
on June 24, 1813 and at the August 15, 1814 assault on American-occupied Fort Erie where his
company again suffered losses.
With the War of 1812 ended in the colonies and
Napoleon’s armies defeated in Europe, Britain
disbanded many of its infantry regiments, including the 104th, with Capt. Bradley, aged 46,
going
into retirement on half-pay and living near Montreal. By the early 1820s, some of the family was
on the move again migrating to the Bytown area
where Bradley had additional land grants in
March and Huntley Townships as well as along
the Rideau River. His leadership skills were put
into action as the lieutenant-colonel in the First
Carleton Militia and a Justice of the Peace to administer the new judicial district of March and
Huntley. Among the settlers, he was known to be
“generous, good-hearted and
obliging.” Along
with his sons, Bradley also ran a wool-carding mill
and shingle mill as well as a farm with livestock.
Capt. Bradley died Oct. 2, 1850 and was buried
in the Sandy Hill cemetery where his son, Edward
Sands Bradley had been interred in
1836. With
the closing of the Sandy Hill burying grounds,
remains of eight family members were removed
in 1876 to the newly-opened Beechwood Cemetery.